On Friday, a federal lawsuit was filed against controversial Mt. Vernon, Ohio middle school science teacher John Freshwater. District superintendent Steve Short and middle school Principal William White were also named as defendants in the suit claiming that Freshwater taught religion in his classroom and that school officials failed to discipline him for doing so. According to NBC4i News, the lawsuit alleges that Freshwater displayed the Ten Commandments, religious posters and Bible passages in his classroom, taught intelligent design, and told students that their textbooks contradicted the Bible. The complaint alleges that as advisor to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Freshwater participated in meetings and distributed Bibles. It also claims he burned a cross into the arms of two eighth-grade students in 2007. In April, Freshwater's refusal to remove a Bible from his desk in his classroom after being instructed to do so by school officials became the subject of wide media coverage. At that time Freshwater did comply with officials' request to remove the 10 Commandments from his classroom door. (See prior posting.)
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
Posts
4 comments:
He *burned* two students and he's still employed by the district? The heck with suing - why hasn't he been arrested?
It's simply frightening to imagine how many people there are like this in the public school system. I have rarely met a teacher with even an inkling of what the law is, but they act almost universally act seem to think they're perfectly justified in whatever whim suits their fancy. Either that, or they're terrified of shadows -- nothing in between.
I smell a rotten fish in this news article. Burned students? Really? You can't even spank a kid without a lawsuit.
Gimme a break.
The report on the independant investigation of Freshwater is available here. It's not particularly damaging with respect to the lawsuit for the burns, but he clearly refuses to accept the boundaries between his faith and his job. I'd be amazed if he's still a public school science teacher next week, and more amazed if he isn't suing the school in two weeks.
Post a Comment