Source: The Mercury News
On December 8, 2004 The Mercury News reported, "attracting all the attention is a public school teacher's lessons on colonial history -- religion-laced looks at documents written by some of the Founding Fathers. When the school told him to stop, he sued, re- igniting the age-old debate over how much talk of God can take place in a public school classroom. Thousands of e-mails and phone calls have inundated the Cupertino Union School District, which fifth-grade teacher Stephen J. Williams contends violated his constitutional rights by barring him from using handouts he prepared for history lessons. What followed were nearly a dozen guest spots on national conservative talk shows, and an avalanche of e-mails and phone calls to the district, Cupertino City Hall and even the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department from angry conservative Christians across the United States. They -- and Williams -- feel the 38-year-old is being singled out because he's an evangelical Christian."