Board votes to fire him, says he was preaching Christianity
The Associated Press
updated 5:14 p.m. CT, Fri., June. 20, 2008

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio - A school board in central Ohio voted Friday to move ahead on firing a science teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs in class and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.

The Mount Vernon school board voted 5-0 to pass a resolution of intent to terminate the contract of middle school teacher John Freshwater.

Board attorney David Millstone said Freshwater is entitled to a hearing to challenge the dismissal. A lawyer for Freshwater said he will request such a hearing.

A report by independent investigators found that Freshwater also taught creationism in his science class and was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom.

School board members gathered a day after consulting firm H.R. On Call Inc. released its report. The community is about 40 miles northeast of Columbus.

The report comes one week after a family filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Columbus against Freshwater and the school district, saying Freshwater burned a cross on their child's arm that remained for three or four weeks.

They're family values, friend says Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.

"With the exception of the cross-burning episode ... I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district," he told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published Friday.

Several students interviewed by investigators described Freshwater, who has been employed by the district for 21 years, as a great guy.

But Lynda Weston, the district's director of teaching and learning, told investigators that she has dealt with complaints about Freshwater for much of her 11-year term at the district, the report said.

Science tool used to make crosses

A former superintendent, Jeff Maley, said he tried to find another position for Freshwater but couldn't because he was certified only in science, the report said.

Freshwater used a science tool known as a high-frequency generator to burn images of a cross on students' arms in December, the report said. Freshwater told investigators he simply was trying to demonstrate the device on several students and described the images as an "X," not a cross. But pictures show a cross, the report said.

Other findings show that Freshwater taught that carbon dating was unreliable to argue against evolution.

If he hadn't gone round the bend and started branding his students he'd probably still be teaching....

Indeed, I've been seeing news stories about this particular fellow off and on for several months now. Sad that it took a lawsuit from parents to force the school board to take action. I'm sure he can find a nice job at a xian school.

Found a site where you can see pictures of the branding, btw. Kind of an amusing defense. It's not a cross, it's an X! Like what symbol you branded them with should matter?

That is scary. Its the other way round here its the students who brand the teachers!

In England, white light - such branding would be considered an assault. Your laws work that way. Branding, there, even if 'consensual' is still considered an assault.

Awww shucks. He's just channeling their body mutilating tendencies into a higher purpose than mere herd urge gratification. Most of those already kids have demonic tattoos and body peircing everywhere from their labia to their nose rings. Little bastards run afound like cattle, they may as well be branded like cattle. heh heh heh.

If the teacher wasn't a Christian there'd be no mention of this. Seculars are roto-rooting their wombs without parental notification. Do you think they'd bother with a simple brand if the brand didn't resemble a cross of Calvary?

Dd

DD tries desperately to make light of assaulting kids...what else can we expect from a fellow cretin. :)

would hesitate one minute to vacuum out a 12 year old girl's twat to kill her unwanted baby without telling her parents?

You lefties, you really know where to get up tight. Black mayor's black wife in Zimbabwe gets killed and its big grief, but never did I hear a thing from the pinkos as Muggubbe's liberal thugs killed a half million white farmers and their families while he distributed the newly 'liberated" "people's" farms to his military henchmen who didn't know how to farm, plunging the otherwise and heretofore relatively adequate food producing country into starvation.

Dd

I am merely suggesting -- as you attempt two more distractions here -- that you're just trying to get away from the issue of a xian teacher assaulting kids.

Don't you understand?

It's okay to assault kids if you're doing it for the glory of God...

Liberals! They just don't get it!

predicto:

would hesitate one minute to vacuum out a 12 year old girl's twat to kill her unwanted baby without telling her parents?

I am not aware of any middle schools that perform abortions, but let's not let reality get in the way of a good rant!

Freakin' psycho who'd been there 20 years teaching crap to these students without anyone doing anything about it...says a lot about Mt. Vernon, I guess. He claimed he had a 'perfect record' or some such, but the woman who's been in charge of certification for the last 11 years has said there've been NUMEROUS complaints about this freak.

Typically, he lied and said it was an 'x', but I've seen a picture and it's a cross. Not only a sadist and propagandist, but a liar, too - ain't that the way it is with these people?

He should be in jail, or banned for life from teaching at the very least. He's a disgrace to the profession and to this state.

I'm sure you'd just cut crosses into their arms with a knife.

Abortions shouldn't only be legal for Christians, they should be mandatory...

Now Mugabe's a "liberal"? LOL!

You're fucking demented....liberals have been denouncing that piece of shit for DECADES, literally.

Either stop taking the drugs, or start taking your medications, Dawggy...:)

I'm sorry, he intentionally burned students, and he still isn't in jail?

If any teacher ever burned one of my daughters intentionally, he'd be safe only so long as he was in jail.