{"id":2648,"date":"2009-09-02T16:01:48","date_gmt":"2009-09-02T23:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=2648"},"modified":"2009-09-02T16:01:48","modified_gmt":"2009-09-02T23:01:48","slug":"theyre-laughing-at-us-in-china-and-everywhere-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=2648","title":{"rendered":"They&#8217;re Laughing at Us in China (and Everywhere Else)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/x-10853-Portland-Humanist-Examiner~y2009m9d1-Religion-and-evolution-at-SmithCotton-High\" target=\"_blank\">The stupid, it burns<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2653\" title=\"smith-cotton\" src=\"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/smith-cotton3.jpeg\" alt=\"smith-cotton\" width=\"450\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/smith-cotton3.jpeg 450w, https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/smith-cotton3-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/smith-cotton3-300x297.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is what&#8217;s on a band T-shirt being rounded up by the local school board in Sedalia, Missouri, after parents complained. Typical of the complaints is one by Sherry Melby, parent of a marching band member:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I was disappointed with the image on the shirt.&#8221; Melby said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think evolution should be associated with our school.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The school board&#8217;s rationale for banning the shirts?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While the shirts don&#8217;t directly violate the district&#8217;s dress code, Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt said complaints by parents made him take action.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I made the decision to have the band members turn the shirts in after several concerned parents brought the shirts to my attention,&#8221; Pollitt said.<\/p>\n<p>Pollitt said the district is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I wonder, how much longer are we going to be a first-world nation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The stupid, it burns: This is what&#8217;s on a band T-shirt being rounded up by the local school board in Sedalia, Missouri, after parents complained. Typical of the complaints is one by Sherry Melby, parent of a marching band member: &#8220;I was disappointed with the image on the shirt.&#8221; Melby said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think evolution [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class","category-culture","category-current-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2654,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions\/2654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}