Over the past month, Darwinists have been waging a vicious campaign of defamation against Ohio State University science education doctoral candidate Bryan Leonard. (For more information about Leonard’s situation, see here.) Mr. Leonard’s doctoral dissertation defense has been put in limbo after certain Darwinist professors alleged that his research was “unethical” because it involved teaching students about scientific criticisms of Darwin’s theory, an approach called for in Ohio’s official science standards!

Darwinists have variously claimed that members of Leonard’s doctoral committee were improperly selected, that Leonard engaged in “unethical” research, or that he taught his students intelligent design. According to members of Leonard’s dissertation committee, however, all of these charges are false. Two members of the committee have just issued a detailed public statement correcting the record about Leonard’s dissertation. Discovery Institute has posted the statement on its website as a public service, here.

It seems clear that Leonard, a public high school biology teacher as well as a grad student, has been targeted by Darwinists for pay-back because of his views on how to teach evolution. Last year, the Ohio Board of Education adopted for use in Ohio schools a lesson plan on the “Critical Analysis of Evolution” that Leonard helped draft. Darwinists were outraged by the adoption of this lesson plan, and now they are apparently trying to destroy the educational career of the person who wrote it.

It remains to be seen whether officals at OSU will defend Leonard’s academic freedom.