DCMP on 
Dana Porter on 
I posted about this topic in October of 2008 when I pointed out that John Freshwater, a Mt. Vernon teacher who was fired for burning crosses into students arms and teaching Christianity in the classroom, was not an honest person regarding the incident. His trial resumed today and already the apologists are out.
The decision to fire him is extreme, his defenders say. Other Mount Vernon teachers have Bibles on their desks, they say. And other science teachers have used the instrument on their students to explain electricity.
Then they should be fired too.
For his part, Freshwater denies that he ever hurt students. As I pointed out in my previous post, he obviously burned the students arms with a cross using an instrument The Columbus Dispatch reports is:
…an electrical instrument that comes with a manufacturer’s warning that it should never touch human skin.
How are you not hurting students when you are a science teacher using an instrument in an unsafe manner?
Amazingly, Freshwater’s lawyer, R. Kelly Hamilton, tried to say religious texts are not … well … religious.
“Could they simply be statements of virtue?” he asked Short. After a long pause, [Superintendent Stephen] Short replied, “It depends upon the reader.”
As the audience squirmed, and [David] Millstone, the school district’s attorney, smiled and rolled his eyes, Hamilton continued: “Could a person adhere to a virtuous statement that comes from a religious source and not be a follower of that particular religion?”
Again, Short paused, before replying: “I suppose that a person could.”
Richard B. Hoppe, a visiting biology professor at Kenyon College and a supporter of church and state separation, calls Hamilton’s tactics “desperation.”
Is Freshwater’s lawyer trying to say his client is not a Christian?
Freshwater and Hamilton have declined to discuss Freshwater’s legal costs.
But we know how much it has cost the citizens of Mt. Vernon.
The district already has paid $200,000 to Squire, Sanders & Dempsey for labor, employment and school-law attorney David Millstone. A court reporter and security guards have accrued more than $7,000 in expenses. Fees for the referee, attorney R. Lee Shepherd, have not been determined.
He has lied about whether the burns were crosses, he has tried to say he did not hurt students, his lawyer has tried to say his bible, speech, and materials were not religious. In addition, he violated the separation between church and state and used an instrument dangerously on students to burn a religious symbol into their arm. This after being warned to stop his religious proselytizing.
I understand the deep religious feelings of those who defend Freshwater. But how would they feel if their taxpayer dollars were used by a teacher that had a Koran on his desk and called Christianity a false religion? How would they feel if a public school teacher burned a non-Christian religious symbol into their child’s arm? There is a reason we have separation of church and state, it assures educational and religious freedom for all of our citizens.
Quotes from The Columbus Dispatch in an article here.
[...] I’ve been following the John Freshwater case for a while now. Freshwater is the former Mt. Vernon teacher who taught creationism in class and burned crosses into students arms. For some reason, not much has happened for a while. But testimony resumed today. For background on the case you can read my posts here and here. [...]