"It's only two sentences," said Tyler Shumaker, a ninth-grader. "It's a real short statement. It isn't going to kill anyone to listen to it." Though he doesn't believe the school should be teaching anything in the statement because he considers it religion, he said they can do what they want. He hasn't heard the statement yet, and he doesn't plan on opting out.
Megan Pfleiger, a 10th-grader, didn't opt out last year, and said, "I thought it was no big deal."
Jonathan Shreve, a senior who didn't hear the statement in class, said, "Personally, I think it's a lot over a little sentence. I know for evolution my class only spent five minutes on it."
Friday, October 14, 2005
Dover Trial Drags On; Students Nonplused
The Dover Pennsylvania trial pitting proponents of intelligent design against those who argue that only evolutionary theory belongs in science classes drags on. The trial, challenging a statement questioning evolution that was to be read to all biology students, began on Sept. 26. (See prior posting.) Full transcripts of each day's testimony are available online, as is extensive coverage at Speaking Freely, a special blog set up by the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile the York Pennsylvania Record this week interviewed a number of students in the Dover school district. They tend to have a bit more perspective, perhaps, than those more directly involved in the fray:
