Voters Oust Us School Board That Backed Intelligent Design

The Pennsylvanian school board that is attempting to introduce the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution was yesterday ousted in local elections by anti-creationist campaigners.

All eight Republican members of the board, the body that sets education policy for Dover, Pennsylvania, lost their seats to Democrat challengers.

Two of the now ex-board members, chairwoman Sheila Harkins and Alan Bonsell, have testified in an on-going court case over the introduction of teaching alternative theories on the origins of the world, the New York Times reported.

A year ago the school board set a policy that required a statement to be read out to every 15-year-old biology student pointing out "gaps" in the evolution theory, suggesting intelligent design as an alternative and directing them to reading material in the library.

The theory of intelligent design argues that the world is too complicated to have evolved out of natural selection, as argued in evolution, and suggests there is some guiding force in the design of living things.

The board is being sued by 11 parents who argue that intelligent design is a repackaging of creationism, the Bible's version of how the world came to be.

The federal judge is expected to make a decision on the case in January. The judgment would still stand despite the board changes, although the incoming members could decide to change policy next year.

The winning candidates have either argued against the intelligent design policy or for a new focus of the education agenda in the district, which has been dominated by the row for the past year.

One winning candidate, Bernadette Reinking, told the new York Times: "I think voters were tired of the trial, they were tired of intelligent design, they were tired of everything that this school board brought about."

Another candidate, Judy McIlvaine, said: "We are all for it [intelligent design] being discussed, but we do not want to see it in biology class. It is not a science."

However, the ex-school board member David Napierskie, who lost his seat, told the Associated Press that the vote was not just about ideology.

"Some people felt intelligent design shouldn't be taught and others were concerned about having tax money spent on the lawsuit," he said.