Teacher allegedly burned crosses onto students' arms

Source: Columbus Dispatch

The Mount Vernon public-school science teacher who won't remove his personal Bible from the top of his desk also is accused of conducting a religious “healing session” during school and burning crosses onto students' arms.
Administrators say John Freshwater taught his own religious beliefs in his classes, including describing the meaning of Good Friday and Easter.

snip

The “healing” allegedly occurred when Freshwater was a chaperone for a Christian student-athlete group that met during school hours. A guest speaker visiting the group in January had an illness, and Freshwater called for his healing.
“He said out loud, ‘Satan be removed from this man,'” said Jessica Philemond, an attorney representing a Mount Vernon Middle School student who witnessed the event.

Read more: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/22/bible_on_desk.html

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Damn I am so proud to be from Ohio.

anyone who is that antagonistic regarding flaunting his "faith" is generally a nutbag... at least that's what I've seen repeatedly.

I hope the guy is fired and the school system is sued and the christo-fascists gain another martyr for their worthless cause. What a horrible excuse for a teacher. Surely the school and school system knew of this beforehand.

He sounds like he belongs in a loony bin, not a classroom.

One person's freedom ends where the next one's starts. People have the right to believe whatever they want and also have the right to NOT get burned. Abuse/assault is wrong no matter what the motivation.

Fortunately there are laws in this country to protect someone's beliefs AND punish people who abuse children.

an earlier post about this same asshole had ppl defending his right to place a bible on his desk. however, if anyone had read the article (I did) they would have seen that he also had the 10 commandments posted, 6 bibles.. for science ref. I guess :eyes: - that sort of thing in his classroom.

I RARELY find that anytime some situation like this makes the news that it is simply about someone's freedom of religion.

people can believe what they will. if they choose to believe things that contradict reality, as in science, and bring those beliefs into the schoolroom, then they have crossed a line. they are not exercising good judgment.

to find that the asshole was also performing "exorcisms" is just one more reason for me to continue, as I do now, to consciously avoid fundies. that's all.

I really do not understand how you took my post to mean I supported this cretin.

of this country.

to him being a pedophile. Religious nut, yes.

so why not add on another charge?

"so why not add on another charge?"

I think because it minimizes both the charge, and the actual victims of it...

check out the Paedofinder General's song from Monkey Dust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK_3I0MiAP8

I usually don't base my moral judgments on little ditties in YouTube...

you lose all credibility on the charge that's actually true.

Maybe mind-fucking should be a crime, but pedophilia has a very specific definition which doesn't apply in this situation based on anything that's been claimed so far.

It's a mental disease when people take their religion too far. Or use it to do terrible things.

God: The most popular scapegoat for our sins. ~Mark Twain

He teaches Science? Really? Does his science class cover dinosaurs? You know, the same dinosaurs that lived with Fred, Barney & Wilma? :sarcasm:

He should NOT be teaching in a public school. Let him go work for a Christian school, if he is THAT psyched up to do *healings* (which is so UN-scientific, period).

:rant:

him. He needs to be "brainwashed" to becoming a normal member of society. He has that cult mentality.

then asked if they could assemble themselves.

It is to laugh, or would be if it were not such a wide-spread ignorance problem. I "love" when the YECs compare things which reproduce and mutate to non-living objects.

It was his test to see if I was a Creationist like so many at our college were. We sat in the back and laughed and laughed at that idiot. He said something similar in his talk (as well as the fossils are there because of the flood and are in layers because of how long it took for the waters to recede--almost walked out right then but waited to hear more crap and laugh at him first). I'd bet he was there if he pulled that one.

Home of Ken Blackwell, Rod Parsley, and people who "screw"
picnic tables.

The man needs a good ass kicking to scar a kid for life
by burning a cross into him .... sick f***.

BTW, you forgot about Betty Rubble. WAY hotter than Wilma Flintstone IMHO!!!

He had the Ten Commandments on the wall, bibles on a shelf in the classroom, and he constantly criticized evolution. This is 8th grade science. How are his students going to be prepared for high school? This is what we are up against in this country.

In 2004 Kenyon College (liberal) had 1 voting machine and lines
of 5+ hours to vote ..... across town Mt Vernon College of the Nazarine
with 1/5 the # of students had 3 machines.

I think ALL science teachers should have to affirm that they understand and accept evolutionary theory, gravitational theory... all those "just" theories... tho THEORY in science is held to a higher standard than "fact" in other disciplines.

It is truly incredible that this ignorant ass was allowed in a science classroom.

The initial headlines about this case were totally misleading, as well. He had posters all over his classroom, 6 or more bibles on bookshelves (in science classes?) and now, it turns out, was practicing voodoo on taxpayer's money/time? some days my head just wants to explode b/c of the stupidity of it all.

