Teacher Accused of Telling Class 'God Is a Myth'

A middle school teacher in Houston is being accused of telling her class that God doesn't exist.
    
Seventh graders at West Memorial Junior High School were given a critical thinking worksheet and told to indicate if something was fact, opinion or common assertion.  One of the statements on the assignment read, "There is a God."
    
Twelve-year-old Jordan Wooley is a Methodist and felt that the assignment questioned her religious beliefs. 

Watch Wooley testify before the Board of Education about being graded on her belief in God.

Jordan said the teacher told students that God is a myth and questioned His existence and that anyone who disagreed with her would get into trouble.

"She told us it was wrong and a myth of our imagination that is commonly believed to be true but completely is wrong," Jordan said.

Chantel Wooley, Jordan's mother, says the teacher went too far.

 "I think that the teacher crossed a serious line when she led impressionable minds to write there was no God...that God wasn't real," she said.  "I think that infringes on my child's rights."

Katy Independent School District Superintendent Alton L. Frailey said, "District officials interviewed several students besides Jordan Wooley but could not confirm her claims that the teacher was trying to force students to deny the existence of God."

"However, the assertion that the teacher deliberately tried to force her to deny her God or threatened her God, that was not corroborated," he added.

The district said in a statement that the assignment was intended to encourage critical thinking skills, not question any student's religious beliefs.

The district also said that the teacher did not use the word "myth" to describe God and that the instructor "welcomed all students' views."

The teacher's name has not been released. The district said "appropriate personnel action will be taken" but did not elaborate.

Students were not graded on the assignment.