Angry Parent Wants Gore's Inconvenient Truth Out Of Schools

Jennifer DeFilippo

Jan 30, 2007

Al Gore still has work to do; he has yet to convince everyone that global warming is scientific fact and not just liberal lore. An Inconvenient Truth was the cause of a recent controversy in a suburban Washington school that drew great attention in the community at large, and specifically within filmmaker and activist circles. Here's what happened, in a nutshell: a science teacher in the Federal Way School District was set to show the Oscar-nominated documentary in class, when an angry parent's email put an end to all that.

Although there hasn't been much scientific rebuttal to Gore's documentary, there's still a portion of the population that does not believe that global warming is scientific fact. Like the parent in question, Frosty E. Hardison. (Frosty? Oh, they can't be serious!?) Not only do they believe that there is no truth behind this whole global warming thing, but that it is also relatable to the second coming of Christ -- this was in the email, and due to America's constitutional principle that declares the separation of church and state, Mr. Hardison's outrage shouldn't have been given such a quick result in his favor.

Instead of the email being controversial, the film was deemed controversial, and a discussion was immediately brought before the school board. Do they or do they not show the film? What they decided -- per the parent's request -- is the following approval checklist:

The teacher must receive written permission from all parents for their children to see the film. The film materials must be approved by the principal and the school board. Students must be shown an opposing view giving the kids "two sides." In this case, that would be the global warming argument. Ironically, the science teacher has only been able to find one valid document that is 37 years-old.

Has global warming become a scientific dogma that 'non believers' render as belligerent outcries? To some like Mr. Hardison, yes, which just adds more fuel to the Al Gore flame. Al Gore will soon be training over 1,000 individuals in his presentation on global warming so that they may help spread the word throughout the world; major cities and suburbia included.