Reason trumps religion in Kiel, Wisconsin (Jan. 31, 2012)

The Kiel Area School District Board of Education (Wis.) has “decided to make no changes to the curriculum,” said School Board President Cynthia Schmahl in a recent email to Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott and Constitutional Consultant Andrew Seidel.

After being warned by local members, Elliott sent a letter to the Board on Dec. 8, 2011, instructing them on the illegality of a proposal to teach “alternative theories of the origins of man within the science curriculum.” The proposal, brought by Board member Randy Kubetz, was “patently unconstitutional,” FFRF charged.

Pursuant to an open records request, FFRF received an email Kubetz forwarded to all Board members that included the outdated “Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curricula: A Legal Guidebook.” As Elliott pointed out in a subsequent letter, “Creationism supporters wrote the guidebook and its legal claims were tested and summarily debunked in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.”

Persistence and reason prevailed and science, not religion, will be taught in public schools in Kiel.