News -> INDReporter MON, MAY 2 12:18PM by Heather Miller

Kopplin lobbies an empty Legislature

Baton Rouge Magnet High School senior Zach Kopplin pitched a solid argument last week when he stood on the steps of the state Capitol and rallied for the repeal of a controversial state law that’s largely interpreted as a tool to allow creationism (i.e. religion) in state public schools.

Since 2008, Louisiana has been the only state in the nation to have a law on the books allowing for supplemental materials in high school biology classes, materials that the law’s opponents say promote Intelligent Design — a new form of creationism that hasn’t been completely thrown out yet by the U.S. Supreme Court, as creationism was in 1987.

Joined at the podium by the Dr. Kevin Carman, dean of LSU’s College of Science, LSU science professor Ian Binns, and one of two state lawmakers who have agreed to assist Kopplin in his legislative fight, Kopplin’s speech urging the passage of Senate Bill 70 by state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, was well-crafted in terms of political appeal. Like Republicans in the Congress lobbying against “Obamacare,” he closed by calling the Louisiana Science Education Act a “job-killing creationism law.” Good one, Zach, though as the son of Andy Kopplin, deputy mayor of New Orleans and the former chief of staff to Govs. Mike Foster and Kathleen Blanco, a clever jab or two from this teen is to be expected.

Kopplin points out that the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology had scheduled its 2011 annual conference in New Orleans, but pulled out once its members learned about the “creationism” bill in Louisiana. They’ve decided on Utah instead. Ouch.

“If you look up creationism on monsterjobs.com or Career Builder, you get a message that says, ‘Sorry there are no creationism jobs.’ But there are thousands of biology jobs,” Kopplin said during his rally. “We’re here to say we want science and only science taught in science class.”

LSU Dean Carman spoke not only as a science professional and science educator, but as a concerned parent.

“Our children need to receive a high-quality education that includes a current and compelling curriculum in science and all other disciplines,” Carman said at the Capitol. “The science education act undermines that objective, and the teaching of evolution in particular. Proponents of the science education act apparently feel that science can be taught and understood in the absence of evolution. I beg to differ. Evolution is as integral to the understanding of biology as atoms are to the understanding of chemistry.”

That Kopplin has the backing of the dean of the College of Science at LSU — the state’s flagship university — and 42 Nobel Laureates speaks volumes to his cause. Too bad no one’s listening.

The three dozen or so people who came out in support of Kopplin or happened to be touring the Capitol on this breezy morning heard Kopplin loud and clear. But the state Senate, on Day 4 of the Legislative session, had no business on the calendar to handle Thursday, thus the upper chamber of the Legislature was absent, and the House didn’t meet in full until long after the rally’s end.

If the 2008 vote to enact the Louisiana Science Education Act is any indication of how its repeal will fare, chances are dim for Kopplin and other supporters of science. The bill passed unanimously in the state Senate in 2008 and the House passed it 94-3. All of Lafayette’s delegation voted for it.

House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, recently told Gannett’s Mike Hasten, “I don’t see any real support on the House side.”

Read more on the creationism fight in The Independent Weekly’s Dec. 8 cover story, “Devolve!”


Comments (10)add
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written by Zack Kopplin , May 02, 2011 - 05:39 pm
Quick correction, there actually were Senate committee meetings that day. Sen. Peterson had to fit the rally in between the meetings.
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written by Gaius Cilnius Maecenas , May 02, 2011 - 10:33 pm
Excellent report Heather! Is anyone listening? Should anyone be listening? Where are the motives, means and opportunities for passage of the repeal SB 70?

"I don't see any "real" support on the House side" speaks volumes about the incompetence of our political culture! Furthermore, it is an indictment on the general stupidity and animality of our fellow Louisianians! They [political officers & voting citizens] are too ignorant to realize that this failure in moral political leadership will have drastic consequences for the future pleasure of their bellies and genitals [How they only think]!

After all, political order demands insight into our human "social and competitive animal nature." I trust Zack, and the young Louisianians of his (non-voting) polite & civil generation, will influence reconsideration of this scientific issue-debate for the advancement of our mutual socio-economic status as a majestic state in the Deep South!
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written by Sam salerno , May 02, 2011 - 11:48 pm
You have the whole atheist community backing you brother. I have not once seen a science class in a church sermon. So they definitely need to keep there religion out of our science classes.
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written by Gaius Cilnius Maecenas , May 03, 2011 - 01:47 am
Sam Salerno:

The theoretical atheist community is a small sampling in Louisiana! It requires mental competence as to what epoch one lives in to appreciate the notion of a value-free deity intellectual structure.

In Louisiana, there is still the vulgar notion that morality proceeds only from "faith-base" communities! Furthermore, our "high" religions [sociological technical term] do explicitly incorporate Science in their sermons; it is, generally, our "low" religions [non-pejorative sociological technical term again] that do not, such as Evangelical "born again" Jesus cults!

The advocates for Repeal assert clearly, keep Science in Science classes; and keep Religion in Religion classes. Do NOT confuse the mental categories---one does justice to neither, Science nor Religion! This is a very important thesis of the cause!
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written by RickK , May 03, 2011 - 02:15 am
Zach, your support goes much farther than atheists. Basically anyone who is educated and intellectually honest is behind you. Unfortunately, that description fits only a tiny fraction of the Louisiana state legislature.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were afraid that this would happen - government filling up with poorly educated representatives who are much more willing to tell a popular lie than defend an unpopular truth. That's why they tried to take education standards away from the states.
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written by Bow Tox , May 03, 2011 - 12:35 pm
God is Dead. Navy Seals took him out years ago.
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written by Tomomi , May 03, 2011 - 03:40 pm
Left Behind!

What students in Louisiana will be when they compete for technical jobs and entrance to institutes of higher learning.
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written by The Original Northsidian , May 03, 2011 - 10:50 pm
I trust gang members more than religious zealots!!!!!!!!!
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written by Forest , May 06, 2011 - 04:20 am
How did we get from the enlightenment to this? I believe it rests on fear of everything countered with superstitious solutions and short term greed-based thinking. It is not evolution alone that is being decimated. Try climate change. I think the legislature will next try to repeal the laws of physics and chemistry, substituting three weeks of prayer. Perhaps we won't have to worry about it after the May 21 rapture; but then when nothing comes of it, we will have been "spared" yet again.
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written by Steve Wiseman , May 14, 2011 - 02:40 pm
As a member of the clergy, I begin to have hope in the future as I see a young person as Zach Kopplin. I applaud his intelligence, and his courage, and just plain old "gumption" to stand up to ignorance and to take on this project. Zach, the world needs more like you. I love my faith. I love my science. The two can co-exist.
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