{"id":526,"date":"2008-04-03T12:37:42","date_gmt":"2008-04-03T16:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=526"},"modified":"2008-08-31T16:33:40","modified_gmt":"2008-08-31T20:33:40","slug":"are-the-fish-biting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=526","title":{"rendered":"Are the fish biting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve been aware that those in support of the creationism bills (so-called “academic freedom” bills) have been fishing for Florida teachers who feel they’ve been persecuted in some way for teaching information contrary to evolution. The Florida Family Policy Counsel first put out this call <\/a>in late March.<\/p>\n

One of their most vocal fishermen, David Brackin,\u00c2\u00a0is casting his line where he thinks he’ll find the most bites: InJesus.com<\/a> and the Christian Education Association International.\u00c2\u00a0 Once again, tell me how these bills have nothing to do with religion.<\/p>\n

Over the past month I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to present to the Florida Department of Education why I think the new standards need to be changed and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve met personally with Florida Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster, Florida House of Representatives Speaker Marco Rubio, and several other legislators about an Academic Freedom bill. Each of the legislators said that my testimony as a teacher that has been confronted about teaching the weaknesses in the theory of evolution is critical to the passing of the bill and that we need to hear from more teachers with that experience. The next hearing on this bill will be the week of April seventh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brackin, a teacher<\/a> at Chain of Lakes Middle School<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0claims to have been discriminated against <\/a>for teaching evolution’s weaknesses. So far we haven’t heard any specifics concerning Brackin’s own tale of woe. What supposed “weaknesses” did he try to teach in his classroom? How did word of this get to his assistant principal? Did someone complain, or was\u00c2\u00a0Brackin himself very\u00c2\u00a0vocal in his views, or is there some other explanation?\u00c2\u00a0What made the assistant principal think Brackin was mixing religion into the science classroom? In what way does his current principal “support academic freedom”? What is Brackin currently teaching in his classroom?\u00c2\u00a0Keep in mind that Brackin is on the record as supporting intelligent design.<\/p>\n

This is not an attempt to persecute Brackin for his views, which he is welcome to. However, there are many questions that need to be answered if he wants to continue to stand\u00c2\u00a0as an example of discrimination. His version of past events need to be explained in more detail and independently verified. His own statements also raise questions as to whether he is teaching the approved and appropriate curriculum right now.<\/p>\n

It would be incredibly irresponsible of Florida’s legislators to just accept his story, or the stories of anyone else reeled in,\u00c2\u00a0at face value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve been aware that those in support of the creationism bills (so-called “academic freedom” bills) have been fishing for Florida teachers who feel they’ve been persecuted in some way for teaching information contrary to evolution. The Florida Family Policy Counsel … 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":[23],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-8u","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":825,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=825","url_meta":{"origin":526,"position":0},"title":"Scientific American","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, Scientific American's January issue is awesome. It's an issue devoted to evolution. One of the several articles in there is The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom. Florida gets a number of mentions in there. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Academic freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was the creationist catchphrase of choice in 2008: the Louisiana Science\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=825#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":503,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=503","url_meta":{"origin":526,"position":1},"title":"A quick analysis","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's my quick take on the whole Expelled mess and the relation to the creationism bills. I've been closely watching the media reports concerning science education in Florida for a few years now. I've seen tidal waves of news coverage when anti-evolution\/anti-science rises from the depths. The Seattle-based Discovery Institute\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Creationism Bills"","block_context":{"text":"Creationism Bills","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":543,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=543","url_meta":{"origin":526,"position":2},"title":"Successful press conference","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Today Florida Citizens for Science hosted a press conference in advance of this evening's roundtable discussion concerning two bills being considered by the Florida legislature. The noon press conference was well attended by most of the local news outlets and even national outlets such as the New York Times. Speakers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":529,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=529","url_meta":{"origin":526,"position":3},"title":"News Release: “Academic Freedom” bills needless and treacherous","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The following press release has been sent out. Our media page is available for any interested reporters. SO-CALLED \"ACADEMIC FREEDOM\" BILLS ARE NEEDLESS AND TREACHEROUS Senate bill 2692, \"evolution academic freedom act\" will be going before the Judiciary committee Tuesday. The Senate bill and its companion House bill are raising\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":535,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=535","url_meta":{"origin":526,"position":4},"title":"Media Alert","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The following two media alerts are being sent out to news outlets statewide: First one is notice of a press conference and the second is a notice of a Public Roundtable Discussion. Reporters are encouraged to visit the Florida Citizens for Science Media Page. ** NEWS CONFERENCE \u00e2\u20ac\u201c MONDAY 4\/14\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":570,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=570","url_meta":{"origin":526,"position":5},"title":"Asking for prayers … but it’s not about religion","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The deceptively named \"academic freedom\" bills' sponsors have gone to great lengths to claim the bills have nothing to do with religion. But who out there is supporting these bills and wants to see them pass? The Florida Baptist Witness, of course. And the Florida Prayer Network is involved now,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526"}],"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=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}