ATLANTA - A federal judge Thursday ordered school officials in an Atlanta suburb to remove stickers they had placed in biology textbooks stating that "evolution is a theory, not a fact" that should be "approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."
In a 44-page decision, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper concluded that the stickers, although worded to avoid religious reference, amounted to an endorsement of "Christian fundamentalist or creationist" beliefs.
"The sticker communicates to those who oppose evolution for religious reasons that they are favored members of the political community, while the sticker sends a message to those who believe in evolution that they are political outsiders," he wrote.
The Cobb County School Board adopted the stickers in March 2002 after parents protested sections on evolution in a new biology textbook. In a four-day trial late last year, board members said they had struggled to find a sensitive, tolerant response to moral objections from more than 2,000 parents.
In his decision, Cooper acknowledged that the school board had taken pains to remain neutral on religion while allowing for parents' beliefs. But the sticker had a different effect on schoolchildren, who "are likely to view the message on the sticker as a union of church and state," in violation of the First Amendment, he wrote.
"It's a terrific victory. I'm elated," said attorney Michael Manely, who along with the American Civil Liberties Union represented five parents who had sued the Cobb County School Board.
Thursday's ruling comes amid a resurgent debate over a topic that has gripped Americans since the 1925 Scopes "monkey trial," in which science teacher John Scopes was prosecuted for teaching evolution in the classroom.
A school board in Dover, Pa., last fall required that science teachers include discussion of "intelligent design" - which holds that the world could not have evolved through random chance. School boards in Ohio and Wisconsin also have encouraged teaching of alternative theories.
A year ago, Georgia school superintendent Kathy Cox removed the word "evolution" from the state teaching standards, calling it a "buzzword that causes a lot of negative reaction." Cox reversed her decision a week later, after a chorus of protests from scientists and teachers.
