IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF KANSAS COPE (a/k/a CITIZENS FOR OBJECTIVE PUBLIC EDUCATION, INC.), et al., Plaintiffs. v. KANSAS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, et. al., Defendants. Civil Action NO. ________________________ Filed: 9/26/13 Civil Action No. 13-4119 KHV JPO COMPLAINT (Bold face captions are intended as descriptive of the substantive content of the related paragraph and need not be addressed by any answer) I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Plaintiffs, consisting of students, parents and Kansas resident taxpayers, and a representative organization, complain that the adoption by the Defendant State Board of Education on June 11, 2013 of Next Generation Science Standards, dated April 2013 (the Standards; nextgenscience.org/) and the related Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas, (2012; (nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165#), incorporated therein by reference (the "Framework" with the Framework and Standards referred to herein as the "F&S") will have the effect of causing Kansas public schools to establish and endorse a non-theistic religious worldview (the "Worldview") in violation of the Establishment, Free Exercise, and Speech Clauses of the First Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment. Article III regarding the Parties begins at paragraph 26 Article IV regarding Venue and Jurisdiction begins at paragraph 48 II. BACKGROUND 2. The F&S take impressionable children, beginning in Kindergarten, into the religious sphere by leading them to ask ultimate religious questions like what is the cause and nature of life and the universe - "where do we come from?" 3. These questions are ultimate religious questions because answers to them profoundly relate the life of man to the world in which he lives. [“By its nature, religion - in the comprehensive sense in which the Constitution uses that word - is an aspect of human thought and action which profoundly relates the life of man to the world in which he lives." (McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 461 (1961) (Frankfurter, J. concurring, with Harlan, J.)] 4. These questions are exceedingly important as ancillary religious questions regarding the purpose of life and how it should be lived ethically and morally depend on whether one relates his life to the world through a creator or considers it to be a mere physical occurrence that ends on death per the laws of entropy. 5. However, instead of seeking to objectively inform children of the actual state of our scientific knowledge about these questions in an age appropriate and religiously neutral manner, the Standards use, without adequately disclosing, an Orthodoxy (defined in paragraphs 8 and 9) and a variety of other deceptive methods to lead impressionable children, beginning in Kindergarten, to answer the questions with only materialistic/atheistic answers. 6. Instead of explaining to students that science has not answered these religious questions, the F&S seek to cause them to accept that controversial materialistic/atheistic answers are valid. 7. The purpose of the indoctrination is to establish the religious Worldview, not to deliver to an age appropriate audience an objective and religiously neutral origins science education that seeks to inform. 8. The orthodoxy, called methodological naturalism or scientific materialism, holds that explanations of the cause and nature of natural phenomena may only use natural, material or mechanistic causes, and must assume that, supernatural and teleological or design conceptions of nature are invalid (the "Orthodoxy"). 9. The Orthodoxy is an atheistic faith-based doctrine that has been candidly explained by Richard Lewontin, a prominent geneticist and evolutionary biologist, as follows: "Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door." [Richard Lewontin, Billions and Billions of Demons 44 N.Y. REV. OF BOOKS 31 (Jan. 9, 1997) (emphasis added)] 10. Many of the misleading methods used to promote the Worldview are detailed in paragraphs 94 through 122; however, three critical devices are omissions to cause students to analyze and understand (a) that the ultimate questions which students are led to ask identify mysteries that have not been answered by science, (b) that the explanations to be accepted by students are driven by the Orthodoxy and not by an objective weighing of all the "available evidence," and (c) that many naturally occurring patterns and phenomena contradict the materialistic/atheistic tenet of the Orthodoxy, including (1) the fine-tuning of matter, energy and the physical forces to permit the existence of life and (2) the fact that physics and chemistry do not explain the sequences of nucleotide bases that carry the functional information and genetic programming necessary to the origin of life and much of its diversity. 11. Concealing the Orthodoxy. Although omissions mentioned in the preceding paragraph enhance the promotion of the Atheistic Worldview, a more robust tool for that indoctrination is the omission to provide standards that will adequately explain to students the nature, use and effect of use of the Orthodoxy. 