He was practicing the "burn cross onto arm of unsuspecting student" version of Christianity.

Oy. Who would Jesus brand?

when I was in 9th grade, my Latin teacher took a friend of mine and I out into the hallway because we had been laughing in class. The teacher's husband was a Church of Christ minister (no instrumental music in church, and who knows what else... a branch of fundi-ism) This teacher said to us something along the lines of how the teacher had hopes for my friend b/c she was Church of Christ, but she just didn't know what to think about me. I went home and told my dad and I never heard any such bullshit from that woman again.

however, the woman was selected as teacher of the year a few years later... :eyes:

She and the guy from this incident are why some ppl don't go into teaching. They give all teachers a bad name. If I had to teach with someone like that guy (I'm not a teacher, btw) I would have been up in his grill years ago. It's simply unethical that he was allowed to get away with this shit.

I've actually taught there and helped judge for their Power of the Pen team way back in college. It's a good school, and the high school's a very good school. Considering the crap they deal with on a daily basis, they get good results.

I should call the Power of the Pen teacher I worked with. She got her national certification, and I think I can track her down to see what she thinks of this whole fiasco.

their kids if they can? Sometimes it is about protecting the kids from physical and emotional abuse from people like this.

I know a few progressive people who chose to homeschool so that their kids would get more intensive academic training. I know a lot more people who homeschool because they think exactly the same way as this nut case. They teach "from the Bible," they teach their kids that evolution is a false premise, and they weave rightwing politics into everything they teach. Watch the documentary Jesus Camp.

and interview with the directors of Jesus Camp on A&E.

My neighbors are very progressive and the father homeschools and the mom works outside the home. They don't like school systems, the waste of time, the bullies, and some of the junk that is taught in school by nutcases. More and more people are homeschooling that are not religious freaks.

but this is just insanity.

If true, this guy needs to be doing something other than teaching science to children...

Maybe standing on a corner wearing a sandwich board reading, "The End Is Near!!!!" (and on the back it reads, "Eat At Joe's")

Mount Vermin is one of those down-home, kinda religious towns located a few dozen miles above Columbus in a deep-red county. From the sounds of this teacher and the statements of the fundamentalpatient flock surrounding him, it's another case of Repuke evangelicals trying to brush this off like it's no big deal. The prayer circle in the middle of the town square and the dominionist men wearing cross baseball caps was frightening.

satanic areas I've ever seen. So, either the screw-loose teacher is afraid of the encroachment of the satanists or he also could be one. not to be confused with the wiccans, the satanists from what I saw from a girl that came back from a meeting she was coerced to attend, do some pretty weird stuff involving blood and markings.

I feel so horribly bad for that kid - to have witnessed this and done nothing would be a crime in my opinion - that poor teen is scarred!

When young people rebel against the Nazarenes, for some reason they gravitate toward satanism. I guess it's because that they've been taught a lot about the Guy in the Red Suit with the Pitchfork since birth. I honestly think that satan is more important than God (and certainly more important than Jesus) to a lot of Nazarenes. Satan looms much larger in their lives.

We grew up Nazarene. When we rebelled against the church, we converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church. A few friends became Anglican, a few others Catholic (one's in seminary to be a priest now), and the rest a more liberal form of evangelical Christianity. I probably know more Nazarenes and former Nazarenes than you do, and I have never known a single one who ever even flirted with Satanism, let alone converted.

As for the importance of Satan, it's entirely dependent on the pastor and the individual believer. Sure, I knew some people more than a little obsessed with the supposed Gate to Hell at Kenyon College, but most people were more concerned about following God's will than worried about Satan's power at all.

The people I knew who "went satanist" did so back in the 1970s.

Did you hear about the Gate of Hell myth at Kenyon? It supposedly was in the basement of one of the older buildings.

I think that there are at least three sources for that myth. One is that Old Kenyon, one of the original buildings, burned down sometime in the mid-century. A number of students died in the blaze. It was rebuilt to look the same. Also, a student died during a fraternity prank, I think during the 1920s. Finally, the fraternities used to have a hazing night called "Hell Night." I think that all those incidents combined to create that gate of hell myth.

I always found it amusing.

Not many, but there's a whole mythology around it now, so people sneak in and try to get locked in and see what happens at midnight--and then sneak back onto the Naz campus and try not to get caught breaking curfew.

No sign of the gates of hell yet. The thought of Naz students locking themselves in and waiting for Satan to show up is just hilarious!

I used to laugh at people who did that.

As soon as you lose sight of the skyscrapers you are in deepest JesusBushLand. The SW corner is the worst, with even the city of Cincinnati definitely askew, but anywhere in the Ohio "countryside" is Hannity's America.

