{"id":1384,"date":"2011-07-29T15:46:07","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T19:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2011-07-29T15:46:07","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T19:46:07","slug":"professor-says-he-was-dismissed-for-teaching-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1384","title":{"rendered":"Professor says he was dismissed for teaching evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00ef\u00bb\u00bf<\/div>\n

Dr. Jonathan Coffman is claiming religious discrimination was a factor when he was terminated from his position as a Director of Administration and Associate Professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University<\/a>. He filed paperwork July 28 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Florida Commission on Human Relations, saying that his May 11 dismissal was because of his non-religious beliefs. A significant aspect of Dr. Coffman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s claim is that he was told by his Department Administrator to not teach about human evolution in his microbiology and immunology courses. Dr. Coffman refused and thus faced retaliation.<\/p>\n

Palm Beach Atlantic University is an interdenominational Christian university whose website says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153your Christian faith will thrive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dr. Coffman started work at the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gregory School of Pharmacy <\/a>in mid-2009. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was offered a good salary, and I never suspected I would encounter any issues with Human Evolution at the graduate level,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. But during his two years there he encountered a deeply-held creationist belief among the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leadership. Dr. Coffman recalled a time when the Dean of Academics told all of the pharmacy students during a bible study meeting that it never rained on Earth before Noah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flood. Instead, water came up out of the ground like sprinklers.<\/p>\n

In the Spring term of 2010, Dr. Coffman said that the Department Administrator requested that human evolution not be taught in Dr. Coffman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s courses. When he continued to teach it anyway, he said that he was moved from his executive office space and into a tiny adjunct office. Furthermore, he was excluded from participating in a university leadership counsel and denied funding to travel to an American Society of Microbiology meeting. Finally, in May of this year he was given a letter that stated his position was eliminated.<\/p>\n

Dr. Coffman said that he believed academic freedom is supposed to be preserved in academia regardless if the school is private or not. But that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be the case at Palm Beach Atlantic University. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Other faculty in the sciences at PBA embrace evolution but many don’t talk about it, are scared to talk about it, or just talk about microevolution,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. He has a background in molecular biology and a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Tennessee, Memphis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00ef\u00bb\u00bf Dr. Jonathan Coffman is claiming religious discrimination was a factor when he was terminated from his position as a Director of Administration and Associate Professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He filed paperwork July 28 with the Equal Employment … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-mk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2768,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2768","url_meta":{"origin":1384,"position":0},"title":"Give the Devil his Due","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"All has been very quiet concerning the odious instructional materials bill lately. The bill would allow any resident, not just parents, to protest against what's found in textbooks, including coverage of evolution, climate change, vaccines, etc. On top of that, school districts must appoint a hearing officer to consider such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1258,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1258","url_meta":{"origin":1384,"position":1},"title":"Palm Beach Post’s evolution\/creationism back-n-forth","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Sigh. I wish I had time to spare. My teacher internship is dominating my life and not allowing me to partake in some of my personal pleasures, such as diving deep into any evolution\/creationism debate that pops up in the Sunshine State. There is a little war of words on\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1254,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1254","url_meta":{"origin":1384,"position":2},"title":"Evolution targeted in newspaper commentary","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know who Paul James is, but he wrote a newspaper commentary for the Palm Beach Post about evolution. Judging from the title \"Evolution doesn't answer all of science's questions\", it is already evident that the writer isn't the most knowledgeable person in matters of science. Of course, James\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1254#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2586,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2586","url_meta":{"origin":1384,"position":3},"title":"Science is not poetry","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino has a few things to say about Religious Liberties bills sponsored in the Senate by Dennis Baxley:\u00c2\u00a0Getting liberated from science in Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreligious liberties\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bill. Cerabino brings up a bit about Baxley's past consternation over science education: Back when the Ocala Republican took a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2023,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2023","url_meta":{"origin":1384,"position":4},"title":"Folks worried about Tuck","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Two letters to the editor were printed in today's Daytona Beach News Journal about the appointment of Andy Tuck to the Florida Board of Education. First one: Religion, not science Should Gov. Rick Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appointment of Andy Tuck, who so virulently opposes the teaching of evolution in our state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s schools,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2530,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2530","url_meta":{"origin":1384,"position":5},"title":"Baxley and the Religious Liberties Act","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I told you about the\u00c2\u00a0\"Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act\" (House Bill 303) filed in the Florida house and my concerns with it. Today, a companion bill was filed in the senate: Senate Bill 436. It's a duplicate of the house bill. 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