by MARTHA RAFFAELE, Associated Press Writer 

                     HARRISBURG, Pa. - A school district that required science teachers to
                     read a statement about alternatives to the theory of evolution decided Friday
                     that teachers can choose not to read it, but their classes will still hear it. 

                      Under the Dover Area School District's temporary exemption, administrators
                      will read the statement when science teachers object to doing so. Students
                     can be excused from having to listen if their parents object, according to a
                     letter posted on the school district's Web site. 

                     The district is believed to be the only one in the nation that required science
                     teachers to mention "intelligent design" — a concept that holds the universe
                     is so complex it must have been created by some higher power. 

                     The curriculum language originally approved by the school board in October
                     said biology students must be "made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin's
                     theory and other theories of evolution, including but not limited to intelligent
                     design." 

                     In November, however, the board said teachers would read a statement on
                     intelligent design. Seven teachers had protested the required reading, saying it
                     would violate the state's professional code for teachers. 

                     Tom Scott, an attorney representing the Pennsylvania State Education
                     Association, said the teachers' union was satisfied with the decision. He said
                     teachers had objected because intelligent design "is not science." 

                     "Unfortunately, the school board and the superintendent can put anything
                     they want to in front of the students, but we are not going to be their
                     messenger," Scott said. 

                     School officials declined to comment, citing a pending federal lawsuit filed by
                     eight families over the science curriculum. 

                     "The Dover faculty have no right to opt out of a legal directive," said Richard
                     Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center in
                     Ann Arbor, Mich., which is defending the school district. "Having said that,
                     because there is pending litigation ... we are going to accommodate their
                     request." 

                     Only one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Tammy Kitzmiller, is the parent of a
                     ninth-grade student who would be affected by the policy. Kitzmiller did not
                     return a call seeking comment Friday, but in a deposition for the lawsuit, she
                     said she didn't want her daughter to have to leave class. 

                     "She shouldn't need to be singled out of the classroom," Kitzmiller said. 

                     Civil-liberties groups allege intelligent design is merely a secular variation of
                     creationism, the biblical-based view that regards God as the creator of life.
                     They maintain the Dover district's curriculum mandate violates the
                     constitutional separation of church and state.

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