12. Instead of candidly disclosing the Orthodoxy as explained by Richard Lewontin, its nature and use is masked by standards which misrepresent the materialistic and atheistic explanations provided as being based on all the "available evidence," and on "open-minded," "objective," "logical" and "honest" investigation per "common rules of evidence," when in fact the explanations violate all of those descriptors due to the use of the Orthodoxy and the lack of consideration given to evidence that is inconsistent with it. 13. Other methods of Indoctrination. Other tools of indoctrination and evangelism are detailed in paragraphs 87 through 122 below, but three additional strategies employed by the F&S reflect a purpose to establish in impressionable minds the materialistic/atheistic Worldview rather than to provide an objective and religiously neutral origins science education. 14. Indoctrinating Impressionable Young Minds. First, the F&S begin the indoctrination of the materialistic/atheistic Worldview at the age of five or six with young impressionable minds that lack the cognitive or mental development and scientific, mathematical, philosophical and theological sophistication necessary to enable them to critically analyze and question any of the information presented and to reach their own informed decision about what to believe about ultimate questions fundamental to all religions. 15. Because living systems appear to be "brilliantly" and "superbly" "designed for a purpose" by a "sentient" designer and because of religious training and belief acquired from family and the community, young children bring to public schools teleological conceptions of the natural world which conflict with the tenets of the materialistic/atheistic Orthodoxy. 16. Taking advantage of their malleable minds the F&S deem these "conceptions" to be "misconceptions," as they are inconsistent with the Orthodoxy, and then provide strategies for correcting them as explained herein, which include strategies to train teachers to identify and then lead children to correct their so-called "misconceptions" about the natural world. 17. No secular purpose exists for the state seeking to teach impressionable young children about a materialistic/atheistic view of origins before the mind of the child has achieved the necessary cognitive development and has acquired knowledge of the necessary intellectual predicates of math, chemistry, physics, geology, biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, statistics, philosophy and theology. 18. The effect of the F&S in teaching the materialistic/atheistic Worldview to young children before they attain the age and sophistication necessary to make an informed decision about it, is likely to cause them to embrace it, because studies show (a) that children between the age of five and eleven simply assimilate and take, unthinkingly, what authorities have taught to the child and (b) that they generally form their religious worldview by the time they attain the age of 13. 19. The effect of teaching for thirteen years only the materialistic/atheistic side of a religious controversy to an audience that is not age appropriate is religious, not educationally objective, and is indicative of an intent to inculcate and establish that non-theistic religious Worldview in the children. 20. The effect of seeking to establish the Worldview, particularly in the minds of impressionable primary school students, amounts to an excessive governmental entanglement with religion. 21. Excluding Theists from policies of non-discrimination and "equity." Second, the F&S implicitly excludes from its policies regarding non-discrimination and equity, children, parents and taxpayers that embrace theistic worldviews, thereby enabling the discriminatory establishment of the non-theistic Worldview under the guise of "science." 22. Causing the Worldview to be incorporated in all other curriculum. Third, the F&S use a strategy that seeks to cause the core materialistic/atheistic ideas of the Worldview to be used in and "cohere" with all other curriculum and to cause students to develop "habits of mind" that accept those core ideas. 23. The foregoing strategies have the effect of evangelizing students to accept a religious idea rather than objectively informing children about the actual state of our scientific knowledge concerning the cause and nature of life and the universe. 24. As a consequence, implementation of the foregoing strategies by Kansas will cause it to endorse a particular religious viewpoint, without a valid secular purpose, with a primary effect that is not religiously neutral, and in a manner that will treat atheists and materialists as favored insiders and theists as disfavored outsiders, and otherwise cause the state of Kansas to be excessively entangled with religion. 25. Plaintiffs therefore complain that the implementation of the F&S will infringe on their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. III. THE PARTIES 26. Plaintiff Citizens for Objective Public Education (“COPE”) is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to promote the religious rights of parents, students and taxpayers in public education and whose members include residents of Kansas who are taxpayers and parents that have children that are enrolled in Kansas public schools and children that are expected to be enrolled in Kansas Public Schools. 