By NICOLA M. WHITE
The Tampa Tribune Published: March 27, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - It’s not about letting religion creep into science classrooms, Sen. Ronda Storms insisted.

It’s about protecting the rights of students and teachers who don’t agree with the science behind Darwinian evolution, the Republican from Valrico argued before the Senate’s pre-k through 12 education committee voted 4-1 Wednesday to approve the bill.

Despite her argument, religion kept coming up anyway, as Storms pressed for her “academic freedom” act. Her bill would allow public school teachers to present science-based alternatives to Darwin’s theory of evolution, a theory written into Florida’s curriculum standards and one that is held as a fundamental concept of biology by most members of the science community.

Although professors spoke in opposition to the bill and a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union said it would open the door to teaching creationism, the committee voted to move the bill forward. ”

Evolution will still be taught as a matter of law. This bill does not undo the current standard,” Storms said. She added, “It’s interesting for me to note that the only folks who brought up religion today have been those in opposition.”

A debate about evolution has been swirling in the Capitol since last month, when the state Board of Education adopted the state’s new science standards, which mandated teaching evolution. Activists persuaded the board to qualify evolution as a “theory,” but the board did not write in any special provision for teaching alternative beliefs.

Storms filed her bill at the start of the legislative session. Conservative activists rallied around her, with actor Ben Stein, best known for playing a boring teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” showing up in Tallahassee to screen his controversial documentary “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” a film about scientists and educators who challenged natural selection and Darwin’s evolution teachings.

Those who oppose Darwin’s theory of evolution aren’t all religiously motivated, backers said Wednesday, although Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, made her views clear when she said she thought kindergartners should not be taught Darwinian evolution because “that may be brainwashing.” She also told the committee of her own experience in college, where she refused to answer a science exam question about evolution with the accepted Darwinian answer and instead copied down the creation story in Genesis, Chapter 1.

Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, who cast the lone dissenting vote Wednesday, echoed what a staff analysis of the bill said - that there have been no complaints about teachers or students saying they were discriminated against because they presented an alternative scientific theory of evolution.

“What we heard today was the suggestion that there are people of faith who have some objections and they’re not permitted to raise them,” Deutch said.

Although he thinks students should be allowed to debate things philosophically, those debates do not belong in the science classroom, he said. The bill’s next stop is the Senate judiciary committee.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.