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Storms Tries To Put Evolution Up For Vote

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 4, 2008

Updated: 03/03/2008 11:55 pm

TALLAHASSEE - A Senate committee chairman wants to hold a hearing on a proposal from Sen. Ronda Storms to allow public school teachers to contradict the theory of evolution in class.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, chairman of the PreK-12 Committee, said he hopes to schedule a hearing during the session on Storms' evolution proposal. Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, confirmed Monday he will file the bill in the House.

But the plan faces plenty of resistance from lawmakers in both parties, who say they are loath to rewrite the teaching standards that the state Board of Education passed last month.

Storms, R-Valrico, filed the "Academic Freedom Act" on Friday to protect K-12 school teachers who present "scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution in connection with teaching any prescribed curriculum regarding chemical or biological origins."

The proposal comes from activists who failed to convince the state Board of Education to adopt the language as part of the state's new science standards. Board members voted to mandate explicitly the teaching of evolution, which they agreed to qualify as a "theory." They did not, however, include any special provision for teaching alternative theories.

Religion's Role Debated

Like the proponents who testified before the board, Storms said her goal is to protect academic freedom and promote critical thinking - not to spread a religious belief about the origin of life.

"It has no provision for intelligent design or Creationism in it," Storms said of her bill. "It provides for academic freedom for the full critical review of the theory of evolution so that people can honestly debate it. And so our students can be presented with all sides of the issue, without fear of attack or their teacher presenting them with one dogmatic view."

In the bill itself, she specifies that it "shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion."

Opponents aren't buying it. They continued to deride the plan Monday as religious indoctrination disguised as scientific inquiry.

"Why not just say 'academic freedom' to cover all subjects?" said Brandon Haught, spokesman for Florida Citizens for Science. "Why choose evolution only? It's so transparent, it's ridiculous."

Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, said he was reminded of his high-school days, when he took part in a production of "Inherit The Wind," Jerome Lawrence's and Robert E. Lee's fictionalized drama about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in which a Tennessee teacher was tried for teaching evolution.

"I never thought I'd be in the Florida Senate in the 21st century, still having the same debate about evolution," said Geller, adding he hopes Storms' bill, which he called "divisive," never gets heard in committee.

Discussion Versus Evangelizing

But Gaetz said the issue merits a hearing, given the intense public interest around the state. A former superintendent and school board member, Gaetz is no stranger to church-and-state issues in education. In 1997, he called for an investigation that eventually led to successful litigation over religious evangelizing by a local teacher and assistant principal.

"I don't want teachers to use their positions as public employees to inculcate their own particular religious views," he said. "I do think it's appropriate in a high-school classroom for a student to draw out students in debate and discussion of questions about science, history, government or religion."

Terry Kemple, president of the Valrico-based Community Issues Council that is backing the proposal, said there is a dearth of concrete evidence supporting Darwin's evolution theory and teachers should be free to discuss that.

Geller called the anti-evolution arguments "pseudo-science."

"I don't care if they say this is 'science,'" Geller said. "You may find a few quack scientists who say it is, but it isn't."

House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, told the Florida Baptist Witness newspaper last month that there may be enough votes in the House to pass the evolution bill. But Schools and Learning Council Chairman Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, said Monday he doubts that.

"The state Board of Education held public hearings; it's their job to do what they did," he said. "My expectation is that there isn't a great deal of appetite to go in and undo what the state Board of Education did in their purview, under their authority."

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or cdolinski@tampatrib.com.

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