Two Scenarios

As you know, Steven Williams in San Francisco has brought suit against his school board for preventing him to pass out the founding documents in class. Presented are two possible scenarios of the incident which led to that suit.

Mr. Williams: Good morning class. I am passing around the Declaration of Independence in order to make an important point about the founders of our nation. They were religious men. As you can see religion is reference three times in this document, proving that if the founding fathers were here they would be born again fundamentalists. Christianity is a natural prerequisite to being a good American.

Student 1. So you are saying a follower of Taoism couldn't be a good American?

Mr. Williams. Exactly. And I know that if Mr. Jefferson were here with me today, he'd completely agree, that only Christians and supporters of President Bush truly love their country.

Obviously not intending these to be realistic scenarios, but more exaggerations. Ready for scenario two?

Mr. Williams. Good morning class. I am passing around the Declaration of Independence so we can have a discussion of it.

Student 2. Wait a second Mr. Williams. This document references the patriarchal God of Christianity. We can't read this.

Mr. Williams. Well, we don't need to talk about the religious side of the document. I just thought it would be good to consider . . .

Student 2. You'll consider nothing. I'm going straight to the principles office to talk about how you are trying to shove religion down our throats.

Mr. Williams. Oh no. I'm not trying to do that. This is an important document . . .

Student 2. Document Shmocument! This document clearly references God and is a volition of my civil rights!

Now, in case you don't know, the second interpretation is the one being pushed by Rush Limbaugh and Cal Thomas and others. The School Board and others are being pretty quiet about this issue in the public forum, which might be smart from a legal perspective, but makes it hard to figure out exactly what happened.

Reading the "Verified Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief and Damages" brought by Mr. Williams against the Cupertino Union School District though we do get a few clues however. One of the documents Mr. Williams selected to present to his class was an President Bush's proclamation on a National Day of Prayer (page 5 of the complaint, item 37). Hmmmm. Spider sense tingling. He also passed out a handout entitled "What Great Leaders have said about the Bible" (page 6 of the complaint, Item 40).

The question obviously is was Mr. Williams proselytizing in his class room? If he was than these steps that the school board take are pretty well justified. If he wasn't than this is a school board that jumped off the handle. Obviously Mr. Williams denies any attempt to proselytize (Page 7, Items 52 and 53). What else is he going to say? I'm not saying that his denial proves that he did it, I'm just saying his opinion on the matter is definitely biased. But without any more information from the parents or the PTA or the school board, there's no way to know, one way or the other.