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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 05:24 AM
Original message
Ohio Town Split Over Middle School Teacher's Acts
Ohio Town Split Over Middle School Teacher's Acts

By MATT REED, Associated Press Writer
47 minutes ago


In this undated file photo released by Mount Vernon, Ohio,
City Schools as a part of independent investigation report,
a Mount Vernon student with a branded cross on his arm is
shown.

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio - This small city in central Ohio is dotted with churches of just about every denomination. "You can't drive two blocks here without running into a church," said Sam Barone, the executive director of the nonprofit Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County. "There may be communities elsewhere in the country that may be considered areligious, but this isn't one of them." That hallmark is helping fueling the debate over the fate of a science teacher accused of preaching Christianity in the classroom and burning the image of a cross on students' arms.

John Freshwater, who is battling to save his job at Mount Vernon Middle School, is seen either a courageous fighter for religious freedom or a public employee who brazenly violated the church-state divide. "This is going to be a mess," said Dr. Allan Bazzoli, who has written letters to the local newspaper criticizing Freshwater. "Resident against resident, and worse, student against student." Freshwater, 52, was fired last month after an outside consulting firm released a report concluding that he taught creationism and was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom. He also faces a federal lawsuit filed by the family of a student who says Freshwater burned a cross on the child's arm with an electrostatic device and that the burn mark remained for three or four weeks.

Since then, Freshwater's supporters have rallied on the town's public square urging school board members to resign. A much-viewed sign planted along a roadside about a mile from town reads: "If the Bible goes, the school board should follow." "The Bible, that should be OK to have," said James Mills, 25, a former student of Freshwater. "Isn't it in the Constitution that we have freedom of religion?" Freshwater, who has filed an appeal with the school board over his firing, said Monday he's disappointed with the way the investigation was conducted. His appeals hearing is scheduled for Aug. 26. "They used half-truths. They didn't interview people who had been in my classroom," he said. "Science teachers at the high school: Why would you interview them?"

Freshwater likely will be suspended without pay during the appeals process, which could extend into the fall, said David Millstone, the school board's attorney. Messages seeking comment were left with middle school Principal William White and other school administrators. Freshwater has served as a science teacher and wrestling and football coach in Mount Vernon City Schools since 1987. In their report, investigators noted that some students described him as a great guy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_re_us/teacher_bible">MORE


- I know the best way to resolve this. He can just ask god for a sign saying that he was right and that he can go back to work. Nothing spectacular, you know. Just a little sign.

I know! One morning when the whole town wakes up they'll find permanently burned crosses on all the foreheads of his supporters. And maybe just a little bit of that stigmata stuff...

========================================================================
DeSwiss

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alphafemale Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 05:29 AM
Response to Original message
1. My question is - why isn't he charged with felonious assault on a minor?
Edited on Tue Jul-08-08 05:30 AM by alphafemale
Just askin'
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 05:56 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. Good question....
...probably because there was no "sex" involved.

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knitter4democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 04:53 PM
Response to Reply #1
21. That's been my question all along, too.
Obvious violence.
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ravencalling Donating Member (247 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 05:38 AM
Response to Original message
2. If that man had burned my child..
I would be charging the teacher with assault or worse, simple. So the parents have not done so?
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 05:58 AM
Response to Reply #2
5. I'm pretty sure....
...that the reason they haven't, is because they don't want to appear to be "against" Jesus.

- That's my take anyways.....
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no_hypocrisy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 05:52 AM
Response to Original message
3. Three issues: criminal assault, child endangerment, and church & state.
The public school system is supposed to exist in loco parentis, to stand in place of parents. The child's safety is paramount and nondelegable.

I can't see how anyone, whether within the school system or the community can defend this action. A child was injured within the school where this child was mandated by law to be. There is no legal or moral justification for this act. It can't be explained or condoned. It is that simple. Even if theoretically this child's parents had agreed to this aforehand, it is illegal. It can't be done.

I'm uncertain which bothers me more: the child being injured or the apologists for this act.
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 06:00 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. But, but, but.....
...he's such a GREAT GUY!!!! :sarcasm:

- Just like the pedo priests were all thought to be at one time....
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ayeshahaqqiqa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 06:37 AM
Response to Original message
7. What his supporters don't understand
is that having a Bible in a classroom is endorsing one religion over the other in a government run institution, which is a direct violation of the First Amendment.
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 07:09 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. Probably, but....
...I think some do understand that.

- And they think its okay.
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TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 07:27 AM
Response to Reply #7
9. ..
Do you think any of them have actually READ the constitution? I don't. They think the Bible is more important and the Constitution is just "a piece of paper".
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Sadie4629 Donating Member (919 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 08:17 AM
Response to Reply #7
11. Does it matter where the Bible was?
If it was concealed in his desk is that OK? Should a teacher be able to have his/her own personal property in a classroom, if it is not on display? Or, because the desk is school property, is that off-limits, too? Maybe he accidentally left it on top of the desk after his lunch break. Or, maybe a student happened to see him reading it during lunch. Is what a teacher does on his own time subject to the whole church/state issue?

Since the article doesn't specify whether or not the Bible was on display, I think it's impossible to make any judgments. (At least about that aspect of the situation.)
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Jim__ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 08:35 AM
Response to Reply #11
13. The Bible was on display, on his desk.
The American Civil Liberties Union doesn’t agree. As a public school employee, the fundamental rights of freedom of speech and religion don’t necessarily convert inside the classroom. The ACLU of Ohio supports the Mount Vernon Board of Education’s request that Freshwater keep his Bible out of sight when children are in the classroom.

