{"id":320,"date":"2007-11-21T08:16:14","date_gmt":"2007-11-21T12:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=320"},"modified":"2008-08-05T20:02:20","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T00:02:20","slug":"polk-county-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"Polk County update"},"content":{"rendered":"

A school board meeting was held yesterday in Polk County. It was one of those long affairs as it was the annual organization meeting where officers are voted on and such. Science never came up.<\/p>\n

Then the public comment period was opened and a few people asked the board’s support for the typical local concerns. Finally, Florida Citizens for Science president Joe Wolf and board member Jonathan Smith spoke. Both filled their three minute allowances with notes of caution, using the Dover, Pa. intelligent design trial<\/a> as an example of what could happen right there in Polk County. Jonathan also made the pointed remark that he hoped all the school board members had actually taken the time to view and comment on the new draft science standards on the standards website. Joe and Jonathan later noted that they got no feedback from the board, verbal or non-verbal, during their presentations.<\/p>\n

The Lakeland Ledger reported on the meeting<\/a>. After Joe and Jonathan spoke, an eighth-grade teacher assured the board that he could teach intelligent design without tripping over religion.<\/p>\n

“When you talk about laws in nature it shows some order or design,” said Lawrence Hughes, who has taught at the academy for 16 years. “The laws of nature don’t support change from one organism to another organism.”<\/p>\n

Four of the seven School Board members have said they support teaching intelligent design in addition to evolution in public school science classes. Board members did not respond when Smith and Joe Wolf, president of the Florida Citizens for Science, spoke about their opposition to intelligent design, but board member Margaret Lofton thanked Hughes after his talk.<\/p>\n

“I support what you have to say,” Lofton told Hughes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You might want to let Lofton know that her support is misplaced. Margaret Lofton, Margaret.Lofton@polk-fl.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wesley Elsberry, who is from Polk County and and still has family there, has a few things to say on the matter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A school board meeting was held yesterday in Polk County. It was one of those long affairs as it was the annual organization meeting where officers are voted on and such. Science never came up. Then the public comment period … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[6,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-5a","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":319,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=319","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":0},"title":"Polk County on alert","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had posted before about a Polk County school board member, Kay Fields, who expressed an interest in intelligent design. Well, the situation just got a whole lot worse. The local newspaper there, the Lakeland Ledger, asked the other board members for their opinions and revealed that a majority seem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":315,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=315","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":1},"title":"Polk County: School official wants intelligent design","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This just in from the Lakeland Ledger. A Polk County School Board member said Monday she wants the district to consider opposing proposed new science standards for Florida schools that would include specific mention of evolution for the first time. ... However, Polk board member Kay Fields objects to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=360","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":2},"title":"Polk County cries uncle","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes public school education decision makers\u00c2\u00a0are\u00c2\u00a0foolish enough to express their ignorance of what makes sound science. But an unrelenting pounding by pro-science groups and individuals\u00c2\u00a0can turn the tide.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It can be a rude awakening for these folks, but if a little bit of ribbing, unapologetic educating about what science is and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":377,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=377","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":3},"title":"Early report on the Miramar meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"An Associated Press article on tonight's meeting in Miramar about the new draft of the state science standards is already up on the Florida Times-Union website. The story does not give an overall impression of attendance or how many people spoke and such. The focus was mainly on just two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=675","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":4},"title":"Silly season in Polk","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's silly season in Polk County, and evolution is part of the fun of school board elections. Q. \"I wish Ms. Reddout and Mr. Mullenax to advise me as to their positions with respect to Creationism vs. Evolution.\" Dick Mullenax: As a former science teacher, I accept evolution\/adaptation in certain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election season '08"","block_context":{"text":"Election season '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=18"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1202,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1202","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":5},"title":"Be Aware","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"July 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As a diversified organization the Florida Citizens for Science must remain neutral on political issues,however. \u00c2\u00a0Currently there are many elections taking place through out the state\u00c2\u00a0for County School Board Representatives. It would be wise for us to follow those candidates and keep abreast of their positions on science education. Here\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1202#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}