Student suspended two weeks for offensive Darwinism
Student Suspended Over Evolution Slur
14 year-old Cody DuFresne, accused of being a member of the outlaw gang “The Biology Group”, has been suspended from school for 14 days. In an obscene display of Darwinism he used the classic evolutionary progression drawing (ape evolving to man) to imply that a fellow student was an accursed victim of evolution.
(Click image to enlarge)
School officials say that they moved to suspend 14 year-old Cody DuFresne after confiscating what they describe as an “evolutionary slur” from his locker. The student had drawn a crude version of the alleged path of primate evolution, depicting a fellow student, 14 year-old Melanie Carthage, as a direct descendent of apes.
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Liberty Junior High School principal Marty Hamlin says that officials felt that they had no choice but to make an example of DuFresne. “Saying someone is descended from monkeys is about the worst thing you can say about that person. It’s as bad as saying that someone’s mother is a prostitute, or telling someone that they’re adopted when they’re not.”
No student has ever received such a lengthy suspension for an offensive drawing. Two week suspensions are typically reserved for violent episodes, drugs and weapon possession. For two weeks Cody will be attending an alternative school populated by students who have been suspended, expelled, committed violent acts or are habitually tardy. Juvie School, in other words.
School officials say that they’re hoping that DuFresne’s suspension will demonstrate that when it comes to evolutionary slurs, Liberty Junior High has a zero tolerance policy. “We enforce ‘zero tolerance’ on a daily basis here whether it’s for students who are bringing firearms to school or selling cocaine or chrystal meth on school property,” says principal Hamlin. “Now we’re going to take evolution-related slurs just as seriously. Be forewarned, if you’re going to say that someone is related to a monkey here at Liberty you’re going to pay a steep price.”
This article is a satire piece. In 1999 the Kansas Board of Education voted to downplay teaching of the Theory of Evolution. This was reversed a few years later after elections changed the makeup of the board. The board has changed again and Kansans are currently debating the reduction of Darwin’s theories. Many fear that the true objective is the introduction of Creationism / Intelligent Design into school curriculums.
Why don’t people do the sensible thing and teach both theories in school? Whatever you believe, you must admit that these are the two dominate theories in the world, both cited, quoted, and alluded to in a variety of subjects. Creationsim is often referred to in English classes (classical literature), evolution cited often in Biology and Psychology. So again, why not teach both? What harm is it going to do a kid to give him the facts of both and let him decide?
Much of the resons I have seen for teaching Evolution is not to force religion down a child’s throat, but is not teaching evoloution shoving atheism down a child’s throat? I point to Anarchy: Anarchy is the absence of government, but it is still classified as a government-type. Therefore, Atheism (lack of beliefe in God/gods) is still a religion. So to fit with the majority’s reasons, the schools should teach both or none.
Not to say Darwin shouldnt’ be taught, his theories on evolution downsized (known as adaptation) are undisputeable. But the origins of man are disputeable.
So again, why don’t schools teach both and not shove either down a child’s throat and let him decide?
Well, Georgia found out fast when a judge ruled they had to remove stickers from their science books stating that the theory of evolution is just a theory and not all people agree with it.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there is more intellectual freedom in a Christian, private, or any other religious school than there is in the public school system.
Christian, private, and other religious schools have the freedom to discuss religion, morality, why we are here, what is the purpose of life — things that are taboo in the public school system — things that can’t be discussed because it might “offend” someone or jeopardize state or federal funding. I believe that young people would like to be able to discuss these things. Instead, they are fed a diet of silly pap and PC indoctrination.
There is very little intellectual freedom in the public school system. There are limitations on what can be discussed.
Maybe they needed another attention grabber:
To their surprise, people in Pratt suddenly found themselves in the middle of a national debate. Willa Beth Mills, Pratt Board of Education president, was being quoted in The New York Times. A crew for NBC was on Main Street doing interviews. CNN, CBS and the Los Angeles Times were putting together stories on the town.
Of course once you start introducing a belief system, you’ll have to include everyone
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/5432357.htm
Student fights to practice Satanic beliefs in school
The Associated Press
MANHATTAN, Kan. - The American Civil Liberties Union is talking to the Manhattan School District about just how far a student can go in practicing satanic beliefs.
That’s right. That’s why kids who have strong religious beliefs and wish to express them should not be in public school. This kid sounds like he should be going to school at midnight, dancing around a cauldon.
Heck, there are people today who say serious Christian kids shouldn’t be in the public school system today. The Southern Baptists are trying to do something about that.
Dude, I think you may have been had on this one. According to the Pratt, Kansas education Page:
http://www.prattkan.com/education.html
the middle school there is called “Liberty Middle School”, not “Liberty Junior High”, and according to the School district, the principal is Sue Givens, not Marty Hamlin:
http://www.usd382.com/directory.html
The statement that “the controversial theory of evolution has not been taught in science classes here since the Kansas State Board of Education voted to remove evolution as a key concept in the state’s science curriculum” is also not true. Though in 1999, the KSBOE removed evolution from state-administered tests, it was rerstored in 2001. All Kansas public schools teach evolution as a matter of course.