“This really should have an easy resolution,” said Christine Link, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. “The courts have recognized that our teachers have a special position and they can’t use their post to promote .”

Link said that as a citizen, the ACLU would defend a teacher’s right to his or her beliefs outside of the classroom. However, inside the school it becomes a different scenario altogether.

...

“If it’s in a desk, locker or in the teacher’s lounge, it would be fine,” Link said. “It is not permissible at work. You have to pay the piper when you are at work and follow the rules of your employer. public employee, has less rights to proselytize their religion.”

more...
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knitter4democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 05:01 PM
Response to Reply #7
23. Actually, there was a case on that.
I remember studying it in our Curriculum (aka catch-all) education class. Teachers are allowed to have a personal Bible (or whatever) on their desk. They are not allowed to decorate their room with religious items (as he had earlier until he finally agreed to remove them after many warnings), though. Teachers do not check their Constitutional rights at the door the same way students do.
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SheilaT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 08:05 AM
Response to Original message
10. "Churches of every denomination".
I bet every one is a Protestant church. Probably not a single Catholic Church in the bunch, let alone a synagogue or mosque.

Every so often I point out to Protestant friends that "nondenominational" prayer is still overtly Christian and invariably Protestant. But they just don't get it, simply because one or two cues specific to their denomination get left out. And those who are evangelical or fundamentalist Christians are even worse in their idea of what is inclusive, or what is truly "Christian".

And burning anything on a child's arm has no place in a public school.
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 08:36 AM
Response to Reply #10
14. I believe it said....
..."just about every denomination."

- Bet there aren't any Pastafarians there either.
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SheilaT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 10:06 AM
Response to Reply #14
17. Exactly my point.
Too many people think that five or six or even eight different Protestant denominations represents religious diversity. I maintain that it doesn't, not even within Christianity, let alone monotheism. Not to mention non-monotheistic religions.
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mainegreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 08:25 AM
Response to Original message
12. He branded a student like cattle. He should be in jail.
He should be barred from ever working with minors in any capacity ever again.
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 08:43 AM
Response to Reply #12
15. I think the "branding" is.....
...to show that one has been taught Intelligent Design.

- And upper classmen get to learn how to raise the dead.....
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Jokerman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 09:54 AM
Response to Original message
16. "Split" on the subject of child abuse???
Apparently all you have to do is claim that you did it for god and some people will jump at the chance to defend your actions, no matter how heinous.

Sad.
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DeSwiss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 10:34 AM
Response to Reply #16
18. That is exactly the case....
...now, if you live in Texas:

Exorcism protected by 1st Amendment, Texas high court rules

Star-Telegram
By MAX B. BAKER
Posted on Fri, Jun. 27, 2008


The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colleyville church Friday saying that church members involved in a traumatic exorcism that ultimately injured a young woman is protected by the First Amendment. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God’s efforts to cast out demons from the Laura Schubert presents an ecclesiastical dispute over religious conduct that would unconstitutionally entangle the court in church doctrine.

In a 1996 lawsuit against the church, Schubert described a wild night involving the casting out of demons from the church and two separate attempts to exorcise demons from her. The 2002 trial of the suit never touched on the religious aspects of the case, and a Tarrant County jury found the church and its members liable for abusing and falsely imprisoning Schubert, who was 17 at the time. The jury awarded Schubert $300,000 for mental anguish, but the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth shaved $122,000 from the verdict for loss of future income.

But the church raised the question of whether the Fort Worth appeals court erred when it said Pleasant Glades’ First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion do not prevent the church from being held liable for mental distress triggered by a "hyper-spiritualistic environment."

A majority of the court agreed, with Justice David Medina writing that while Schubert’s secular injury claims might "theoretically be tried without mentioning religion, the imposition of tort liability for engaging in religious activity to which the church members adhere would have an unconstitutional 'chilling effect’ by compelling the church to abandon core principles of its religious beliefs."

http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/728135.html">MORE


- Apparently its not "abuse" when its god's will......
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Marrah_G Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 12:17 PM
Response to Original message
19. I would not stop until that teacher was in jail for child abuse.
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Malikshah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 01:43 PM
Response to Original message
20. Looks like this part of the "Heartland" needs a triple bypass
or an angioplasty to clean out the batshit crazy plaque....

BTW-- where does the Midwest get off calling themselves the "Heartland"? (Sorry, totally different can of worms...)
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knitter4democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-08-08 04:59 PM
Response to Original message
22. Unfortunately, I met the guy. I had no idea, and my students never said anything.
It was my second field experience when I was at Mount Vernon Nazarene college in the spring of my frosh year. I was paired up with an 8th grade English teacher, and from the guy's pic, I remember seeing him in the teacher's lounge from time to time. I remember my cooperating teacher didn't like him, so I stayed away. My students never said anything at all, though, and I wonder if this crazy behavior is more recent--if he's "been saved" lately or has changed to a more radical church or is ill.

I also cannot understand for the life of me how the hell he hasn't been arrested. I keep meaning to e-mail my secondary ed prof and get his side of the story as well as one of my friends who has kids in that school right now. They'd know, but I keep forgetting. I should look them up.

When I was there, it was an odd middle school. Too many kids for the building, so the class sizes were quite large. Many more urban issues than you'd expect from just driving around town. Not enough resources. That was the field where a kid threw his desk at me and where, on another day, one of the students passed out right in front of my cooperating teacher without her even noticing (I will never understand how she got a perfect score on her annual review that year--still boggles my mind). Oh, and there was that one boy with the most wicked impersonation of HW that made me laugh and laugh every time he did it. I did help with their Power of the Pen team a couple of years after that and enjoyed every minute (great group of kids, lots of fun).
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