{"id":407,"date":"2008-01-23T17:53:57","date_gmt":"2008-01-23T22:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=407"},"modified":"2008-08-05T20:49:04","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T00:49:04","slug":"washington-county-school-board-9-on-the-anti-evolution-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=407","title":{"rendered":"Washington County: school board #9 on the anti-evolution train"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington County school board — yes, another county in North Florida — is apparently the latest school board to adopt an anti-evolution resolution. Unfortunately, the school system website<\/a> doesn’t list board meeting agendas anywhere that I could find. I found out about the resolution through one of my regular search engine sweeps. The resolution is mentioned in the local paper, The Chipley Bugle<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In other action, the board approved a resolution concerning the proposed Sunshine State Standards for Science. The resolution urges the State Board of Education to direct the Florida Department of Education to revise the new Sunshine State Standards for Science such that evolution is not presented as fact, but as one of several theories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This discovery falls in line with The Gradebook blog’s report<\/a> that there could be as many as 12 to 14 resolutions passed by local school boards by the time the state board of education meets in February. Makes you wonder what Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, knows that the rest of us don’t. And how does he know it?
\nBy my count, there are now nine counties with anti-evolution resolutions: Baker, Clay, Hamilton, Holmes, Jackson, Madison, St. Johns, Taylor, and Washington. Nassua could make 10 if their resolution is passed tomorrow.<\/p>\n

[edited to add the following] The Gradebook post has been expanded into a full story<\/a>. It’s amazing how many of these school board members and superintendents think they are scientists. I mean, they have to be scientists in order to speak with such authority, right? Take this example:<\/p>\n

Evolution is “going to be taught as fact, and everyone knows it’s not fact,” said Dennis Bennett, the superintendent in Dixie County, west of Gainesville. “There’s holes in it you can drive a truck through.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What does Bennett base this assertion on? His extensive training and experience in the field of biology? No. I doubt he’s even touched a biology book in decades. Everyone <\/em>knows it’s not fact? O.K., so what about these folks, Bennett … why hasn’t word spread to them yet?<\/p>\n

Scores of scientific societies and organizations have issued statements in support of evolution, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, scores of scientific societies and organizations<\/a> is right. And where are you getting your information from, Bennett?<\/p>\n

“We just wanted to get it on the record that we’re a Judeo-Christian community and we believe in academic freedom,” Bennett said.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“We’re not asking that evolution not be taught, just that it be taught as a theory, one of several,” said Ken Hall, a School Board member in Madison County, east of Tallahassee. “I’m a Christian. And I believe I was created by God, and that I didn’t come from an amoeba or a monkey.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington County school board — yes, another county in North Florida — is apparently the latest school board to adopt an anti-evolution resolution. Unfortunately, the school system website doesn’t list board meeting agendas anywhere that I could find. I … 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":[3,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-6z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":377,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=377","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":0},"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":402,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=402","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":1},"title":"Another resolution slipped in","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Madison County school district doesn't post agendas or minutes to their website that I could find. However, a commenter at Scott Hatfield's Monkey Trials blog was kind enough to inform everyone that Madison County did actually pass an anti-evolution resolution recently. Sure enough, the local newspaper, the Madison County Carrier\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":379,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=379","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":2},"title":"Breathtaking inanity","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm embarrassed. Sure, the Taylor County school board was apparently the first to pass a resolution complaining about evolution (previous post here), but they're not the only one. Two more counties passed resolutions, too: Baker County and Holmes County. The Baker County board meeting minutes from Dec. 17 say on\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":415,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=415","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":3},"title":"Lafayette County goes all out","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lafayette County school board didn't want to be outdone by anyone. They actually called a special meeting for the purpose of doing an anti-evolution resolution. The Lafayette County School Board unanimously adopted a resolution in protest of a proposed Florida Department of Education revision of the science portion of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":352,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=352","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":4},"title":"Those not in favor of good science education, raise your hand.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[I will bump this post up about once a week so as to always be on the front page. Latest bump: Feb. 15.] For your convenience, here is a list of the 12 counties that passed anti-evolution resolutions: Clay, Jackson, Baker, Hamilton, Holmes, St. Johns, Taylor, Madison, Lafayette, Nassau, Washington,\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":396,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=396","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":5},"title":"Nassau and Jackson counties","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was in a hurry when I posted about the news article this morning about some more counties passing or considering anti-evolution resolutions, so I couldn't do any research concerning the counties mentioned in the story. Now that I have a little bit of time, let's see what we can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407"}],"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=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}