AHA Sends 2,000 Thank You Letters to New Orleans School Board

Recently, the Orleans Parish School Board in Louisiana banned schoolbooks that teach creationism or intelligent design as science or scientific theories, mandated that history books not include revisionist propaganda promoted by the Religious Right, and forbade teachers in its school district from teaching any aspect of religious faith, creationism or intelligent design as science in science classes.

District 7 residents gave sitting Orleans Parish School Board president Thomas Robichaux only 3,072 votes out of 14,688 cast in November’s election. But Robichaux is floating out of office on a national wave of support from anti-creationism advocates, who have sent him over 2,000 emails and faxes praising largely symbolic policy changes he championed that take religion out of science and history classrooms. In fact, Robichaux got so many messages he contacted the American Humanist Association, which had issued an action alert, to ask its supporters to stop.

The two policy amendments prohibit schools from teaching creationism or so-called “intelligent design,” and from buying textbooks that promulgate those views. The news has been picked up by outlets as far-flung as the Huffington Post and the tech news megablog BoingBoing. Closer to home, Robichaux was recognized by patrons at a Mid-City bar Thursday night and fed free drinks.

To read the rest of this Times-Picayune story, click here.