Report: Ohio science teacher burned cross on kids' arms

[tpsbmam]

An outside investigation has found that an Ohio public school teacher taught creationism in his science class and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.

One family filed a federal lawsuit against Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater and the school district last week, saying their child was left with a burn mark for three or four weeks.



The report confirms that Freshwater burned crosses onto students’ arms, using an electrostatic device, in December. Freshwater told investigators the marks were Xs, not crosses. But all of the students interviewed in the investigation reported being branded with crosses. The investigation report includes a photo of one student’s arm with a long vertical line and a short horizontal line running through it.

The family of one student who was burned filed a federal lawsuit last week against Freshwater and the district, saying the student’s civil rights were violated. Today, the family’s attorney, Jessica Philemond, said it was unfortunate that the school district didn’t do anything sooner to stop Freshwater. “These concerns had been going on for at least 11 years and the school had not done anything,” she said.

A teacher who worked in Freshwater’s classroom last year also reported to investigators that Freshwater told his class that homosexuality is a sin.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Report_Ohio_teacher_burned_cross_on_0620.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. these jerks have infested and infected the whole skul system.

[woodsprite]

2. Change that to "all of society". n/t

[Fovea]

3. Time to stop all this bullshit

and become a secular nation again.

[psychmommy]

4. i wish my kid would come home with a cross burned into her arm

i would have signed a criminal complaint on his behind. i would have requested the other parents do the same. that is some bull crap. he could have burned a circle i don't give a crap. i am a christian but, that doesn't mean the teacher can teach my baby his religious views. i'd be at every school board meeting complaining. i can be a pain in the behind parent if you ruffle my feathers. i come from a family of educators-dude is an insult to his profession. he probably has tenure and they can't get rid of him so easily. nutball.

[mrs_p]

5. unbelievable

:wow:

[The Blue Flower]

6. How is this not assault and battery

or child abuse?

[tomreedtoon]

7. It's called American Public School Education. Get used to it.

You should not be surprised that these officially-authorized dominators get away with branding, beating or psychological abuse in classrooms. That's their job.

[adnelson60087]

9. Hey, don't lump us all in there. Most (at least 51%) of teachers are

great people, though we often don't do enough to get rid of bad teachers.

[tomreedtoon]

10. Your decimal is two places off. That's .51 percent.

Seriously, do you really believe that half of all teachers give a damn about students or education? If you act that way, you're the one in 200 that the corrected percentage shows. I'm surprised they haven't sent you to a re-education camp yet.

[adnelson60087]

8. As a science teacher, I am appalled but not too surprised

to see something like this manifest. The truth is, there are a LOT more of these kind of teachers out there in the science classrooms than most want to admit. They undermine modern science just by being there and frankly, I think this is one reason Americans are woefully misinformed about basic scientific principles.