I just listened to this segment from last week’s NPR Science Friday, about a Texas state science education officer who was forced to resign by a Bush appointee who was upset because the officer had forwarded an email advertising a speech by a Creationism critic to a couple of small mailing lists. It made me bonkers. This hard-working woman, a science education devotee, had her career ruined by a political hack looking to sneak Creationism into the schools as junk science.
The education official responsible for the science curriculum in the state of Texas resigned last month saying she was forced to step down after being reprimanded for informing colleagues of a talk on the conflict over the teaching of evolution. Christine Castillo Comer, former Director of Science in the curriculum division of the Texas Education Agency, forwarded several colleagues an email notice of a upcoming talk by Barbara Forrest, co-author of the book “Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.” Castillo Comer’s supervisor said the email was grounds for termination as the ‘FYI’ email “implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker’s position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.”