Ronda Storms

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Storms has had a key role in a bill promoting the teaching of intelligent design in public school science classrooms. On February 29, 2008, Storms introduced The Academic Freedom bill (SB2692) in the Florida Senate.[ citation needed ] The bill did not require any change to the current science curriculum and under the bill, evolution would still be taught as a matter of law.[ citation needed ] The bill gave express statutory right and protection for teachers to "present scientific information that is relevant to the full range of views on biological and chemical evolution."[ citation needed ] The bill did not authorize the teaching of creationism or intelligent design. Under the act, all students would still have been required to learn and be tested upon all aspects of the Science Standards, including evolution.[ citation needed ]

Its sponsor in the Florida House of Representatives (as HB1483) is Representative Alan Hays, [23] who arranged for a private screening of the intelligent design promotion film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed for Florida legislators who are to vote on the bill.

The House bill underwent substantial modification and, as amended, requires the intelligent design lesson plan "Critical Analysis of Evolution" to be taught. [24]

John Stemberger of the evangelical Florida Family Policy Council, one of the drafters of the bill, said that intelligent design could not be taught, though "criticisms" of evolution could, and the teacher would have to follow the curriculum. Stein said it was the teacher who would decide what was "scientific information", and the program officer for public policy and legal affairs of the Discovery Institute, Casey Luskin, said that intelligent design constituted "scientific information." The Miami Herald saw this as acknowledgement that the bill would make it easier to bring up religiously tinged intelligent design in public-school science classrooms. [25] Wesley R. Elsberry considered that this would enable the Discovery Institute to recruit sympathetic teachers to introduce religiously motivated antievolution arguments, and lawsuits would depend on someone with standing being willing to become a plaintiff. John West of the Discovery Institute said that "scientific information" would be determined by science teachers themselves in consultation with their science curriculum staff and their school boards. This would bypass the Florida education standards identified by science domain experts and education experts. [26]

The American Civil Liberties Union expressed concerns that these bills would make it easier to teach intelligent design as science in public schools:

The presumption of this bill is that all you have to do to teach something in a science class is to call it science. Simply saying something is science does not make it so and calling Intelligent Design science, does not make it science. Intelligent Design relies on the assertion that there is a supernatural creator, which inherently precludes it from being scientific, as the ACLU proved in our landmark case in Dover, PA.

— Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida [27]

The bill was also criticised for its inconsistency in only protecting the freedom of teachers to discuss anti-evolution arguments, but not other controversies:

If it's OK for science teachers to talk about controversial alternatives to Darwin, it should be OK for health teachers to talk about birth control and abortion. ... With intellectual inconsistency such as this, it's hard to see this effort as anything other than a ham-handed attempt to keep the flames of religion vs. evolution in public schools burning.

— Michael Mayo, Proposed Academic Freedom Act ripe with mumbo jumbo, South Florida Sun-Sentinel [28]

Storms claimed she was contacted by multiple teachers who had been disciplined for speaking of alternative theories, despite those critics who said retaliation never occurred.

Democrats later introduced a proposal to have the protection extended to sex-education, but Storms voted against it. [29]

A 'Bill Analysis and Fiscal Impact Statement' prepared by the Senate Education Pre-K - 12 Committee staff stated that: [30]

