In 1996, the Kelso School Board rejected a biology textbook for their advanced biology program, complaining that the book didn't "acknowledge creation."
According to an August 28th, 1996 article in the Longview Daily News, the Kelso School Board rejected the biology textbook, "Modern Biology", published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. In the words of school board chairman Bob Simmons, "From my personal perspective, I don't believe in the theory of evolution. I am concerned about the things that are missing. It doesn't acknowledge 'creation.' It doesn't promote the kind of critical thinking we want our students to develop."
In an ironic twist, the principal of nearby St. Rose Catholic School, Sister Margaret Lederer, SND, said evolution is taught in the seventh grade at her school. "It's in our curriculum. The church lets us go both ways; we don't think God went 'poof,' and there was a person."
Jack Wardlow, chair of the Kelso High School science department lamented that for over fifteen years, he had been teaching the advanced biology program without a text. It is unknown if the schoolboard ever did find an acceptable textbook for their advanced biology class.
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