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	As you maybe aware Chrisitine Comer was forced to resign her 
post as science director of the Texas Education Agency because she 
was "not neutral" about teaching the theory of evolution. She is out 
of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about 
evolution and creationism -- 'a subject on which the agency must 
remain neutral,' according to a dismissal letter last month that 
accused her of various instances of 'misconduct and insubordination' 
and of siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the 
product of 'intelligent design.'"

	Who is Barbara Forrest and why would circulating an email 
about an upcoming lecture get someone fired from her job? Dr Forrest 
is professor of philosophy at Southwestern Louisiana University has 
been a critic of intelligent design and the Discovery Center (a major 
proponent of Intelligent Design) which was for a while a major 
supporter of the Dover School district's effort to introduce 
Intelligent Design into the high school biology curriculum. Her 
expert testimony at the Dover trial was very important in making the 
case against introducing intelligent design into the Dover High 
School curriculum. She is part of the recent NOVA television program 
about the trial (Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (Dover, 
PA).

For more information about Dr Forrest and why the Texas Education 
Agency might not have wanted her lecture publicized see:

  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/11/8448/52824


This from the National Center for Science Education (www.ncse.org)

Reaction to the Comer resignation

The forced resignation of the Texas Education Agency's director of 
science curriculum continues to attract attention and comment. 
Writing in The New York Times (December 3, 2007), Ralph Blumenthal 
reported, "After 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the 
Texas Education Agency's director of science, Christine Castillo 
Comer said she did not think she had to remain 'neutral' about 
teaching the theory of evolution. But now Ms. Comer, 56, of Austin, 
is out of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about 
evolution and creationism -- 'a subject on which the agency must 
remain neutral,' according to a dismissal letter last month that 
accused her of various instances of 'misconduct and insubordination' 
and of siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the 
product of 'intelligent design.'"

The e-mail message that Comer forwarded, which was originally sent by 
NCSE, announced a talk in Austin by Barbara Forrest, a professor of 
philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University and a member of 
NCSE's board of directors, on the history of the "intelligent design" 
movement and her expert testimony in Kitzmiller v. Dover, in which 
teaching "intelligent design" in the public schools was ruled to be 
unconstitutional. "I don't see how I took a position by F.Y.I.-ing on 
a lecture like I F.Y.I. on global warming or stem-cell research," 
Comer told Blumenthal. "I send around all kinds of stuff, and I'm not 
accused of endorsing it." The article added, "But she said that as a 
career science educator, 'I'm for good science,' and that when it 
came to teaching evolution, 'I don't think it's any stretch of the 
imagination where I stand.'"

The following day, The New York Times (December 4, 2007) expressed 
concern about Comer's termination on its editorial page, writing, "Is 
Texas about to become the next state to undermine the teaching of 
evolution? That is the scary implication of the abrupt ousting of 
Christine Comer, the state's top expert on science education. ... It 
was especially disturbing that the agency accused Ms. Comer -- by 
forwarding the e-mail message -- of taking a position on 'a subject 
on which the agency must remain neutral.' Surely the agency should 
not remain neutral on the central struggle between science and 
religion in the public schools. It should take a stand in favor of 
evolution as a central theory in modern biology. Texas's own 
education standards require the teaching of evolution. ... We can 
only hope that adherents of a sound science education can save Texas 
from a retreat into the darker ages."

In Texas, too, newspaper editorials were critical of the TEA. The 
Austin American-Statesman (December 1, 2007), which broke the story 
about Comer's termination, commented, "from all appearances, Comer 
was pushed out because the agency is enforcing a political doctrine 
of strict conservatism that allows no criticism of creationism. ... 
Forcing Comer out of her job because she passed on an e-mail about 
the critic's presentation is egregiously wrong." The Corpus Christi 
Caller-Times (December 4, 2007) concluded, "apparently state 
education officials want educators to perpetuate an academic scam on 
the state's schoolchildren in service to special interests." And the 
Waco Tribune's columnist John Young sarcastically commented (December 
4, 2007), "Imagine. Someone devoted to real science forwarding an 
e-mail about someone devoted to the same thing."
-- 
Martin Weiss, PhD
Science Interpretation
Consultant,
New York Hall of Science

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