Reply on 'Intelligent Design' figures in school board drama
Just in case you haven't been following the happenings in Howard County education, there is a pretty interesting school board race in which one candidate says dirty campaigning could cost her a seat.
The winners will not be official until tomorrow, as election officials say they need to finish counting 4,500 absentee ballots. During the week-and-a-half wait for the outcome, Diane Butler spoke out.
Butler, who finished fourth in the contest for three seats, said campaign literature distributed by third-place finisher Allen Dyer was distributed without her permission and had taken out of context her reply to a question on creationism. Butler was trailing Dyer by about 1,000 votes. Read more here. (Current board members Janet Siddiqui and Ellen Flynn Giles are comfortably in first and second places. The top three candidates will serve on the board.)
"I'm not a creationism-teaching, right-wing, voucher-slinging, home-schooling mom," said Butler. She objected to the way the literature portrayed her views:
The literature contained Butler's answer to a question about "Intelligent Design" that was included on a candidates' survey. Butler said she completed the questionnaire early in the year for the group Democracy for Howard County. The question from the group was: "Do you support or oppose the teaching of creationism or what is called 'Intelligent Design' as part of the curriculum in county schools?"
According to the group, Butler responded: "I believe 'Intelligent Design' should be taught as a different theory than 'Evolution.' In science we have many subjects that are taught theoretically, and I believe all sides should be offered to allow students to make up their own minds."
Butler said that at the time she sent in her reply, "I was very new at what I was doing." Butler said that she answered quickly and was not "savvy enough."
Baltimoresun.com's 