As always, the country folks consistently vote against the economic and security interests of themselves and their families. The people themselves are generally nice, but their politics suck.

That "We're just broadbrushing and stereotyping". Unbelievable. Whatever . . . Those of us who are natives know damned well how the politics of this state work. Convention is thrown out the window, as many of the heavily red areas (that is, almost any county south of Cuyahoga, Lorain, etc, save Franklin, Athens and the counties along the eastern border) were victims of plant closings and massive job loss sometime in the past 28 years. Cuyahoga itself experienced 11% of Ohio's job losses in 2004 and continues to bleed blue and white collar jobs today.

Even when you have skyscrapers in view doesn't mean you're free from the dopes. In Avon Lake, I have more than a few products of mass media televangelism of all stripes; blue collar and white collars with Blackwell and DeWine signs last election. And you can bet I'll be seeing more than my fair share of McClown signs blanketing my Obama sign.

AND after he's fired, then bring him up on charges of child abuse. Personally, I would just take him out back of the school and shoot the motherfucker.

"I am finished."

:toast:

Did you say something about Drainage!!

and go and burn an evolve fish into the teacher's forehead.

For one thing, he is supposed to maintain religious neutrality in a public school setting--hence, no Bible on his desk, for one thing, and definitely no branding students with crosses, which is something he came up with in his own little twisted mind, and not part of any established Christian practice that I've ever heard of.

Branding a student is a little over the top, but not very far from the norm. Religious neutrality in the schools? They think it's a communist plot. Believe me. I grew up there.

I can't imagine anyone okay with branding the kids, but I went to a community church with some pretty far-wacky-right people (good hearts, messed up minds) who think the federal government runs public schools like Soviet re-education camps.

The few parents who disagree are probably professionals or faculty of the nearby college. They are in the minority.

perhaps the religious indoctrination - but the branding?????

I got the impression from the article that the boy was burned, but that it didn't leave a permanent scar. Yes, it's clearly abuse. It's assault, in fact, to burn somebody. It's child abuse. It's obviously illegal and unprofessional and shouldn't be allowed in school. None of that will matter to a significant number of people in Mt. Vernon. Now, if he'd burned a Wiccan sign on the child's hand, or a Jewish star, or something that might have looked vaguely Muslim - well, he might be dead now.

When I was a child in this exact same middle school, it was standard practice for male teachers to slam kids up against the lockers along the side of the hallway if the kids were running or making too much noise or somehow "misbehaving."

This is what we're up against in this country. There are lots of little towns like Mt. Vernon that are full of absolutely bizarre people. The right-wing has utterly colonized them.

Gun fondlers, Bible thumpers, murderous homophobes, ready to vote for anybody who mouths the same resentments and fears that they have nurtured for years. Perfectly happy to vote for somebody who will launch a war against "the ragheads" and anybody else who doesn't look exactly like them. This is a community where it's common knowledge that "the liberals didn't let us win in Vietnam."

. . . the card of which Repukes have played from the bottom of the deck for the past 28 years. Really, that's the simple answer. Usually, these issues have bupkis to do with actual governing, but for some reason, these Jedi mind tricks fool the weak-minded EVERY time.

With the working class, they again are voting with their hatred of cultural elements that have absolutely NOTHING to do with politics or economics, and they're obsessed with these meaningless elements. Even if it means shooting their own foot - Repukes have placed these wedge issues at the forefront as clever but effective distractions to the real issues and the less intelligent/more irrational members of the working/middle class fall for it hook, line and sinker. This is common when propping up candidates that have zero real accomplishments to praise . . . such as First Term Reagan, Bewsh 1 or Lancelot Link, par example.

I think it was said on another thread - they're better at selling bullshit than we are. When you look at their real record, they HAVE to be.

I wish that I knew why so many people fall for it, over and over again. That's why I agreed with Obama's comment about bitterness. It showed that Obama, at least, understands the problem. I've felt that a lot of Democrats on the national scene don' understand it. John Kerry seemed genuinely puzzled at how people could think and act so irrationally. I don't think anything in his experience prepared him for the bizarro-world that exists in many small communities around the country.

But for the school board to ignore this earlier seems to make them liable as well. I wonder how many parents are now talking to attorneys. I hope A LOT!!!

I would have been very surprised if the school board had done anything about it.

It would fade over time, sure, but burning a mark into skin, even in someone at that age, would probably be permanent. I had kids into branding when I taught, and it looked pretty darn permanent to me.

he should not only be fired, but should be in jail!

cars, trucks, big-screen TVs, cars for the kids, boastful vacations

everything measured by possessions


and then we get this nut who preaches during class and brands kids. And the school board ignores it. And too many parents ignore it.


(on edit - man my spelling is atrocious these days)

Most of the folks who agree with the nutjob probably don't have a lot of possessions, and I doubt they ever go on boastful vacations. (Many of them have probably never been out of the state. Some of them have probably never been to Cleveland.)

