The Lafayette County school board didn’t want to be outdone by anyone. They actually called a special meeting for the purpose of doing an anti-evolution resolution.
The Lafayette County School Board unanimously adopted a resolution in protest of a proposed Florida Department of Education revision of the science portion of the Sunshine State Standards at a special meeting on Jan. 25.
The meeting, called for the purpose of voting on the resolution, lasted about 15 minutes.
The school district website is useless.
I contacted the paper to let them know that the draft was still available – they had me e-mail them a link. The man I spoke with said he was relieved, because regardless of your feelings on the issue, public accessibility of information is important.
I took that opportunity to ask him if he happened to have any information on the public notice provided for this special meeting – reminding him that keeping the public in the loop is important, and not just after the fact.
I notice that they have not updated the story yet, nor replied to my e-mail requesting more information. They also seem to have the article in questions unavailable for Forum posting there on the site.
I did a little googling, and now I’m particularly suspicious – is this the same Ira Mikell that argues for literal creationism here? http://www.watchmanmag.com/0502/050215.htm The e-mail address listed is for a local hosting company in Chiefland, FL.
They host a site for an Ira Mikell of Bell, FL (about halfway from Chiefland to Mayo) that offers a $5 yearly subscription to an online bulletin called “The Search for Truth.” Check it out here: http://www.svic.net/mikellc/
Ira Mikell has been active all over the web debating some of the finer points of Christianity – you know, like whether a person receives Grace if they INTENDED to be baptized but were killed first.
So, near as I can figure, but with no proof yet, Mayo Free Press let a creationist write the article on the school board adopting an anti-evolution stance. He did so little research that a whole paragraph of his article was blatantly untrue, and he managed to quote the superintendent complaining about how the new standards would ‘disallow the teaching of any other explanation about how the earth, universe, and man came into existence.’
The editors at Mayo Free Press let all this happen, and the Suwannee Democrat never gave it a second look – apparently even after I e-mailed them with a copy of the draft. That draft is amazingly easy to find, by the way – the only way you CAN’T find it is if you click on a link to submit public comments now that the commenting period is closed.
Boy, I end up wasting a lot of time online when I’m sick!
An update from the Suwanee Democrat – the corrections have not yet been posted due to technical issues, but it will be fixed as soon as they are able.
As I had not received a response or seen any corrections this morning, I took apart the article paragraph by paragraph. I spoke with someone at the Free Press who made me feel marginally bad for CCing the commentary to Ira’s higher-ups – fortunately, my guilt was fleeting. A person who writes online about the ‘false teachings’ of evolution has no business writing an ideological article like that in the only paper the county has. Between poor science preparation and that caliber of journalism, no wonder these towns question evolution.
The last response I got assured me that the corrections would be posted as soon as possible, and thanked me for my persistence. I can’t help but wonder if that was meant to be interpreted as, “For the love of God, stop contacting us!”
Probably! LOL!