Families Seek Role in Intelligent Design lawsuit
On Monday, three families who support the Dover Area School District’s policy requiring students to learn about intelligent design requested a role in the continuing lawsuit against the school district.
Arguing that the current lawsuit violates their First Amendment rights by prohibiting the teaching of intelligent design, the three families wish to present their views in court.
“Right now, the only perspectives [that will be heard]… are those parents who want to restrict the amount of information available,” said Stephen A. Searfass, attorney for the three families.
In October 2004, the Dover Area School Board approved a policy that introduces the idea of intelligent design into the ninth-grade biology curriculum. At the beginning of evolution lessons, teachers are required to read a statement on intelligent design. This is the first such policy in the United States.
Intelligent design is the idea that the world is so complex that there must have been an unspecified divine being behind its creation.
Eight families have brought a lawsuit against the school district, charging that the policy violates the separation of church and state. They argue that the teaching of intelligent design promotes the religious viewpoint of creationism in public schools. The Dover Area School District asserts that the policy is meant to address alternative theories to the origin of life.
The three families who support the teaching of intelligent design filed a request to intervene last month. They presented their request before U.S. District Judge John Jones on Monday. A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Stephen G. Harvey, stated that the other families do not have a legal right to mandate the teaching of a particular subject from the school district.
Judge Jones stated that he will decide on the request soon. He will also rule on a request from the school district to dismiss some of the plaintiffs whose children are not affected by the policy.
