Although pro-evolution scientists had provided copious documentation to the board, they physically boycotted the public hearings under the banner of
Kansas Citizens for Science (KCS).
Kansas Citizens for Science called the standards an effort to promote "a sectarian religious view." The group's president said the state board was "treading on constitutional grounds."
"To teach that this is a valid scientific controversy would be misleading students." says Jack Krebs, a teacher and vice president of
Kansas Citizens for Science.
This served the purposes of
Kansas Citizens for Science, whose strategy, spokeswoman Liz Craig said, was to persuade media to portray intelligent design supporters "in the harshest light possible" if the board includes intelligent design in the curriculum.
Spearheading a pro-evolution coalition that included organizations such as Americans United for Separation of Church, the American Geophysical Union, Freedom to Read Foundation, and
Kansas Citizens for Science, students launched a petition urging state education authorities to uphold the teaching of evolution and other threatened sciences.
"It's clear from the beginning that this is not a real science discussion," Jack Krebs of
Kansas Citizens for Science, told The Washington Post.
Members of
Kansas Citizens for Science, a group formed to oppose the new standards, uncovered evidence that the anti-evolution policy was authored by Tom Willis, president of the Creation Science Association of Mid-America, a fundamentalist religious group.