27. Plaintiffs Carl and Mary Angela Reimer, are residents of Meade, Kansas, are parents of BR, age 5, HR, age 8, BR, age 9 and NR, age 11, who are enrolled in Kansas public schools, and are Christian parents who seek to instill in their children a belief that life is a creation made for a purpose, that does not end on death and is not simply a purposeless occurrence that is the product of an unguided evolutionary process. 28. Plaintiffs BR, HR, BR and NR seek to enforce their rights to not be indoctrinated by Kansas public schools to accept the materialistic/atheistic religious Worldview which the F&S seek to establish, which rights are being asserted herein on their behalf by their father and mother and next friend, Carl and Mary Angela Reimer. 29. Plaintiff Sandra Nelson, is a resident of Rush Center, Kansas, and is the mother of JN, age 13, who is enrolled in a Kansas public school, and is a Christian parent who seeks to instill in her child a belief that life is a creation made for a purpose that does not end on death and is not simply a purposeless occurrence that is the product of an unguided evolutionary process. 30. Plaintiff JN seeks to enforce his rights to not be indoctrinated by Kansas public schools to accept the materialistic/atheistic religious Worldview which the F&S seek to establish, which right is being asserted herein on his behalf by his mother and next friend, Sandra Nelson. 31. Plaintiffs Lee and Toni Morss, are residents of Burdett, Kansas, are parents of LM, age ten, RM, age 13 and AM, age 14, who are enrolled in Kansas public schools, and are Christian parents who seek to instill in their children a belief that life is a creation made for a purpose that does not end on death and is not simply a purposeless occurrence that is the product of an unguided evolutionary process. 32. Plaintiffs LM, RM and AM seek to enforce their rights to not be indoctrinated by Kansas public schools to accept the materialistic/atheistic religious Worldview which the F&S seek to establish, which rights are being asserted herein on their behalf by their father and mother and next friend, Lee and Toni Morss. 33. Plaintiffs Mark and Angela Redden, are residents of Gypsum, Kansas, are parents of MR, age nine who is enrolled in a Kansas public school, and are Christian parents who seek to instill in their child a belief that life is a creation made for a purpose that does not end on death and is not simply a purposeless occurrence that is the product of an unguided evolutionary process. 34. Plaintiff MR seeks to enforce his rights to not be indoctrinated by Kansas public schools to accept the materialistic/atheistic religious Worldview which the F&S seek to establish, which rights are being asserted herein on his behalf by his father and mother and next friend, Mark and Angela Redden. 35. Plaintiffs Burke and Kelcee Pelton, are residents of Burdett, Kansas, are parents of BP, age 1 and LP, age 3, who are expected to be enrolled in Kansas public schools, and KP, age 5, who is enrolled in a Kansas public school, and are Christian parents who seek to instill in their children a belief that life is a creation made for a purpose, that does not end on death and is not simply a purposeless occurrence that is the product of an unguided evolutionary process. 36. Plaintiffs BP, LP and KP seek to enforce their rights to not be indoctrinated by Kansas public schools to accept the materialistic/atheistic religious Worldview which the F&S seek to establish, which rights are being asserted herein on their behalf by their father and mother and next friend, Burke and Kelcee Pelton. 37. Plaintiffs Michael and Bre Ann Leiby, are residents of Burdett, Kansas, are parents of EL, age 1 who is expected to be enrolled in Kansas public schools, and PL, age 9, and ZL, age 10, who are enrolled in a Kansas public schools, and are Christian parents who seek to instill in their children a belief that life is a creation made for a purpose, that does not end on death and is not simply a purposeless occurrence that is the product of an unguided evolutionary process. 38. Plaintiffs EL, PL and ZL seek to enforce their rights to not be indoctrinated by Kansas public schools to accept the materialistic/atheistic religious Worldview which the F&S seek to establish, which rights are being asserted herein on their behalf by their father and mother and next friend, Michael and Bre Ann Leiby. 39. Plaintiffs Jason and Robin Pelton, are residents of Burdett, Kansas, are parents of CP, age 7, SP, age 9, CP, age 10 and SP, age 12, who are enrolled in Kansas public schools, and are Christian parents who seek to instill in their children a belief that life is a creation made for a purpose, that does not end on death and is not simply a purposeless occurrence that is the product of an unguided evolutionary process.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 21:38:09 +0000
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