Nutball alert: Teacher John Freshwater

If you are a Christian science teacher, placing your personal bible on your desk for all to see can be written off as eccentric. When you preach from that same bible, you cross from eccentric into nutball land. When you place the ten commandments in your classroom and preach from the bible while asking your students to convert to Christianity, you become a dangerous nutball. When you add branding your students with a cross, you become a fucking fundie nutball (the highest level on the nutball scale).

John Freshwater - you are a fucking fundie nutball.

According to a parent complaint, John Freshwater used an electrostatic device to burn crosses onto students' arms. One of the students said the pain was so severe it prevented him from sleeping at night.

Source: Mt. Vernon officials to investigate teacher allegations

The Bad Science Blog  has a good write up on the wacko.

Pharyngula has a great post on this issue - Fire John Freshwater... for the right reason.

I've added Pass the Salt Ministries to my fundie watch list. "Coach Dave" is John Freshwaters primary supporter. He has organized at least one demonstration outside of the school where John Freshwater still teaches. I am sure he will continue to use Freshwater's antics to draw attention to his asinine cause.

Technorati tags: Fundies, nutballs, John Freshwater, Christians, Coach Dave

John Freshwater's Crusade is over

John Freshwater WAS a teacher who was fired after it was learned that he was branding students with a cross and secretly teaching creationism while trying to recruit children for Christ. All actions were unethical. The school district fired him and now he’s lost his last appeal. The long sad story is over. John Freshwater will not get his job back nor will he be compensated. 

"John Freshwater, a creationist and former Ohio public school science teacher, isn’t getting his job back.

The 57-year-old Freshwater, who taught eighth-grade science at Mount Vernon Middle School for 20 years, was fired in 2008 for insubordination after he refused to stop teaching creationism and displaying religious symbols, as well as for burning a cross into a student’s arm."

Source:Freshwater’s Stale Crusade | Americans United:

I’ve posted on John Freshwater several times over the years, and I’ve called him a nutball. I think it was justified. The one thing that stands out for me in this case is that he was willing to lie and cheat in order to spread his religious views, which, in the end was seen as dishonest and repugnant by everyone involved except his religious community. Now if only he would pay the school district’s legal bills…

John Freshwater fired!

Today is a good day. John Frshwater, the bible thumping, cross branding, fundamentalist Christian nutball of a teacher, has been fired by his community's school board.

The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.
School board members voted 5-0 to fire Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater.

Source: Ohio teacher burns cross image on students' arms

My original post on freshwater earned me some hate mail and a few comments. One stood out. A Freshwater apologist who posted Anonymously.

THe [sic] electrostatic device that you say he used to "brand crosses into students arms" was mearly [sic] a science demonstration. the cross was really an x and was to show at what point the electricity would pass into the body...

I had felt bad about naming Freshwater a nutball. If the brand was really a small "X" then my position was too harsh. It turns out the brand in question was six inches long and shaped like a cross. The Freshwater apologist lied.

If you would like more information on Freshwater's termination, Panda's Thumb has a comprehensive post on the subject. Read the comment thread (92 as I post) for additional quality information.

Technorati tags: Fundies, nutballs, John Freshwater, Christians, Ohio, ID, Education, Science

John Freshwater’s truthiness

John Freshwater has appeared here on my blog several times. He came to my attention after branding a student with a cross in 2008. Now he’s fighting for his job and spinning his story in the process.

The handouts, describing how species such as the woodpecker and giraffe could not have evolved, were used to demonstrate faulty analysis, bias and the wrongful application of the scientific method, Freshwater said.

Right – these handouts were creationist pseudoscience and a blatant attempt at undermining evolution on religious grounds.

Freshwater testified that he was not trying to hide the material.

"I try to conserve paper. I would use them over and recycle them. If a kid's absent, I'd say 'What you need is right over there on the shelf.' "

Right… not sending the handouts home had nothing to do with keeping parents ignorant of your efforts. You were all about green teaching. I see that now.

The problem here is credibility. Freshwater pushed his Christian educational agenda openly. Now that he is exposed, he is not man enough to stand up and take responsibility. I’m sure the martyrs would be proud.

Technorati Tags: Creationists,John Freshwater,Teaching

John Freshwater is back in news

My favorite fundie teacher made the news in the UK. He's got a review coming up on August 26 that could determine if he ever is allowed to teach in the Mr. Vernon school district again. If you recall, Freshwater is accused of branding his students with a cross, teaching Intelligent design, and proselytizing among his students while at school. Oh, and he kept a personal bible on his desk. Freshwater was fired in June.

The article has a couple of choice quotes.

"I don't think he meant to burn anybody. He got some bad counsel to make this all about the Bible and God. All he needed to do was say he was sorry, but he wouldn't do that," Murdock said.

and...

One yard sign read, "The student goes. We Support Mr Freshwater. The Bible stays!"

my fav...

"Nobody's ever told me to remove my Bible or to remove the other religious material hanging on my walls," Miller said. Freshwater is teaching children to ask questions "and not just to take what a teacher said as a fact."

Say what? I'd raise holy hell if a teacher displayed religious material on the wall of his or her classroom here in California. We have standards. The story is different in Central Ohio.

Technorati tags: Fundies, nutballs, John Freshwater, Christians, Ohio, ID, Education, Science

Justice in the John Freshwater case

Ohio teacher John Freshwater, profiled here, had his day in Ohio Supreme Court and lost. He was fired for preaching his religious beliefs in class. He also branded kids with a small cross.

The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Mount Vernon city schools’ firing of an eighth-grade science teacher who was accused of advancing religion and the Christian theory of creationism in his classroom.

But the court held that the district’s orders that he put away the personal Bible he kept on his desk violated his First Amendment rights of freedom of religion and therefore would not have been sufficient cause to fire him.

Source: Supreme Court rules firing justified for teacher accused of advancing religion in classroom

Loons like John Freshwater are why we fight the good fight. He thinks my kids are fair game for conversion to his religion. I’ll never understand the motivation of these people. It is unethical.