Battleground: One Mother's Crusade, the Religious Right, and the Struggle for Control of Our Classrooms

In fundamentalist Hawkins County, Tennessee, the ``Scopes II'' textbook trial made national headlines as conservative parents, spearheaded by alarmed mother Vicki Frost, fought to ban reading materials which they deemed anti-Christian or harmful to their children. In this investigative report based on interviews with participants and on court records, Bates ( If No News, Send Rumors ) delivers a centrist analysis of the case which will irk liberals and supply ammunition across the political spectrum. ``Scopes II'' (named after the famous 1925 ``monkey trial'' over the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution) climaxed in 1986 with a decision that parents could opt out of a public school reading program by teaching their children at home. But an appeals court reversed the ruling. Critical of the reversal, Bates suggests that schools, as part of a pluralistic society, should in certain situations accommodate parents' religious objections to the curriculum. Faulting Concerned Women for America, a fundamentalist pressure group that supported the parents, and its arch-rival, People for the American Way, Bates finds both outfits divisive and inflexible. Photos. (Sept.)