John Freshwater Mutilates Students?
Posted on April 24th, 2008 by blue collar scientistI grew up in Ohio, and for several years in the mid 90’s, I had the opportunity to drive through the town of Mt. Vernon on a fairly regular basis. It was a quaint, old-fashioned midwest town, with a real town square, a drugstore with a soda fountain right out of the 50’s, and everything else you’d imagine in a town that looked essentially like a time capsule, or a movie set, from my parents’ generation.
So it wasn’t really a surprise to me when I heard through the media that a middle school teacher in Mt. Vernon was lying in his classroom about evolution…
In one class, Freshwater used Lego pieces to describe the beginning of the world. He dumped the pieces, then asked students if the Legos could assemble by themselves, said Joe Stuart, 18, assistant editor of the high-school newspaper.
…and forcing his religion on his students…
On Monday, Middle School Principal William D. White told Freshwater to remove “all religious items” from his classroom by the end of Wednesday.
Freshwater agreed to take down the Ten Commandments from the door of his classroom, posters with Bible verses and Bibles on a shelf. But he refused to remove his personal Bible from his desk when students are in the room.
…because, if anyplace is going to attract religious extremists who are living in a previous century, it would be a town that seemed like it was living in a previous decade.
But what I hadn’t heard before was that middle school teacher John Freshwater has allegedly mutilated and injured his students1
“We are religious people, but we were offended when Mr. Freshwater burned a cross onto the arm of our child. This was done in science class in December 2007, where an electric shock machine was used to burn our child. The burn was severe enough that our child awoke that night with severe pain, and the cross remained there for several weeks. … We have tried to keep this a private matter and hesitate to tell the whole story to the media for fear that we will be retaliated against.”
So according to this, not only does Freshwater walk around with an “electric shock machine” and painfully burn his students, but he also intimidates them into not telling. These are, if I’m not mistaken, exactly the tactics used by more traditional child abusers. But I’d guess - being blissfully ignorant of this seamy side of human behavior - that most ‘traditional’ abusers avoid branding their victims with religious symbols, due to the sort of obvious evidence that a brand would constitute.
It is also worth noting that Freshwater doesn’t have the support of his co-religionists - he’s a radical, an extremist, and others don’t want anything to do with his antics:
[School Superintendent Steve] Short said it is alleged that Freshwater used his classroom to advance religion and that he teaches his own beliefs from the Bible and not the approved curriculum. In the fax, the parents also said, “We are Christians who practice our faith where it belongs, at church and in our home and, most importantly, outside the public classroom, where the law requires a separation of church and state.”
Freshwater may believe whatever he wants, but he needs to be fired because of his behavior.
(Hat tip to BCS’er Joe. Just Joe.)
- Without, it hardly needs be said, their, or their parents’, consent. [↩]
Tags: child abuse, John Freshwater, Mt. Vernon, Mt. Vernon Ohio, teacher
April 24th, 2008 at 9:41 am
speaking of other religious school garbage, at least Ohio can claim the “loan nut” clause to describe their stupidity. My state is doing its darn-dest to humiliate us on a world stage again:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=107654
April 25th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
“we were offended when Mr. Freshwater burned a cross onto the arm of our child”
They were offended? If someone did that to one of my kids, I would be homicidal.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Believe it or not, I actually had Mr. Freshwater for 8th grade science, and I just happened to be traveling back to Mt. Vernon for a funeral when I heard this on the news. It didn’t surprise me too much, to tell you the truth. He’s a likeable guy, but he’s always gone too far with religion in the classroom. I’m an atheist, through and through, and I have been since well before I was in his class. I honestly don’t remember any particular incidents that were too far out of the norm for a small town in the Midwest (not that I think that they were right, or even legal, necessarily, but he didn’t come into the class and carve stigmata into his hands or anything.)
The ‘electrostatic device’ was apparently either a tesla coil or van de graaf generator. I’m a physics teacher now, and I don’t know how he managed to burn a cross onto someone, particularly against their will. Those instruments take some time to do any real damage, maybe 15-20 seconds to make a small burn (perhaps a minute for a small cross) with a tesla coil and dozens of long arcs in a carefully planned way to produce a patterned burn with a van de graaf. It would take half an hour or more all told, even if you planned ahead and all participants were willing. Additionally, anything that leaves a burn from either produces a small scar that lasts a while (I really like playing with electrostatic devices and I’ve burned myself from time to time.)
To make myself clear, I don’t support the guy. This type of thing (religion being forced on kids in the classroom) goes on all too often in small town America and those who complain get squashed by the higherups. However, keeping a Bible on your desk is NOT against the law, nor is it particularly onerous behavior, in my opinion. Having religious beliefs is the right of every person in the US, including teachers and students. What is not legal is when the government (via teachers in this case) uses that power to force religion on the public (students here.) If he was doing a daily Bible reading, that’s one thing, but if it was just there as his personal possession and not as a classroom tool, then it’s nobody’s business but his. Separation of church and state does not mean that religion is illegal in any arena that government is involved in, what it does mean is that the government can’t use its power to coerce us. If he DID manage to burn a cross into a kid’s arm intentionally, he should be resting his heels in a jail cell, plain and simple, and like the previous commenter, I’d go berserk if this were my daughter.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
[...] the best, one was left that I immediately recognized was the clear winner. It was left on my post John Freshwater Mutilates Students? and comes from a purported former student of Freshwater. I think it bears repeating in its [...]
May 11th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
John Pieret noticed a new story in the Columbus Dispatch, which begins as follows:
I never thought about turning a spectroscopy demonstration into a weapon.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
lying in his classroom about evolution…
So your telling me that a QUESTION is a lie?
lying in his classroom about evolution…
And when someone wears a Slayer T-shirt they are forcing their religion on me?
Or even consider this….
Military decorations;
Bronze/Silver Star……five pointed stars.
Legion of Merit…..five pointed star, points inverted.
Soldier’s Medal…..an octagon
Air Medal……a “sunburst”
Army Commendation Medal…..a hexagon
Army Achievement Medal…..an octagon.
so now the military is pushing religion on me as well?
I had Mr. Freshwater as a teacher when I was in school. Unless he’s changed DRASTICALLY he’s been demonized by the media. But who would ever think that the media could possibly do such a thing?