Monday, December 08, 2008

Dad in Ark protest

A Queensland man has launched action in the Anti-Discrimination Commission after his four year old daughter was asked to help make a replica of Noah's Ark at the local state school.

Ron Williams is taking action because he did not believe students should be "exposed to superstitious mumbo-jumbo, presented as fact, in an educational setting."

Mr Williams complained that his daughter, Kathleen, now 5, was asked to make the "sizeable" replica of Noah's Ark during her prep class at Gabbinbar State School, "despite the fact that Queensland Education bans prep children from taking part in religious education programs in state schools."

Mr Williams said the Ark replica was later pinned to the classroom wall, and the teacher showed his daughter a DVD "with a Genesis theme and a book about Noah's Ark."

The school denies the claim, saying the children were shown a video of Evan Almighty, a comedy about a man who builds a replica of Noah's Ark, and a book about the Ark as part of a unit of study on animals and the noises they make.

Mr Williams has withdrawn his daughter from Gabbinbar State School.

Besides taking action in the Anti-Discrimination Commission, Mr Williams intends to sue Education Queensland for the cost of having his children educated by distance education or some other, secular alternative to the state school program.

In taking action against Kathleen's teacher, Trina Savio, and the school's principal, Greg Brand, Mr Williams said he was standing up for a "significant, disgruntled underbelly of parents" who do not want Christian stories taught at state schools.

He said Australians lived in a society with a separation of church and state and he was therefore protecting Kathleen's fundamental human right: freedom from religion.

Mr Williams's complaint said Christian groups had been emboldened in their efforts to "spread the word" in state schools by a Howard government program, launched in October last year, to fund chaplains in state schools.

In a statement to The Australian, Education Queensland said there were "no references to 'God' or the biblical story of Noah's Ark made in Kathleen's classroom."
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(Source: CTHN)