This is unbelievable. I go away for a few hours to attend a conference and this kind of crap happens:
The school board of a small central Ohio community voted Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and burning the image of a cross on students' arms, according to the Associated Press. ....Freshwater also displayed the Ten Commandments in his classroom and taught creationism, according to an independent investigation launched after the parents of the student who was allegedly branded filed a lawsuit.
The suit alleges that he regularly discussed Christianity in his science class, even "teaching the meaning of Easter and Good Friday," and kept at least one and sometimes several Bibles in the room.
The Evolution 2008 Conference has kicked off today, with numerous pre-conference events related to K-12 education. I got to meet some blog readers from Michigan and around Minneapolis, and the usual cast of characters from MNCSE and several invited guests put on a great program. Stay tuned, you'll be hearing ALL about it.....
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The suit alleges that he regularly discussed Christianity in his science class, even "teaching the meaning of Easter and Good Friday,"
Which meaning? The one where it's a Spring fertility festival, and everyone should get drunk, paint themselves blue and screw their brains out in a big writhing heap of bodies?
Yeah, I'd say grade 8 is probably too young for that. Fire the pervert.
Posted by: Eamon Knight | June 20, 2008 9:45 PM
He was fired by the schoolboard instead of being hauled to the nearest jail for mutilating children.
Kinda figures. I guess we should be impressed he was fired, or something.
And of course if you read the comments section on the ABC website, there's the expected bunch of people shrieking he was persecuted for his beliefs...instead of being "persecuted" for burning kids.
He can easily redeem himself if he gets together a huge press conference and screams "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our weapon is..."
Posted by: JThompson | June 21, 2008 12:31 AM
I hope the parents of the burned kids get together and sue his fanatical ass off. And I agree, he should also be hauled off to the hoosegow and charged with assault.
Your Enchanted Forest or mine? ;-)
Posted by: themadlolscientist | June 21, 2008 1:10 AM
It's interesting how many comments (on the ABC site) there are from people defending this nut. Don't they realize their comments are like signing a billboard that says 'Child Abusers For Jesus, Unite!'
Posted by: llewelly | June 21, 2008 2:08 AM
At least one set of parents has already filed suit in federal court, madlol.
The Panda's Thumb's been covering it, and there are two recent articles by Pim vanMeurs and Richard Hoppe on the front page. The vanMeurs article is a short history of the case, and Hoppe's went up after the decision to can the scumbag. Hoppe was apparently present at the decision, and spoke to some of Freshwater's former students.
Freshwater really screwed those kids up.
I say hang him in the town square by the nutsack until he dies.
Posted by: JanieBelle | June 21, 2008 7:31 AM
(uh, after being convicted in court, of course. - I'm not advocating vigilantism.)
Posted by: JanieBelle | June 21, 2008 7:32 AM
This guy was tolerated for years, and seems unlikely to go to jail now. This is religious discrimination. How? Well imagine how long he would hve remained on the loose should he have preached satanism instead of Christianity and burned those same crosses.
Posted by: sailor | June 21, 2008 8:45 AM
I've been following this case on another blog for some time. It sounds really awful. I thought he only burned crosses on some kids' arms. But apparently he's been preaching, too. I don't know where Freshwater's brains are(or have been), but it seems to me that anybody who burns crosses(he had the gall to claim they were "X's")on the arms of his students in addition to preaching and putting up posters of the Ten Commandments, in a public school venue, does not deserve to be employed by any public school system anywhere.
Anne G
Posted by: Anne Gilbert | June 21, 2008 6:07 PM