Read it again as a “spoof” making fun of Kansas for being “backward” and it reads a bit differently, I think. Following a few other stories there (e.g. “banning gay marriage could cut deficit in half”)ought to show this to be the case as well.
Elborak.blog-city.com
Oops, you got it… I posted before I clicked to read the whole thing.
As Emily Latilla used to say, “Never Mind”
although I found it amusing, this post is a disservice. First of all, the evolution controversy in Kansas has nothing to do with zero tolerance, and second, posting false stories, even with satire disclaimers, on a site of this nature has potential to damage the already fragile credibility of the entire blogosphere as well as that of zero tolerance opponents.
Oh geez….a joke or two should be permitted.It just shows what this whole ZT crap is:a JOKE!
I thought it was funny and I don’t care if it fits or not.
It says it right there:
“This article is a satire piece.”
Although I do focus on zero tolerance policies and their abuses I will also post on other administrative foolishness on occasion. The piece is satire but highlights an actual and current scholastic administration item.
The satire notification is only visible if one clicks on the expansion link. A smart supporter of zero tolerance policies could exploit this to convince others that you’re an alarmist crackpot willing to grasp at straws to make an invalid point. I’d prefer not to see that happen.
A smart supporter of zero tolerance policies
That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
I appreciate your concern, dweeb, but I am not overly worried about being exploited.
Actually,Dweeb,it said so in the email notification,too.
Also,I think I am a pretty “smart” Zero TOlerance supporter,since it is MY husband who runs this whole place here and MY kids who sparked him to do so.
It takes a “smart” person to understand the satire and the point of it.
You seem to be the only one having aproblem with it,so obviosly it does not effect the overall matter.
And considering two newspaper interviews Jim had in the past week,as well as beeing mentioned three times in one week in Opinion Journal, about this here,I think the point is clear.
It’s hard to imagine that a cartoon caricature of his classmate farting and evolving warrants 14 days. Jim, this kid’s pretty talented, do you think he might do some sketches to go with your posts?
While the satire here is funny, it is also scary that the anti-intellectuals/pro-religious dogma people in this country would have religious opinions superceed scientific facts. Satire like this is believable because if something like this were to happen in one of the school districts that wants to call evolution “just a theory”, it would not be surprising at all.
LW, I said “smart supporter of zero tolerance POLICIES” i.e. not a supporter of this website, but a supporter of the policies it lambastes. If you could make such an error in reading comprehension, then imagine the possibilities for missing the satire among lesser readers.
As for the oxymoron comment, it’s been amply demonstrated that there are plenty of people able to apply great cunning in the pursuit of boneheaded policies.
Maybe I am the only person who sees a problem here, but that’s a specialty of mine. In 10 years, I’ve watched many people made fools of by our local school board, and each time I’ve winced as I’ve heard them make the mistake that provided their undoing. I have an eye for things that the other side of a debate can exploit, and I see this as such a thing. Hopefully nothing will come of it, but I think you might want to set it apart more as satire.
The satire paper was an absolute true reflection on how public schools treat students who choose to reject the evolution theory. We live in America a place of freedom to choice, and where is the choice in our public school bilology classes? If we were only taught one thing about everything wouldn’t we have no choice but to believe it?
Teachers teach evolution, because that is the truth. The origins of man is not at all related to what they teach in school. How is it that people get this mixed up?? Evolution needs to be taught because it occurs all the time (e.g. bacteria becoming resistant to penicillin). You are a moron if you believe that creationism should be taught in school, it is religion, that is why people attend church services, sunday school, etc. Besides, children of this age should not be expected to make this decision, especially in school! Teach the truth, evolution is not anti-god, and people are making it out to be that way.
I really hope this article is ficticious!!
Teach both? Yeah, lets teach Alchemy alongside Chemistry, Astrology alongside Astronomy and Magic alongside Physics as well. They are all alternate explanations for established theories that have proven beyond reasonable doubt to be true.
There is no reason to even start to think about considering creationism unless you are trying to justify some sort of religious belief system and explain away something that contradicts it.
Lets not let pesky things like ‘facts’ and ‘evidence’ get in the way - if you use them you can prove anything thats even remotely true.
Creationism is not science. End of story.
I, as a Satanist student at a public school, find something that I would not necessarily call tolerance. Instead, it’s indifference. What frustrates me is that I am commonly lumped with the devil-worshipping cultist, and while I do have a very open-minded view of people such as these, my beliefs and lifestyle is far different. I don’t dance around cauldrons, nor am I thrilled at the prospect of going to school at any time, much less in the middle of the night. Please, just don’t lump us all together as freaks; the fact that my choice of lifestyle is different from yours should not mean that I as a person am truly any different.