Teacher Violated First Amendment

A federal judge ruled last week that a public high school history teacher violated the First Amendment when he told his class that creationism was "religious, superstitious nonsense."

U.S. District Judge James Selna stated that the comment made in 2007 by James Corbett, who has taught at Capistrano Valley High School for 20 years, has no "legitimate secular purpose." According to the Orange County Register, Corbett made the "nonsense" remark during a class discussion about a 1993 court case in which former Capistrano Valley High School science teacher John Peloza sued the school district challenging its requirement that Peloza teach evolution. Peloza subsequently lost at both the trial and at the appeal. Referring to his former colleague, Corbett told his class, "I will not leave John Peloza alone to propagandize kids with this religious, superstitious nonsense."

Chad Farnan, who filed the lawsuit, was a student in Corbett's class in 2007, and cited over 20 statements made by the teacher which he believed were comments that were anti-Christian. In a ruling last month, the judge dismissed all but two of the statements and, on Friday, ruled that only the "nonsense" comment violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

Corbett remains at Capistrano Valley High School and Farnan, who says he is not interested in monetary damages, is now a junior at the school. [The Associated Press]