Updated 2:53:55 AM Tuesday, October 12, 1999

 The Kansas State Board of Education today plans to debate how to change science testing standards to settle three copyright infringement claims.

By Tim Carpenter

Journal-World Writer

DeSoto -- An iguana and a gorilla showed up at the Kansas State Board of Education meeting Monday. So did Hare Krishnas bearing gift cookies and rare praise for the board members who for several weeks have been the target of national ridicule.

State school board meetings once were dull compared to what they've become since members voted in August to adopt new testing standards for Kansas public school students. The new science standards downplay evolution, including the macroevolutionary theory that humans and apes have a common ancestor.

The still brewing controversy over the evolution vote lent Monday's gathering elements reminiscent of the circus or Los Angeles International airport. Monday was day one of a two-day meeting temporarily moved to Desoto, away from the board's normal Topeka meeting chamber.

Today, the board is to consider claims it improperly used copyrighted materials from three organizations to craft the controversial new science standards.

Ready to greet the 10 board members when they arrived Monday at DeSoto High School was David Raffel, wearing a full-length gorilla outfit to draw attention to his protest signs.

One read: "Welcome to the Planet of the Apes -- Kansas Board of Education."

Raffel said his new organization, Save Our Schools, would work to remove the six board members who voted to downplay evolution. Chairwoman Linda Holloway of Shawnee is a specific target.

"We'll be active in getting her unseated," Raffel said.

Holloway declined to accept the Ig Nobel Prize for science education, brought from Boston to DeSoto by Doug Ruden, an assistant professor of molecular biosciences at Kansas University.

Ruden said the Ig Nobel, given annually for "work that cannot and should not be repeated," went to the board because its members inadvertently sparked fresh enthusiasm for the study of evolution.

"I have taught over 1,000 students evolution at KU over the past five years, and I can tell you for a fact that the level of interest in evolution surged after you removed macro-evolution from the science standards," he said. "Thank you for coming up with this brilliant method to improve science education in Kansas."

Though Holloway wouldn't accept the Ig Nobel from Ruden, an award shaped like a tropical American iguana, she did take from Hare Krishnas a mushy, round cookie that the Hares said was guaranteed to "expand your consciousness."

Hare Krishna Danavir Swami, president of Rupa Nuga Vedic College in Kansas City, Mo., said most board members acted courageously to rewrite science standards so that local school districts could cease evolution instruction should they choose. 

"People of many faiths support what the board has done," Swami said.

He presented each member a copy of "The Hidden History of the Human Race." Swami said the book offered compelling scientific arguments against evolution.

"It is certainly true ... that man was created by God and did not evolve from an ape," he said.

-- Tim Carpenter's phone message number is 832-7155. His e-mail address is tcarpenter@ljworld.com.