S-3206.2  _______________________________________________

                         SENATE BILL 6500

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington   57th Legislature        2002 Regular Session

By Senator Hochstatter

Read first time 01/18/2002.  Referred to Committee on Education.

Requiring that textbooks and curriculum shall teach the self-evident truth of creation.

    AN ACT Relating to the teaching of the theory of evolution in the common schools of the state of Washington; and adding a new section to chapter 28A.230 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 28A.230 RCW to read as follows:

    (1) The legislature finds that the Enabling Act for the state of Washington requires that the state Constitution not be repugnant to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

    (2) The Declaration of Independence declares the self-evident truth that all men are created.  The Declaration of Independence also declares that our rights are endowed by the Creator, and that governments are instituted among men to secure these God-given rights.

    (3) The Preamble to the Washington state Constitution also acknowledges the Supreme Ruler of the Universe as the grantor of our liberties.

    (4) Article I, section 1 of the Washington state Constitution also declares that governments are established to protect and maintain individual rights, which rights are already acknowledged in the preamble as being granted by the Creator.

    (5) RCW 28A.405.030 requires all teachers to teach the principles of truth and to instruct their pupils in the principles of free government in the common schools of the state of Washington.  The self-evident truth that all men were created and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights and that governments are accountable both to the Creator and the people to secure those rights is the foundation of all political, civil, and religious liberty in America.

    (6) Both the United States Constitution and the Washington state Constitution were instituted to protect rights endowed by the Creator.

    (7) All state legislators in the state of Washington swear an oath to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and the state of Washington.

    (8) The legislature finds that the teaching of the theory of evolution in the common schools of the state of Washington is repugnant to the principles of the Declaration of Independence and thereby unconstitutional and unlawful.

    (9) All textbooks and curriculum that teach the theory of evolution shall be removed from the public schools forthwith and replaced with textbooks and curriculum that teach the self-evident truth of creation.

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