This page summarizes the early involvement of the Willis CDC group in writing the standards, as explained by creationists Paul Ackerman and Bob Williams in their recent book "Kansas Tornado." Paul Ackerman told more of this story at the Case for Creationism seminar in Lawrence in November. All quotes are from "Kansas Tornado," and are in red.
"Kansas Tornado" was published by the Institute for Creation Research, who encouraged Ackerman to proceed after being sent a draft of the first few chapters. John Morris and Mike Riddle of the Institute for Creation Research joined Paul Ackerman in presenting the Case for Creationism seminar held at Victory Baptist Church in Lawrence in November.
1) December, 1998, Celtie Johnson "received a call from someone associated with the Kansas Department of Education", was told that the proposed standards were "especially dogmatic on evolution", and was advised that this was the time for Celtie and "others of like mind" to challenge the teaching of evolution as fact. Celtie started calling people, and that's how Ackerman and Williams got involved.
2) After the February 9 Board meeting, a number of opponents of the standards met face-to-face for the first time. After some discussion, the group agreed to sketch out a draft of an alternative document., and to see if any member of the board would be willing to present an alternative. "Dr. Steve Abrams indicated willingness to consider an alternative proposal and, if it met his standards, present it to the Board."
3) In March, "Celtie Johnson called us and several others who had writing skills and appropriate background to a meeting at the home of Tom Willis, ... a leader in the creationist community." The Citizens Writing Committee, as they called themselves, wrote their own version of the standards. Eventually they "submitted their draft to Dr. Abrams, and got his approval. True to his promise, Dr. Abrams submitted the counter proposal to the Board at the May meeting."
5) At the May Board meeting, there was an impasse. "The majority of the Board was favorable to the Abrams document, but troubled by its 'out of channel pedigree'." Later, "determined to arrive at a solution, the Board subcommittee of Abrams, Hill, and Voth decided to set aside the Abrams document and make their own changes to the 5th draft." This version was passed 6-4 on August 11
Note: this last statement, that the Board team "decided to set aside the Abrams document and make their own changes to the 5th draft." is not true. As is shown elsewhere on this site, the Board team used Willis CDC draft A8 extensively in revising the 5th draft.