LOS ANGELES — Just days after being sued over it, a California school district has agreed to stop teaching a course critics said promoted creationism and intelligent design.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced Jan. 17 that the El Tejon Unified School District, located in the mountains about 65 miles north of Los Angeles, has agreed to stop teaching a course called “Philosophy of Design” at its only high school, Frazier Mountain High in the town of Lebec. As part of the agreement, according to Americans United, the school board issued a statement declaring, “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 ‘Philosophy of Intelligent Design’ or any other course that promotes or endorses creationism, creation science, or intelligent design.”
Americans United filed suit Jan. 11 in federal court on behalf of 11 parents in the district, saying the course is not simply teaching intelligent design but teaching it from a specifically religious viewpoint.
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