School district muzzles Al Gore

The Federal Way School Board Tuesday night put the brakes on schools showing Al Gore’s global warming movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

The board required that an opposing view be presented in order for teachers to present the film. Board president Ed Barney said he’s received about a half-dozen complaints from parents that their child was taking the film as fact after viewing it at school.

“We have to ensure that our schools are not being used to politically indoctrinate anyone,” said board member Dave Larson. The board voted 3 to 0, with two members absent.

In “An Inconvenient Truth,” the former U.S. vice president is shown presenting a slide show around the country on the catastrophic dangers of climate change and his crusade to combat it. A number of the nation’s top climate scientists have given the film high marks for scientific accuracy.

But Larson pointed out two articles presenting counter-views. One is by journalist and author John Stossel, who writes that many scientists laugh at doomsday predictions by Gore and other environmentalists. Some scientists, Stossel writes, say the result of global warming may be benign.

Barney said the film has been shown at some high schools in the Federal Way School District, and one middle school wants to present it. Barney said he doesn’t know if an opposing view was presented.

Larson stressed the district needs to follow its policy requiring that an opposing view be presented when a controversial issue is examined in school.

The board has courted controversy in the past with some of its restrictions. In June, it considered banning flip-flops but backed off after an outcry.