Steven Williams and the Alliance Defense Fund: 15 Minutes of Fame

(Update 12/19/2004: I've removed a link at the request of the parents' organization. Update 12/14/2004: link removed part.))

Williams said he is stunned at how the lawsuit he filed against the Cupertino Union School District over restricting his use of religious materials has snowballed.

Mr Williams, why did you take this route? As far as I can tell, you hadn't tried any of the other avenues available to teachers who have a disagreement with the managment of their schools. You just jumped to a very politicized group that specializes in inflammatory lawsuits.

RELIGIOUS BAN DEBATED ON `HANNITY & COLMES'--Posted on Thu, Dec. 09, 2004--Cupertino teacher on Fox talk show--By Connie Skipitares

Nearly 3,000 people packed the Flint Center in Cupertino for a live broadcast Wednesday of Fox News' ``Hannity & Colmes'' talk show featuring Stephen J. Williams, the teacher at the center of a reinvigorated debate about the place of religion in public schools.

Williams, who teaches fifth grade at Stevens Creek Elementary School in Cupertino, reiterated his position that the handouts he gives students with history lessons are a natural part of U.S. colonial history and that he presents God modestly in his class. "Some people say I'm trying to teach Christianity all of the time in my class, but 99 percent of what I teach is secular,'' Williams, 38, said on the show.

Williams said he is stunned at how the lawsuit he filed against the Cupertino Union School District over restricting his use of religious materials has snowballed. "I'm blown away at what a hot-button issue this has become,'' he said. "I think for many people it strikes at the heart of the heritage of this nation. The Founding Fathers were clear that their right came from God. That is in the basic documents.''

Many in the audience seemed to agree with Williams' stance, applauding him during the broadcast. "I support him,'' said Tom Forese, 30, who works in commercial real estate. ``Most elementary schools are requiring the teaching of Islam, and I agree with that. But it's equally important to teach the Christian view.''

But Kate Froesberg, a 50-year-old parent whose son was in Williams' class last year, said Williams goes overboard in presenting God in the classroom. "Everyone has been very tolerant of him at school, but there are many complaints,'' she said. " He's got an agenda. He's overdoing it in trying to make a case for Christianity.''

Williams sued the Cupertino Union School District recently, saying his civil rights were violated when he was told by Stevens Creek Elementary School Principal Patricia Vidmar to refrain from using supplemental teaching materials on colonial history that had religious references.

Among Williams' controversial teaching handouts are excerpts with multiple references to God from the U.S. Constitution and from various state constitutions. There also is a handout created by Williams called ``What Great Leaders Have Said About the Bible'' -- quotes from U.S. presidents and Jesus.

But the district says it has not banned any historic documents.

Williams and his attorney, Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, plan to be interviewed on ``Good Morning America'' this morning. The two have already been on several radio and TV talk shows. The Alliance Defense Fund is a conservative group that supports Christian causes.

Contact Connie Skipitares at [email protected] or (408) 920-5647

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Give teacher benefit of doubt amid uproar--By Scott Herhold

If ever a public entity needed public relations help, it's the Cupertino Union School District, which is enmeshed in a national dispute over the restrictions it allegedly placed on a Christian teacher.

You know the story: Two weeks ago, the teacher, Stephen Williams, sued the district, saying that Stevens Creek Elementary School Principal Patricia Vidmar prevented him from giving his fifth-graders historical handouts that mentioned God.

In the shorthand of talk-show radio, this became known as the attempted censoring of the Declaration of Independence, one of the documents that Williams said was restricted. (The Declaration refers to ``nature's God.'')

The district denies that anyone wants to prevent handouts of the Declaration of Independence. But it's at a woeful disadvantage, a wheezing rabbit for the hounds of conservative media. It won't say what it did restrict. Personnel matter. Pending lawsuit. Mumble-mumble.

So let's begin with common sense. The real issue here is context: Was Williams so loading his teaching materials that he was in effect trying to proselytize his students?

The answer is probably no. Though Williams has a decided point of view -- parents say he wears a cross and a Jesus ring -- I don't think he's a liar. And he said recently that the issue of his teaching about God had come up a ``handful of times'' in a school year. He says that less than 5 percent of his handouts mention God.

In the context of teaching fifth-graders -- and spending most of the day with them -- this doesn't strike me as recruiting kids to his faith. The reaction is more likely a case of a nervous principal responding to parental pressure in a district where a big slice of kids don't come from a Judeo-Christian background.

You can understand that parents who don't share Williams' creed might be upset. Yet it's impossible to teach the history of this country without mentioning religion. It informed the founders. It has profound impact today, for good and ill.

Is anything inherently harmful in excerpts of William Penn's ``Frame of Government of Pennsylvania''? Or a list of the religious clauses in state constitutions? I think not.

``Do we understand the consequences if we fail to teach history accurately and completely?'' asks Joyce Stoer Cordi, a management consultant and former district resident who happens to be Jewish. ``Without an honest discussion of the political philosophy of the founding fathers -- almost all of whom believed in some form of deity -- how will children of different backgrounds ever come to consensus as adults?''

You can argue that Williams has an agenda: Ever since the school prayer decision of four decades ago, evangelicals have been looking for a way back into public schools. Historical documents offer one vehicle. In a perfect world, you would hope that teachers would give balanced attention to Buddhism, Islam and Judaism. Indeed, Williams says he has taught lessons on Ramadan, Hanukkah and the Chinese New Year.

But in our effort not to offend, we err in treating religion like secondhand smoke. (A Cupertino school textbook sucks all the passion out of the Great Awakening: ``The Great Awakening's goal was to strengthen people's religious beliefs and feelings. It widened the differences between several Protestant groups.'')

Like it or not, we hire teachers who bring their own backgrounds and passions and beliefs to their teaching. We don't want robots.

Contact Scott Herhold at [email protected] or (408) 920-5877.

R E L A T E D    L I N K S

 •  Historical documents that Williams handed out to students

 •  Herhold: Give teacher benefit of doubt

 •  Editorial: Controversy is a straw man of an issue

 •  Opinion: Public schools must teach about religion

Comments

[Ennis]

So, did Williams talk about the Founding Fathers who didn't like the Bible? Did he explain how Jefferson took a razor blade to the bible and "rationalized" it?

It's one thing to teach about the importance of religion in history, it's another thing to use that as a pretext for proselytizing.

Feh. Journalists are *lame* sometimes.