A comment from a teacher (actually a professor, but same thing, in a public institution): Those of you asserting the teacher's "academic freedom" have it wrong. Academic freedom means only that teachers have the right to bring up any subject, but it does not mean we have the right to say anything we want about that topic. The point of education is that we can talk about any topic of interest, as long as we discuss it in an academic manner: rational, open, logical, and respectful. That means we must be open to all opinions on the matter, and that all opinions must be expressed as options, not facts, and remain subject to further rational debate. The teacher in question was OK for bringing up religion as a topic; he was not OK for telling the students that there is only one answer to the question on the table, that he (or Jesus) has that answer, that logical arguments against it are irrelevant (there were dinosaurs on the ark?? on what basis does he "know" this?), or that anyone who feels differently is doomed. That's not education, it's propaganda and religious indoctrination, which are forbidden not only because of separation of church and state, but because it's lousy teaching -- in fact, not "teaching" at all, in the educator's sense of the word. You may tell a student he's wrong about a provable fact, but salvation after death is not, by definition, a provable fact, since if it happens, it doesn't happen in an observable world.
Too may people on this list are attacking the student because they agree with the teacher's religious opinions/beliefs, and they are sadly willing to ignore or trample more important issues: academic principles of a good education, and national principles that religion does not belong in discussions of non-religious subjects, since it is by definition non-rational. Any person in this society is free not to believe in any particular god, and free to express that opinion by not saying words, like the pledge of allegiance's "under god," that are highly sectarian and arguably unconstitutional.
I am saddened to read so many ignorant, nasty, and un-American attacks on Matthew LaClair -- all he did was stand up for recognized principles of decent society and proper education. Seems as if too many of you are willing to overlook more basic rules of society whenever the violator happens to agree with your own religious viewpoint. And you're frighteningly quick to condemn the rights and humanity of someone who disagrees with you. Sounds too much like Hitler's Germany for my comfort. I grew up in Newark, not Kearny; now I understand why people in my old neighborhood -- not the most enlightened bunch themselves -- looked down on your town.
