Hide Article Text (OCR)
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) —a mgh school teacher says his right to free speech has been denied because he was suspended without pay for teaching creation ism in his general science course. “I was just merely saying that God is heaven and we should give some credit to him, ’ said teacher George Rhodes, a 23-year veteran of the Laurel Highland School District, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. Frank Houser, the solicitor for the school district, said the suspension resulted from Rhodes’ “teaching practices with regard to religion. ’ Houser would not comment on the specific charges. “The preamble of the Constitu tion states that we have freedom of speech and religion. This gives us the right and duty to speak of our creator in everyday terms in any place, said Rhodes, who claims man's evolutionary de scent from the ape has never been scientifically documented. “Up until the 1880s, evolution was not in the vocabulary. Now the pendulum has swung its just the opposite. George Rhodes wants it in the middle,” he said Thursday. School board members voted last Tuesday to uphold Rhodes’ suspension, imposed by school administrators. Rhodes is scheduled to face a disciplinary hearing Sept. 8, when board members will act as his jury in deciding whether to reinstate him or dismiss him, said attorney William Radcliff, special counsel for school administrators. School officials did not explain em actions Tuesday night. The state school code says a teacher’s contract can be terminated for immorality, in competence, intemperence, cruelty, persistent negigence, mental derangement, advocation or participation in un-American or subversive doctrines, or will ful, persistent violation of state School laws, Rhodes said his suspension followed a parent's complaint tat he was injecting religious teachings into the public school curriculum. He said he was suspended for four days in 1885 after stmuar complaints and has been at odds with school administrators since 1984 over cereal a Yes, we quote often from the table in the class. But we'll listen equally to any other source the student may care to bring up or their own opinion based on no particular reading,” Rhodes said by telephone from his home. “That's what classroom discourse is all about.” Rhodes said he presents crea tionism to balance the wealth of material available to students concerning evolution. Science programs on public television, for example, “give no credit to even the thought that there could be a creator other than nature or evolution doing it all, he said.
Newspaper Details
Doylestown Intelligencer
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Sep 08, 1986
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Bruce B.
USA 16 Aug 2026
Other Publications Near Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown Intelligencer
Doylestown Daily Intelligencer
Intelligencer
