Fwd: Send an email, lose your job
Subject: Fwd: Send an email, lose your job
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 7/6/10, 20:09
To: Tim Rogers <timr@dmagazine.com>

Tim-

This is Barrett Brown; interned at The Met in 98, currently write for Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Skeptical Inquirer, New York Press, and a few other things, second book coming out in August. I just moved back to Dallas and wanted to see if you have any interest in a piece on the situation described to me below by the dir of comm at the National Center for Science Education. Please let me know.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert Luhn <luhn@ncse.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 7:37 PM
Subject: Send an email, lose your job



You may recall that Christine Comer--who was the Director of Science at the Texas Education Agency--was fired in 2007 for forwarding an email which announced a public lecture by NCSE Board member Barbara Forrest. (Forrest was an expert witness in the Kitzmiller v Dover trial and author of a book on the intelligent design movement.) TEA employee Monica Martinez called for Comer's termination, complaining that "Ms. Comer's email implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker's position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral."

Comer sued, claiming she was illegally fired. But on Friday, July 2, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate her latest suit.

Our story: http://ncse.com/news/2010/07/comer-loses-appeal-005612

Steven Schafersman, Texas Citizens for Science, on the suit: http://www.texscience.org/news/comer/comer-lawsuit-dismissed-2009April1.htm

Court filing: http://ncse.com/webfm_send/1390

Video: "Chris Comer, Expelled for Real"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpCdQ2Tbf6s

background:

"Science Supervisor Chris Comer Sues Texas Education Agency"  (2008)
http://ncse.com/news/2008/06/science-supervisor-chris-comer-sues-texas-education-agency-00169

Comer case dismissed (2009)
http://ncse.com/news/2009/04/comer-case-dismissed-004712

Comer appeal heard (2010)
http://ncse.com/news/2010/04/comer-appeal-heard-005475


...also of note: Exclusive chapter excerpt from "Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution". Download it at: http://ncse.com/files/pub/evolution/Excerpt--LifeAscendingb.pdf

rl

-- 
Robert Luhn
Director of Communications
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
420 40th Street, Suite 2
Oakland, CA 94609-2509
510-601-7203 x314
fax: 510-601-7204
800-290-6006
luhn@ncse.com
http://www.ncse.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ncse



--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302