Plaintiffs Recall Atmosphere Leading Up to Intelligent-Design Policy

Harrisburg, Pa.

The concept of “intelligent design” materialized in the Dover school district only after board members spoke openly about the need to insert Christian religious beliefs into science classes, plaintiffs testified here in a landmark lawsuit.

Those witnesses—all parents of students in the rural, south-central Pennsylvania district—said in their Sept. 27 court testimony that school board members quoted biblical scripture and cited their religious beliefs in public meetings and other settings in explaining their quarrels with the theory of evolution.

One of the plaintiffs, Bryan Rehm, a parent and former science teacher at Dover High School, testified that board member Alan Bonsell asked science teachers on several occasions to consider teaching creationism alongside evolution. Mr. Rehm claims that Mr. Bonsell made those requests before the district’s intelligent-design policy was...