Ed Brayton has the funny part of this story covered: a public school teacher who used a stupid lesson about how Jesus (and good Christians!) smell. Read a little further into the news story, though, and prepare to be even more appalled.

Ashlee came home with a worksheet on which she was marked wrong for answering that "chance" was the reason many animals are colored to match their surroundings. The teacher indicated that the right answer was "God's master design," the suit says.

Harrison said Cumberland schools have a policy, mandated by federal law, that bars teachers from endorsing any religion.

He said that Kristie Griffiths, the teacher, is a visiting faculty member from Australia and did not understand U.S. standards. She bought the text from Christian publisher A Beka Book with her own money, he said.

Harrison said the principal did not take the incident seriously enough and failed to make sure the teacher stopped using the text. He said Anderson sent a memo to all staff asking them to use only board-approved materials but didn't communicate directly with Griffiths.

A Beka Book is an "unashamedly Christian" company affiliated with the Pensacola Christian Academy. This principal and teacher are playing dumb: they knew. The company isn't shy at all about flaunting their sectarian, Christian ideals. The excuse that "Oh, gosh, I didn't know I was not supposed to proselytize my faith in the school's science curriculum" should rank right up there with "Oooh, officer, I'm Australian, I didn't know that a red light means stop." If you've been trained in science education and are qualified to teach science, you should know that "God did it" is not a scientific explanation, even if you personally believe it, and even if you are from Australia (no offense intended, John…who even has an article up right now on Cause and Explanation).

Some people get it.

"Ashlee's a fifth-grader, and she realized this was wrong," Sasser said. "This is light years beyond an invocation at a graduation or a moment of silence at a football game. When you're proselytizing fifth-graders, it's way over the top."

I have an elegant solution to the problem. Fire the pig-ignorant creationist teacher, and hire Ashlee to take over. She's sure to do a much better job.

And while they're at it, they should fire the incompetent principal, too.