March 19, 2010
Voters in longtime blue state Connecticut have elected Chester Harris as a new member of the school board for the towns of Haddam and Killingsworth. Harris is a school van driver and has a theology degree from Toccoa Falls College in Georgia. Harris is also an avid creationist and (referring to science curriculum) recently said to the Hartford Courant, “I’m not going to be fighting for the overthrow of any one way of doing things because we’ve gone past that. It’s time for balance… And I just want to be there so there’s a voice that says there’s room for all of us.”
As a school board member, Harris represents the towns of Haddam and Killingworth in Region 17. After his appointment, Harris met with high school science teachers and could not oversee. Says Harris, “I sort of got stuck on one thing with them, which was basically the teaching of evolution in the schools and how it tends to ride roughshod over the fact that various religions- Christian, Hebrew, Muslim- hold a theistic world view. Evolution is basically an assumption that there is no God.”
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, is concerned with Harris’ actions and said, “In general, when school board members seek to meet with teachers, it tends to be very intimidating.” In a recent op-ed piece for the Huffington Post, Michael Zimmerman, founder of the Clergy Letter Project, added, “There are serious problems with every aspect of this situation, from his discussions to the reasons he articulated for his anti-science position.” However, one of the teachers that met with Harris, Charles Macunas said the meeting was “very pleasant, not the least bit adversarial.”
The creation/evolution topic has surfaced in school system across the country in the past months, especially in Texas with the recent election of new state education board members. To read more about Harris in the Hartford Courant, see “Haddam School Board Member Rejects Evolution”.