Praise the lord and pass the salt*

This story has been variously portrayed, which is in itself a bit of the story.

Teacher told to remove Bible from desk:

John Freshwater has taught science at Mount Vernon Middle School for 20 years and last year was named Teacher of the Year. For the past 18 years, he has kept his personal Bible on his desk.

Administrators recently ordered Freshwater to remove the Bible, citing a violation of the separation of church and state. But Freshwater’s spokesman, Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministries, said the First Amendment gives Freshwater the right to keep his Bible on his desk.

“The issue is his own personal faith, and whether or not … a teacher become[s] a second-class citizen,” said Daubenmire. “Does a teacher forfeit all of his constitutional rights, all of his God-given rights, when he becomes a school teacher?”

“If they try to [take] legal action against Mr. Freshwater for his failure to remove his Bible, I can tell you this: the battle will be on. And I think the law is very murky there – the whole idea of separation of church and state is a fraud anyway [and] we want to try to expose it as a fraud.”

Group repeats demand for answer to Bible question

representatives of the Mount Vernon chapter of Minutemen United have repeated their demand for a public statement on whether a classroom teacher is permitted to have a Bible on his or her desk.

“Although we do not want this to be taken as a threat,” the letter reads in part, “we feel it is only right that we inform you that if a public statement is not made in support of the Bible by June 10 we will have no other choice than to begin a recall procedure on all members of the School Board who voted to ban the Bible from the view of the children.”

Teacher to be fired for pressing beliefs

An Ohio school board is firing a science teacher accused of pressing his Christian beliefs on students.

John Freshwater discussed his creationism beliefs, disregarded evolution and failed to follow the standard curriculum while teaching eighth-grade science at Mount Vernon Middle School, board officials said.

An investigation revealed he continued teaching his beliefs even after he was ordered to stop, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported Saturday.

Freshwater's attorney, R. Kelly Hamilton, said his client's rights to practice religion were infringed and he plans to call for a hearing with the school board to fight the dismissal.

Ohio Teacher Who Burned Cross on Student’s Arm Fired

The board of administration of an Ohio school decided on Friday to fire a middle school teacher after he burned a cross into the arm of one of the students attending his class. The school’s administrators voted to get rid of the teacher because he refused to keep his religious beliefs out of the classroom.

Freshwater’s supporters reportedly gathered in a parking lot yesterday asking God to inspire the school board to make the right decision....

Guambat reckons the supporters were a bit gobsmacked -- make that godsmacked -- when, just as they asked, the board did, indeed, make the right decision.

The school board hired an independent investigation into the matter, and the report of the investigation is at this link (hattip to Ed Brayton for the reference). Among items in the report:

during our interview the parents stated that their primary concern is not the Bible on Mr. Freshwaters’ desk. They stated that their primary concern was that Mr. Freshwater appeared to be teaching students to defy the school and to disobey rules....

Among its findings:

Several students described him as a “great guy” and their favorite teacher.” Fellow teachers and administrators also spoke positively regarding Mr. Freshwater as a person.

high school science teachers expressed frustration and concern regarding having to “re-teach” concepts that in their opinion had been improperly taught by Mr. Freshwater at the eighth grade level.

Comments included:

· At the high school level evolution is the underlying principle of all biology. At the ninth grade level when we bring up evolution there is challenge and argumentation from students who have had Mr. Freshwater, bordering on hostility.

· “Here” from John Freshwaters’ students means that anytime he was telling them something out of the textbook that was wrong from his perspective they were to say, “Here.” For example, Mr. Freshwater taught there are reasons why carbon dating may not be accurate and so students were to say, “Here.” The high school science teachers pointed out the scientific data supports carbon dating as being accurate. Mr. Freshwater’s emphasis to the students is, “If carbon dating is wrong then evolution is wrong.”

"I find it extremely unfair to have to start EACH SCHOOL YEAR reteaching students how science ACTUALLY works.”

A current student said that Mr. Freshwater would throw out both sides of issues, such as the big bang theory, intelligent design, carbon dating and evolution. When asked, Mr. Freshwater would offer his personal opinion such as I believe there was a boat in a flood. He also taught that you can’t trust radiometric dating.

The investigators found the following material in the second cupboard in the front of the room during a walk through of Mr. Freshwaters’ classroom on May 15, 2008:

· A book titled “Refuting Evolution”
· A video tape titled “Lies In The Textbooks, Part A 4 Of 7, 10 Lies Of Evolution”
· A book titled “Evolution Of A Creationist”
· A book titled “The Real Meaning Of The Zodiac”
· A book titled “Icons of Evolution”

Mr. Freshwater said that he uses a telsa coil as part of a lab experiment where he charges gasses. He puts the elements in test tubes in a row, and then charges them with the device, and the students identify the elements by the color of the gasses.

He said that he demonstrates it on his own arm by making an “X”....
The current or former students that were interviewed that had participated in the December 2007 incident or other similar incidents in earlier years described the demonstration in the same manner as had Mr. Freshwater with one exception.

They all described the mark Mr. Freshwater put on his arm as a “cross”.

During our interview on May 15, 2008 Mr. Freshwater stated he has had his Bible on his desk for 21 years. He did have two boxes of Bibles in the back of his room.

When asked if the school Bible was there to make a statement, he said, “Yes.”

* Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition