
DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 1997               TAG: 9704220252

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  141 lines

CREATIONISM CREATES DILEMMA IN CHESAPEAKE A PARENT'S PLEA LEADS TO THE SCHOOL BOARD'S COMPROMISE: IT WILL PUT IN ITS LIBRARIES BOOKS THAT DISCUSS THE ALTERNATIVE TO EVOLUTION THEORY.

You're 13 years old. An A student with dreams of becoming a veterinarian someday. You come to this question on a biology test:

``What changes did giraffes go through in evolution?''

You believe you know the answer, but it's not in the text. In fact, you're pretty sure it will be marked wrong if you put it down.

What do you do?

Trey Johnson tackled that dilemma by leaving the space blank.

``I just didn't put anything, because I know they didn't go through any changes,'' said Trey, a seventh-grader at Hickory Middle School.

Trey believes in the theory of intelligent design as an explanation of the origin of life - it's a theory more commonly known as creationism or creation science. In that theory, all life was designed for a purpose by a greater intelligence. Creatures didn't evolve; they first appeared as they are today.

Ask Trey why he believes as he does - or more specifically the flaws he sees in evolution - and he'll talk to you about the improbability of amino acids linking together at random to form complex proteins or how there's scientific evidence showing that oxygen must have been present when the world was created, but because that doesn't jibe with what evolutionists say, they discount that evidence.

But, at some point, it comes down to faith: faith in God or faith in science. And where the origin of life is concerned, the two easily become blurred.

``For me not to believe it (intelligent design) would be blasphemy. But it's also, from what I've done in studying, a darn good science issue,'' said Carol Johnson, Trey's mother. ``You have to hear the whole story to make a judgment.''

Johnson said it was the science issue - not the religious issue - that first caused her to challenge the biology textbook, ``Exploring Life Science,'' after Trey told her that he felt the book was teaching evolution as fact, not as theory. She also didn't like that the book didn't teach that other theories - such as intelligent design - exist.

That was in the early fall.

Since then Johnson has brought her challenge to a committee of parents, teachers and principals. They rejected the challenge. She appealed their decision to Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols. He decided against her appeal. On April 14, the School Board upheld his decisions to continue using the textbook and to forbid the mandated teaching of creation science based on legal issues.

Board members could have let the issue die with their votes Monday, but even as they voted against Johnson's appeals, many of them were with her in spirit, caught between a theory on the origin of life that they had been raised to believe and one that state law says they must teach.

``We've all agonized over our beliefs and over our roles as board members,'' said Chairman Barbara B. Head. ``. . . It's very difficult to set those (private beliefs) aside.''

On the recommendation of Nichols, the district is purchasing an alternative textbook, ``Of Pandas and People,'' that Johnson recommended. The book is to be placed in the libraries of each of the district's 15 high schools and middle schools. The books cost $17.95 each.

That does not necessarily mean the school administration is endorsing the intelligent design theory as science, said school spokesman Tom Cupitt. Requests for interviews with Nichols and the district's science supervisor, Lou Barnett, were referred to Cupitt.

``It's placed in there as a resource book, not as a science book. We're not saying this is a science supplement book,'' said Cupitt, who added that textbook challenges are rare in the district. ``There are mixed points of view. Some will see this as a valuable tool. Others don't feel that way.''

In addition to buying copies of ``Of Pandas and People,'' Nichols, in an April 10 letter to the School Board, said he directed Barnett ``to draft a section to be added to each of our science curriculum guides'' when the science curriculum committee meets this summer.

But some board members said that didn't go far enough and that there is more the district legally can do to make sure students know that there are alternate theories of the origin of life.

Board member Patricia P. Willis has asked the board to consider placing a statement in all science textbooks which would emphasize that evolution is a theory and that there are competent scientists who do not believe it is correct. The board will consider that in future meetings.

The board's attorney, James A. Roy, said statements like the one Willis proposed had been tried in other states, but the courts have not ruled on their legality.

``As your attorney, I would be more comfortable dealing with the subject by encouraging our teachers to place more emphasis on consideration of the beliefs of students and to emphasize the scientific theoretical nature of evolution. If a letter is to be used, I would suggest the same emphasis,'' Roy said in an April 9 letter to Nichols.

Roy added, ``In any case, anything we might consider attempting in this area is subject to attack from many fronts and should be approached cautiously, if at all.''

Only board member Allen H. Goode, who declared the board was on ``thin ice'' and in danger of ``creating a monster,'' unequivocally spoke out against Willis' idea.

``I'm opposed to any resolution, any statement that goes in our textbook,'' Goode said at the April 14 board meeting. ``I think the textbook does a splendid job.''

Willis, however, does not agree, though she said it is the best ``secular'' text available. She said that while she is a Christian, her religion does not enter into why she feels so strongly about this issue, and she is decidedly against teaching religion in the classroom.

``I, as a School Board member, need to make sure the children are getting the best information possible,'' said Willis. ``I feel they're getting partial truth because they're only getting one side of the debate. If they're only getting one side, there is no debate.''

By the same token, Willis questioned why science textbooks could legally debunk creation science theory without adequately representing the science behind it.

``I don't think it's fair that just because competent scientific evidence supports religious belief, that you keep it out of science books just because it happens to follow what the Bible says,'' said Willis. She added that she felt most mainstream science books, including the text Johnson challenged, don't present information that contradicts evolutionary theory.

Board member L. Thomas Bray, among others, questioned whether teachers knew that while creation science theory cannot be mandated, teachers are free to present the information on their own - though Roy said such instances would need to be judged case by case.

Bray said he believes that, in Chesapeake at least, evolution is a minority view on the origin of life.

``I gotta believe most people believe in the Creation. Teachers on their own can mention that creationism is a theory too,'' said Bray. ``It's not against the law to say that there's another theory. . . just stay away from the mandate. That's the biggest thing. We're teaching the minority belief as fact. I think we need to sit back and take a look at that.''

Johnson said that while she was still considering the possibility of taking the district to civil court to challenge it further, she was surprised at how successful her efforts to change school policy had been. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Carol Johnson wants the Chesapeake school system to use a textbook

that teaches intelligent design. Here she is flanked by her

children, Trey, left, 13 and Jerry, right, 10.

Graphics

WHAT IS THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN THEORY?

WHAT CRITICS SAY ABOUT THE TEACHING OF EVOLUTION

TALK BACK

[For complete graphics, please see microfilm]