Just to briefly update a story from two weeks ago, I wanted to mention that the superintendent of California’s public schools has ordered an investigation into a widely-used anti-drug program with ties to the Church of Scientology.
The popular program, called Narconon Drug Prevention and Education, has been used by schools nationwide for the past two decades. Hollywood-based Narconon has provided instruction in at least 20 school districts in California, including San Francisco and Los Angeles. Many teachers and students have praised the program.
But leading drug addiction experts say some of Narconon’s medical theories are irresponsible and have no basis in fact. For example, the program teaches that drugs accumulate in body fat and can cause drug cravings and flashbacks for years; that saunas can sweat drugs out of the body; and that colored ooze is released when drugs leave the body.
Superintendent Jack O’Connell said he learned about the anti-drug program when the San Francisco Chronicle published articles in early June that detailed links between Narconon’s instruction and the Church of Scientology’s religious teachings.
O’Connell said June 16 that the state’s investigation could lead to an order barring Narconon from providing instruction in California schools.
This sounds like the obvious and correct thing to do. Public schools should be secular; using one religion’s materials for lesson plans seems like an obvious church-state problem.
But there’s still another angle to this I find interesting.
As I mentioned two weeks ago, the religious right is supposed to abhor the nation’s secular public school system. To hear the movement’s leaders (Robertson, Falwell, Dobson, et al) tell it, what we need is more religion in the public schools, not less.
So, with this in mind, I was anxious to see if any single religious right figure or group came out in support of using the Scientological program in California.
I’ve been looking and, so far, not a peep.
It proves, once again, when these guys talk about more religion in the public schools, they’re talking about their religion and no one else’s. We all knew that before, of course, but it’s always nice to have new examples.