{"id":15951,"date":"2008-06-21T11:15:06","date_gmt":"2008-06-21T15:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15951.html"},"modified":"2008-06-21T11:15:06","modified_gmt":"2008-06-21T15:15:06","slug":"its-all-fun-and-games-until-a-teacher-starts-burning-crosses-onto-students-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/its-all-fun-and-games-until-a-teacher-starts-burning-crosses-onto-students-arms\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s all fun and games until a teacher starts burning crosses onto students’ arms"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Amendment law is pretty unambiguous about where the church-state line in drawn in public school classrooms, which is why it’s disappointing to hear about teachers who continue to impose their religious beliefs onto students.<\/p>\n

But while there’s no shortage of incidents involving teachers promoting creationism, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a controversy like this one<\/a> out of Ohio.<\/p>\n

A Mount Vernon teacher undermined science instruction in the public school district by discrediting evolution in his classroom and focusing on creationism and intelligent design, an investigation has found.<\/p>\n

Eighth-graders who were taught by John Freshwater frequently had to be re-taught in high school what they were supposed to have learned in Freshwater’s class, according to outside investigators hired by the district.<\/p>\n

For 11 years, other teachers in the school district and people in the community complained about Freshwater preaching his Christian beliefs in class and slamming scientific theories, a school administrator told investigators.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So far, so routine. A teacher rejected modern science, ignored the school’s curriculum and standards, and screwed over his students. Freshwater was told to stick to the lesson plan, but refused.<\/p>\n

But when consultants were called in to investigate this teacher’s work, they also found that Freshwater “burned crosses onto students’ arms, using an electrostatic device.”<\/p>\n

Seriously.
\n<\/p>\n

Freshwater told investigators the marks were X’s, 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not altogether clear why Freshwater would be burning Xs into students’ arms anyway, but the Columbus Dispatch report includes a photo — and that’s a cross<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The family of one of the “branded” students filed a lawsuit last week against Freshwater and the district, saying the student’s civil rights were violated.<\/p>\n

But here’s the clincher:<\/p>\n

Neither Freshwater nor his attorney, Roger Weaver, could be reached for comment last night. Freshwater’s friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.<\/p>\n

“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 said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“With the exception of the cross-burning episode<\/i>“? <\/p>\n

Look, if the report about Freshwater’s classroom antics is accurate, he generally sounds like just another fundamentalist with no business leading a science classroom. He ignored the curriculum on modern biology; he kept a Bible on his desk at all times; and he labeled homosexuality a sin. All of this is legally problematic, but guys like Freshwater are a dime a dozen.<\/p>\n

But once a teacher starts getting into branding students in the classroom with crosses, it’s a little tougher to just dismiss his behavior as routine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Amendment law is pretty unambiguous about where the church-state line in drawn in public school classrooms, which is why it’s disappointing to hear about teachers who continue to impose their religious beliefs onto students. But while there’s no shortage of incidents involving teachers promoting creationism, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a controversy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}