The decision by the Federal Way School Board to allow the showing of the documentary entitled An Inconvenient Truth only if it is balanced by the presentation of an "opposing view" was supposedly prompted by a parent's irate e-mail. The sender of this e-mail claimed that, "condoms don't belong in school and neither does Al Gore," and that, "the earth is 14,000 years old."

The School Board president was quoted as saying that evolution is "...only a theory" and students should be told that other beliefs exist.

According to this view, schools can regard the teaching of global warming and evolution (overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community) as controversial and, therefore, must be balanced by opposing views that have no real basis in fact. This is an astounding step backwards. I propose that a logical extension of this mindset would be the decision that the teaching of the existence of dinosaurs is controversial, since they are purported to have a lived on the earth a bit longer than 14,000 years ago (65 million years) and should only be allowed if an opposing view is also presented.

Joseph Aprile

Westwood