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References

  1. ↑ Ronda Storms' decision sparks scramble for Hillsborough Senate seat
  2. ↑ Varian, Bill. "Mincing few words, pulling no punches". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  3. 1 2 Crouse, Julia. "Storms Plans to Keep Her Direct Style". The Ledger . Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  4. ↑ "Senators' Pages: Ronda Storms". Florida Senate. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Ronda Storms: A Tested Leader". Ronda Storms for Senate. Archived from the original on 2006-08-18. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  6. ↑ Ballingrud, David. "Forthright Storms fends off challenger". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  7. ↑ "From different worlds: For the most part, Ronda Storms declines to discuss Jean Batronie's personal life". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Karp, David. "FAMU remark raises eyebrows". St. Petersburg Times . Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  9. 1 2 Varian, Bill. "Commission backs sterilization for abusers". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  10. ↑ "County commissioner again pushes to sterilize child abusers". WFTS-TV. Archived from the original on April 22, 2005. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  11. 1 2 George, Justin. "Commission backs off Planned Parenthood". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  12. ↑ LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009 Archived 2010-01-13 at the Wayback Machine
  13. 1 2 Varian, Bill. "Hillsborough bans county from recognizing gay pride". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  14. ↑ "Hillsborough commissioners repeal ban on gay promotion". Tampa Tribune. Retrieved 2013-06-05.
  15. ↑ "County Commission votes against gay protection". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  16. ↑ Liberto, Jennifer; Bill Varian. "Redner stirs up Storms with gay revelation in suit". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  17. ↑ "Charity finds itself in middle of Storms-Redner flap". WFTS-TV. Archived from the original on November 24, 2005. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  18. 1 2 3 Smith, Adam C.; Bill Varian. "Storms makes political vow". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  19. ↑ "The Facts and Details". UNbanned.org. Archived from the original on 2006-12-01. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  20. ↑ "UNbanned". Amy Nestor/iFilm. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  21. ↑ "Storms, Justice Win Tough Senate Races". The Tampa Tribune/TBO.com. Archived from the original on November 28, 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  22. ↑ Storms, Ronda. "Florida Senate Bill 1520". The Florida Senate. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  23. ↑ Catherine Dolinski (March 4, 2008). "Storms Tries To Put Evolution Up For Vote". The Tampa Tribune . Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  24. ↑ Antievolution bills continue to advance through Florida legislature, National Center for Science Education, April 29, 2008
  25. ↑ Marc Caputo (March 15, 2008). "Intelligent Design could slip into science class - 03/13/2008 - MiamiHerald.com". Miami Herald . Retrieved 2008-03-15.[ dead link ]
  26. ↑ Wesley R. Elsberry (14 March 2008). "The Austringer » Florida: John West Spins Wildly to Cover Luskin's Back" . Retrieved 2008-03-16.
  27. ↑ Intelligent Design Should Not Be Taught in Florida’s Public School Science Classrooms, American Civil Liberties Union
  28. ↑ Mayo, Michael (March 20, 2008). "Proposed Academic Freedom Act ripe with mumbo jumbo". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  29. ↑ 'Academic freedom' for evolution, not sex-ed, Marc Caputo, Miami Herald, April 17, 2008
  30. ↑ Bill Analysis and Fiscal Impact Statement Archived 2008-09-10 at the Wayback Machine , The Professional Staff of the Education Pre-K - 12 Committee, Florida Senate, March 26, 2008.
Ronda Storms
RondaStorms.jpg
Member of the Florida Senate
from the 10th district
In office
2006–2012
Current members of the Florida Senate
President
Kathleen Passidomo (R)
President pro tempore
Dennis Baxley (R)
Majority Leader
Ben Albritton (R)
Minority Leader
Lauren Book (D)
  1. ▌ Doug Broxson (R)
  2. ▌ Jay Trumbull (R)
  3. ▌ Corey Simon (R)
  4. ▌ Clay Yarborough (R)
  5. ▌ Tracie Davis (D)
  6. ▌ Jennifer Bradley (R)
  7. ▌ Travis Hutson (R)
  8. ▌ Tom A. Wright (R)
  9. ▌ Keith Perry (R)
  10. ▌ Jason Brodeur (R)
  11. ▌ Blaise Ingoglia (R)
  12. ▌ Colleen Burton (R)
  13. ▌ Dennis Baxley (R)
  14. ▌ Jay Collins (R)
  15. ▌ Geraldine Thompson (D)
  16. ▌ Darryl Rouson (D)
  17. ▌ Linda Stewart (D)
  18. ▌ Nick DiCeglie (R)
  19. ▌ Debbie Mayfield (R)
  20. ▌ Jim Boyd (R)
  21. ▌ Ed Hooper (R)
  22. ▌ Joe Gruters (R)
  23. ▌ Danny Burgess (R)
  24. ▌ Bobby Powell (D)
  25. ▌ Victor M. Torres Jr. (D)
  26. ▌ Lori Berman (D)
  27. ▌ Ben Albritton (R)
  28. ▌ Kathleen Passidomo (R)
  29. ▌ Erin Grall (R)
  30. ▌ Tina Polsky (D)
  31. ▌ Gayle Harrell (R)
  32. ▌ Rosalind Osgood (D)
  33. ▌ Jonathan Martin (R)
  34. ▌ Shevrin Jones (D)
  35. ▌ Lauren Book (D)
  36. ▌ Ileana Garcia (R)
  37. ▌ Jason Pizzo (D)
  38. ▌ Alexis Calatayud (R)
  39. ▌ Bryan Avila (R)
  40. ▌ Ana Maria Rodriguez (R)
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