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Suit Settled: District Promises "No Creationism Classes"

Jan. 20, 2006 issue

By Patric Hedlund

“I don’t think I’d call it a win-win,” Frazier Mountain High School’s “Philosophy of Design” instructor Sharon Lemburg said Tuesday morning when informed that a settlement agreement had been filed in federal court just minutes before. “I think I won,” Lemburg stated quietly: “I get to finish my class.” Technically, the settlement shaves a week off the January 3 to February 3 course offering. It also ends the dispute between Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the El Tejon Unified School District.

Ken Hurst, FMHS parent and lead plaintiff protesting the course, does see it as a “win-win” settlement: “I think the school district has avoided the expense of a lawsuit and has done the right thing by canceling the class early and agreeing to not give a class like this in the future. They shouldn’t have done this in the first place,” Hurst said.

Was it worth it?

“I think it was worth it, it had to be done,” he said firmly. Settlement stipulations were simply stated in the legal document filed Tuesday morning:

1) “Defendants shall cause the course entitled “Philosophy of Design” or “Philosophy of Intelligent Design” to be terminated and discontinued no later than January 27, 2006.

2) No school over which the School District has authority, including the High School shall offer, presently or in the future, the course entitled “Philosophy of Design”...or any other course that promotes or endorses creationism, creation science or intelligent design.” (#3 is a “legalese” stipulation only).

4) The Court reserves jurisdiction to enforce the Order...in the event the School District fails to comply...plaintiffs or Americans United for Separation of Church and State may file a motion...seeking enforcement of this Order....

5) Each party shall bear his or her own costs and fees...in respect to this lawsuit.

United States District Judge Oliver W. Wanger, in Fresno, signed the order, eliminating the hearing and further legal action. The costs to the Dover, PA school district, which took the case through a full trial, were over $1 million.

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