God and man in Cupertino. Belatedly, the San Jose Mercury News has a front-page story on the Cupertino elementary teacher told not to assign historical documents that mention God in his colonial history class. He sounds like the Doctor I used to have. A fanatic.
School-religion spotlight on Cupertino
TEACHER SUES DISTRICT OVER BAN ON MATERIALS, SPURS E-MAIL FLOOD
By Connie Skipitares and Maya Suryaraman
Mercury News
Fox News is in town today. Tomorrow, it's ``Good Morning America.'' Conservative America is up in arms. And Cupertino is squarely in the spotlight.
Attracting all the attention is a public school teacher's lessons on colonial history -- religion-laced looks at documents written by some of the Founding Fathers.
When the school told him to stop, he sued, re- igniting the age-old debate over how much talk of God can take place in a public school classroom.
Thousands of e-mails and phone calls have inundated the Cupertino Union School District, which fifth-grade teacher Stephen J. Williams contends violated his constitutional rights by barring him from using handouts he prepared for history lessons.
What followed were nearly a dozen guest spots on national conservative talk shows, and an avalanche of e-mails and phone calls to the district, Cupertino City Hall and even the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department from angry conservative Christians across the United States.
They -- and Williams -- feel the 38-year-old is being singled out because he's an evangelical Christian.
Many of the e-mails criticizing school officials have been epithet-laden, which prompted the sheriff's department to have deputies increase their patrols at Stevens Creek Elementary School, where Williams teaches. No incidents have been reported.
``When you get e-mails that say, `We hope you burn in hell,' obviously you are concerned,'' said sheriff's Capt. John Hirokawa. ``There haven't been any direct death threats, but they've come pretty close. That's why we stepped up our presence at the school.''
Williams and his lawyer, Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, are scheduled tonight to tape the "Hannity & Colmes" TV talk show at De Anza College's Flint Center. The campus is expected to have extra security on hand.
Thursday morning, Diane Sawyer will interview them live on ``Good Morning America.''
Williams has said that he doesn't buy the school district's argument that a teacher shouldn't mention God in the classroom because church and state should be separated.
``Basically, it's just sad to me that the separation of church and state has been just kind of warped to mean that we can't even include some of our founding documents in the classroom,'' he said on a segment of the ``Hannity & Colmes'' show last week.
Lorence said Williams has been told by Principal Patricia Vidmar that he was not to bring to class certain materials he planned to use to teach about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They included ``The Rights of the Colonists'' by Samuel Adams, ``Frame of Government of Pennsylvania'' by William Penn and parts of George Washington's ``Prayer Journal.''
Lorence said Williams, who continues to teach fifth grade, never brought those materials to class. Vidmar, he said, told Williams to show her his supplemental materials, and she nixed them.
``She told him, `Even though we don't think you're proselytizing, we don't think you can be trusted teaching these materials because you're an evangelical Christian,'' Lorence said.
School officials are saying very little in response to Williams' charges, but district spokesman Jeremy Nishihara did say the district has not banned any historic documents. ``That's been incorrectly reported,'' he said.
A press release from the school district said:
``The district has not violated anyone's constitutional rights. Media coverage regarding the lawsuit has substantially mischaracterized the content of the Cupertino Union School District's curriculum. It has incorrectly been reported that the district has banned the teaching of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. In reality, no such ban exists.''
Lorence said he believes the district was responding to a single parent's complaint. Williams, he said, has been teaching colonial history with the same materials for seven years without incident. Last year, a parent complained when Williams brought religious-based materials to elaborate on a class discussion about the inclusion of ``under God'' in the Pledge of Allegiance. After that, all of Williams' teaching materials came under scrutiny by Vidmar, the lawyer said.
But if there is support for Williams in this school community of upscale ranch-style homes, it wasn't readily apparent Tuesday.
In the principal's office, a small round conference table brimmed with flowers, a huge Toblerone chocolate bar, stacks of cards and valentines from the children in one classroom, all expressing support for the embattled principal.
And a few blocks from the school, a home festooned with Christmas lights also sported a home-made lawn sign proclaiming, ``Keep Religion out of Public Schools.''
``If I want my kids going to church, I'll take them,'' said Nathalie Schuler of her lawn sign.
Schuler said she is requesting that her daughter not be placed in Williams' class next year.
``They're alienating those of us who are not as fundamentalist,'' Schuler said.
Several parents said that Williams' fervent Christian beliefs had been a topic of concern and conversation among parents at the school well before the lawsuit.
``Mr. Williams discusses his Christianity in the classroom,'' said Dorothy Pickler, who has two children at Stevens Creek. ``He slants lessons in that direction. Parents have complained.''
Armineh Noravian, whose son had Williams last year, said that the teacher wore a Jesus ring, a cross near the collar of his shirt and talked to his students often about his Bible study classes.
Noravian said that when Williams sent his students home with a proclamation for national prayer day from President Bush, she and other parents complained to the principal.
``The class was studying George Washington at the time,'' Noravian said. ``It had nothing to do with George W. Bush or the proclamation of prayer.''
Noravian said that Williams' discussion of his Christian faith troubled her because Stevens Creek is a diverse school with many Jewish, Hindu and other non-Christian students.
© 2004 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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