FFRF and Americans United have ensured that creationist myths will no longer be taught at an online Ohio public charter school based out of Akron.
A concerned parent of an Ohio Distance & Electronic Learning Academy student contacted FFRF to report the school’s biology classes include a unit on “biogenesis” that teaches the biblical view of creation. The class readings for this unit reportedly include young-Earth creationist Walter Brown’s book, In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood, which was promoted exclusively by Brown’s own religious ministry, the Center for Scientific Creation.
In a letter sent to Ohio Distance & Electronic Learning Academy Superintendent David Bowlin on July 24, FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover informed the academy that the Supreme Court has struck down the teaching of “scientific creationism” in public schools. Grover also noted that federal courts have consistently rejected other efforts to undermine evolution or to supplement its teaching with religious ideology in the public schools.
Bowlin responded to FFRF Aug. 24, writing that all the public school’s teachers had been reminded that using religious materials for any reason is prohibited in public schools.
