LOS ALAMITOS – A new high school advanced placement class that addresses global warming has prompted the school board to start requiring teachers to present opposing views in courses that include controversial topics.

Los Alamitos Unified School district trustees unanimously agreed to update the policy on controversial issues at the request of board member Jeffrey Barke, who said he is concerned about “global warming dogma” and wants students to be offered a balanced perspective on the topic.

“There are two clearly divergent opinions on global warming,” Barke said in an interview. “There are those who believe that global warming is a fact, created by man’s impact on the environment and the consequences will be devastating. There are others on the conservative side who believe it’s much ado about nothing. It’s overhyped and politically motivated, and the science is not solid, and there’s room for more studies.”

Since news of the board’s decision was posted on a numerous national blogs, Barke said he has received more than 100 e-mails criticizing the district’s move and attacking him personally.

Los Alamitos resident J.M. Ivler, who has a daughter at the high school, did not e-mail Barke, but he was critical of the school board.

“There is consensus in the field that we have global warming happening, it is getting warmer and it is related to what we are doing to the planet,” he said. “That is not in dispute in the scientific community. It is in dispute in the political community. This is a science class. Teach science.”

The school board Tuesday voted 4-0 to update its policy to include a provision that will require the teacher of a course with controversial material to provide an annual update to the board, detailing “how multiple perspectives” will be taught. The policy allows material that represents “a balance of viewpoints and encourages students to examine each side of the issue.” Los Alamitos Unified serves students mostly from Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Rossmoor.

“When you are teaching children, you need to present education in the broadest terms possible. I truly believe that,” Trustee Meg Cutuli said Friday. Cutuli said she believes global warming is a scientific phenomenon. Other board members voting for the change were David Boyer, Diana Hill and Karen Russell.

Barke was not at the meeting but the changes were discussed in previous meetings, when the board talked about the new AP environmental science course. Barke said he would not be comfortable agreeing to the new class unless a balanced approach was presented.

Parents did not address the board at any of the meetings on either the new class itself or the idea of offering a balanced approach to the course, board members said.

By Friday, the headline on a Huffington Post blog read “California Struggles to Out-Dumb Texas.” The column by Bill Allen, the former editor-in-chief of National Geographic, is a reference to Texas’ decision to revise its textbooks and to present different sides on the subjects of evolution and global warming.

Seal Beach resident Penny Homan-Muise, who has three daughters in the district, said she’s concerned the new policy language is too vague and could open the door to religion in the schools.

“This kind of verbiage has been slipped into several Southern state school policies with an underlying focus to get history revisions, using this kind of speak to introduce intelligent design,” Homan-Muise said.

There have been moves in various states to ensure that dissenting views on scientific subjects, including global warming and evolution, be included in public schools. In South Dakota, for example, the Legislature passed a resolution calling for the “balanced teaching of global warming in public schools” last year.

In California, then-state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell took a stance in 2005 to defend California’s science standards against including the theory of intelligent design in natural science classes.

In Orange County, officials with the county School Boards Association said they had not heard of any efforts in local school districts to offer balanced teachings on global warming or other issues.

“It’s a good example of local control,” said Suzie Swartz, president of the association and a school board member of the Saddleback Valley Unified School Board. Swartz emphasized that all classes must still teach to state standards.

Across California, more than 15,000 students took the AP environmental science class in the 2008-09 school year, said Tom Adams, a director with the California Department of Education. The state provides the standards and the instructional materials and leaves it up to the districts how the course is taught, he said.

In the Irvine Unified School District, for example, the class is taught in at least one of the high schools and it has not created any controversy, said district spokesman Ian Hanigan.

“Global warming is taught in our schools, not in terms of taking a position of advocacy, (but from the) position of ‘Here’s what the data shows,'” Hanigan said. “The data is the data.”

Irvine Unified also has a “controversial issues” policy. Asked whether the AP environmental science class falls under the district’s policy, Hanigan said: “The way we teach it is not controversial. It’s based on what the data is showing. It’s not coming from any one position.”

Los Alamitos High teacher Gordon MacDuff said he was surprised by all the attention for the planned course, which will be offered in four classes next fall. MacDuff met with the current and incoming superintendents of the school district earlier this year, at their request, to discuss the district’s policy. He said he has no problems with presenting information in “an unbiased fashion and let the students make up their own minds.”

“I want to present just the science behind the issues and go from there. I won’t spin it in one way or another. I will just present it and let the students use their brains,” MacDuff said. “It’s environmental science, not environmental studies.”

Barke, a doctor who has a practice in Newport Beach, said he is a Republican and his conservative political leanings come into play “from time to time” but not on this subject.

“On this particular issue, I’m not pushing my view. I just want the kids to be presented with balance.”

A policy on controversial issues at Los Alamitos Unified has been on the books for years, officials said. It describes a controversial issue as “a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated … (and) are likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community.”

New language added to the policy states the school board will identify the courses in which an annual update is required.

Sherry Kropp, the incoming superintendent for the school district, said Friday that she does not expect there will be an official list, but board members may on occasion ask to hear a presentation on a new class.

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