It's looking more and more like the story is nonsense. According to the actual complaint filed, the principal did not ban the Declaration of Independence, but told him he could not hand out a list of excerpts and quotations that included one excerpt from the Declaration. Apparently what the teacher did was find as many excerpts as he could that referred to God and handed them out to his students, the type of absurd list put together by Christian Nation apologists like David Barton. Seeing the Forest has been following this story and has links to all the others who have been following it as well. Also see the information from Liz Ditz and Majikthise.
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William Ford has Levitt's reply to Lott. I think this part sums it up:
Every time I read David Foster Wallace, I think, that's just classic David Foster Wallace. Which is to say it's completely unexpected, novel, different from the way almost anyone else thinks, including David Foster Wallace the last time I read him.
Thanks to Wired for excerpting my post on what DNA has to say about one-man-one-woman marriage.
I like rock music, but my father-in-law doesn't. My son Jim likes horror movies, but his mom doesn't. While some of our preferences can be explained easily—for example, we usually don't like things that cause us pain—others are more difficult to understand.
This isn't surprising. I have found it not unusual that, when all the facts come out regarding a case like this, there is usually far less than was originally reported. Largely because the original report was probably based on kvetching by someone who has an ax to grind--in this case the teacher--who got hold of a sympathetic--or maybe just lazy--reporter. If it weren't for the teacher's kvetching, the story would never have seen the light of day.