In Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Mt. Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater is battling school officials who last week told him to remove the Ten Commandments from the door to his classroom and remove the Bible on his desk from the view of students. Yesterday's Columbus Dispatch reports that Freshwater, who is known for teaching his students about intelligent design, complied with the directive to remove the Ten Commandments, but refused to move his Bible. Instead he issued a defiant press release. Yesterday, nearly 100 people gathered on Public Square in Mt. Vernon in a show of support for Freshwater. (Mount Vernon News). The school district has merely said that it is required "under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to protect against the establishment of religion in the schools."
UPDATE: An article in Wednesday's Mount Vernon News gives some context to the dispute with Freshwater. The Mt. Vernon Board of Education this week turned down a proposed policy that called for inclusion in science classes of information critical of evolutionary theories. The proposal by school board member Dr. Margie Bennett revived an "objective origins science policy" that was turned down at a previous meeting and that had been proposed by none other than teacher John Freshwater.