Not once in their lives. Never been to Cleveland or Cinci, either. I thought that was the oddest thing I'd ever heard.

It is a very poor area when you leave Mt. Vernon and Apple Valley. The even more rural areas and school districts are even more right-wing and very, very conservative.

I was shocked to see Knox County in the news again. (Last time was during the 2004 election theft.)

How horrifying.

I hope they run that guy out of town on a rail.

He should never teach again--hurting kids is never, ever, not even in Christian schools okay. Not ever.

who may flaunt the rules in the same way this teacher reportedly does.

Just the other day we read about a student who skipped class to go see Obama, got a note from him proving where the student was, and he was suspended from school for one day.

It seems the official line of zero tolerance for students either ends at students, or gets vastly more tolerant the higher up one is in hierarchy.

In most jobs, willfully failing the boss's directives is grounds for dismissal. But perhaps we're in a new world where the boss loses controlling power. Great! Students can now do whatever they want?

We weren't allowed to go to the bathroom without a note from the teacher - in high school. I sincerely doubt that any kind of tolerance extends to the students - except the God Squadders. They get a lot of leeway.

I was only there for a teaching placement for a semester and then helped out with the Power of the Pen team one year, but I had good kids there. Sure, there were a few bad apples, but they weren't anything to worry about. I've dealt with worse.

This is as bad as the nutty HS teacher from my alma-mater who would design and imprint tattoo's on and for students.

What a nut... :crazy:

It's a "right to work" state (what a terrible name for it), and many teachers opt out of the union, believing that the NEA and AFT are godless communists who give money to abortionists (heard it in my classes at the Nazarene college there).

Sorry, just jumping on the "using religion to hurt people then whining about rights being taken away" bandwagon.

Having lived in a polarized small community, it can get nuts and it gets tiring having to keep on eye on people like this to make sure they don't hurt others.

I doubt that any of Michael Moore's movie have filmed in a commercial venue within 50 miles of the town.

They only had the two-screen movie theater downtown, so we'd drive 45 minutes to Westerville (and to go to the coffeeshop there).

I'd bet it's playing there at one of the theaters there now. You're probably right.

When I was a child, there was a beautiful 1920s art deco movie theater on the town square. It was covered on the inside with gorgeous art deco murals in full color and art-glass displays. One of the banks bought it and tore it down to make a parking lot.

Oddest town. I really miss Shake 'n' Grinder, though. Best chicken salad sandwiches anywhere.

I do miss the peach orchard to the south of town and the chinese place (actually pretty good) and Kenyon's bookstore. Other than that, I wouldn't say that I missed it all that much. The Naz isn't a college I'd recommend--very weird and mostly sick place.

It's a very beautiful little town - all those historic houses. Some of the people who live there need to travel a little more - broaden their horizons.

to use religion to play out their control and torture fantasys.

Neither is okay to teach in school, mind you.

But apparently he did his deeds in September and someone is complaining now because he hasn't been corrected yet.

also from that article:

"Freshwater agreed to take down the Ten Commandments, posters with Bible verses and Bibles on a shelf. But he refused to remove his personal Bible from his desk."

The school has as many issues as the crazy teacher, if this is going on.

I thought his name sounded familiar, but I'm pretty sure he's been there for awhile and was there when I had a placement there while I was in college at the Naz.

It doesn't surprise me--it's Mount Vernon, home to some pretty odd little churches and one big odd Nazarene college.

That is after my time. He's more bizarre than any teacher I had, although we definitely had some odd ones...

The more I think about it, I think I met him.

:)

Pretty place, nice old houses, batshit crazy people :)

I didn't know that (or maybe I forgot--lots of forgetting these days). Hubby and I went to the Naz in the 90s. When were you there?

I have the weirdest feeling that the Ohio Tattooing Law says you can't tattoo (or brand, in this case) someone under the age of 18 except for cases of medical necessity (radiation oncologists tattoo aiming dots on their patients), you must have the consent of the person being tattooed and you must do it in a tattoo studio or a doctor's office. I have three tattoos, and in every case when I went in to the room where the procedure was going to be done, I KNEW I was going to get a tattoo--which can't be said for this nutcase.

This person should not be teaching, period. They should not be in a position of power over anybody else. They have a right to their own beliefs, but they don't have the right to assault other people, assault children, scar children, indoctrinate children with false information, bring religion into a science classroom, and intimidate people.

That fact that it wasn't MY kid he burned a cross onto the arm of. Lemme tell ya.

Julie

and BURNING crosses into kids' arms? I'm surprised the parents didn't come to the school and create all sorts of hell over his burning ANYTHING into their kids' arms.

Scary!