[Found on the Open Board Blog.]

Out in Washington state, a school board has decided that schools cannot show Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth without showing a movie without showing a movie with an alternative viewpoint.

Al Gore’s movie on global warming is too hot for students to see without an opposing viewpoint, the Federal Way School Board has decided.

It’s so hot that the board required Superintendent Tom Murphy to approve when the former vice president’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” can be presented. And teachers can show it only when it’s balanced with the other side of the issue.

Board President Ed Barney said Wednesday that he’s received about half a 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,” added board member Dave Larson.

The board voted 3-0 Tuesday night, with two members absent.

None of the three – Barney, Larson and Charlie Hoff – has seen the film.

“I know it’s a controversial movie, even though I haven’t seen it,” Larson said.

He stressed that Federal Way schools must follow the district’s established policy requiring that an opposing view be aired whenever a controversial issue is examined in school.

The debate over the film is just the latest example of the conservative School Board making potentially unpopular decisions. In June, it considered banning students from wearing flip-flops but backed off after an outcry.

At SLA, we’re planning a screening of AIT in April, and we’ll use it as part of a larger conversation both about global warming, but also about the politics of science. My guess is that we’ll use this article as part of the supplementary documents as well.