“A seventh-grade social studies teacher in Presque Isle who said he was barred from teaching about non-Christian civilizations has sued his school district, claiming it violated his First Amendment right of free expression.

Gary Cole of Washburn, a teacher at Skyway Middle School, sued School Administrative District 1 in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Cole alleged that complaints by ‘a small group of fundamentalist Christian individuals’ led to the creation of a curriculum ‘which never mentions religions other than Christianity and never teaches the history of civilizations other than Christian civilizations.’

‘He can’t even teach the history of anti-Semitism (or the) history of ancient Greece,’ said Cole’s lawyer, A.J. Greif of Bangor.” —Portland (ME) Press Herald This was the news item about which Rafe Coburn said, “The Taliban aren’t nearly as alien as most people would like to believe.”