On the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s publication of the Origin of the Species, Barry Silver and his son Brandon filed a lawsuit against the son’s school for not teaching evolution correctly. 

The 18-page lawsuit was served to the Palm Beach County School Board last Wednesday, according to WPBF.com.

"The students are being deprived of learning from it because certain religious people don't like the story because it contradicts the Bible and we think it is terrible that children shouldn't learn the truth about where they came from,” Barry told WPBF.

Barry said he was willing to talk about changing the school’s science curriculum to no longer treat evolution like a “dirty word,” but if an agreement isn’t reached he said he will follow through the lawsuit.

"According to the lawsuit, 'There are currently schools and textbooks which provide false, misleading, and dangerous information about certain religions and purposely omit factual information if it appears unfavorable to them and/or politically incorrect, which cause Palm Beach County public school students not to receive a high quality education required by the Florida law,'” the article said.

RT.com said the school board had yet to see the lawsuit at the time of the article posting, but in a statement said that its curriculum adhered to the Florida Department of Education standards and that it anticipates Silver’s lawsuit being dismissed.

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial, the first direct challenge brought to the United States federal courts regarding the teaching of intelligent design (ID) along with or instead of evolution in science classrooms. The case set a precedent after the judge ruled the Dover Area School District was acting unconstitutionally by promoting the teaching of ID in science classrooms, ruling that ID is not science.

Despite the decision to rule against teaching ID and creationism as science in schools, Nicholas J. Matzke, public information project director for the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) found that there are at least 65 anti-evolutiion bills have been proposed since 2004.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

12/21/2015