Zach Kopplin is not your average teenage kid. At 17, Kopplin is leading the fight to stop the teaching of creationism in Louisiana public schools. As the Daily Kos reported, Kopplin testified in front of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE)'s Textbook Advisory Council, telling them: "Please stand tall and endorse life science textbooks that teach real science rather than undermine it."
Kopplin appeared on HuffPost Live and explained to host Alyona Minkovski how he got involved in this campaign:
"When I was 14 Louisiana passed creationism laws and I couldn't believe it at the time. It was 2008 and the Scopes Trial was nearly a 100 years ago. By the time I got to 16, I realized that nobody was standing up to this law, and someone had to do it."
When asked how his friends have reacted to his science activism, Kopplin responded:
"Luckily, most of my friends supported what I was doing. I went to a school that taught good science. If I had gone to school in other parts of the state where they taught creationism, maybe my friends wouldn't have been so supportive."
Kopplin found the courage to testify and campaign because he "believes in it 100 percent."
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