Teacher Burns Cross Into Child’s Arm
A Fundamentalist Christian teacher in Ohio was fired for burning a cross into a student’s arm, as well as attempting to force his religion on his students. John Freshwater was apparently not charged with assault of any kind, he was not arrested or legally apprehended, as far as the article says. Those in charge of the school even tried to find another job for him at the school, one that didn’t involve science, but luckily for many children, he only had a degree for teaching science.
Freshwater used a science tool known as a high-frequency generator to burn images of a cross on students’ arms in December, the report said. Freshwater told investigators he simply was trying to demonstrate the device on several students and described the images as an “X,” not a cross. But pictures show a cross, the report said.
What exactly is going on here? John Freshwater was actually defended by a friend claiming that he was just teaching community values.
Freshwater’s friend Dave Daubenmire defended him. “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 told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published Friday.
If that is true, Daubenmire, then why does John Freshwater need to force students into Christianity if that’s what their parents want them to believe? Obviously with the amount of complaints made about Freshwater, these were not the values of parents in the Mount Vernon school district–and it is not up to the school to teach religion. In fact, it’s forbidden.
So what we have here is a Christian teacher who broke the law by attempting to force his religion on his students, violating state and church separation. He mutilated and tortured a student. Don’t even pretend branding a child is anything else. He then lied about his intent, claiming that it was in fact an ‘X’, not a cross–but the picture clearly shows it is a cross, and that still leaves the question as to why any sane, moral person would brand a child in the name of religion? What could this man have possibly been thinking when he did this? If he branded the student, the student would suddenly be saved by the Lord, or the devil would run away?
Besides, why is the community protecting him? This man tortured and mutilated a student and had been attempting to indoctrinate his students–the school had been receiving complaints for a decade about his attempts to teach his students Christianity. Yet he was apparently not arrested, complaints were ignored, and the school tried to move him into a different teaching position. Is torturing children the new Christian value?
“With the exception of the cross-burning episode….”
He was a little odd sometimes, staring into your eyes and smelling his fingers while you spoke to him, but he was always so polite and friendly and he read The Bible every day. I can’t understand why he kept those plague spores in his cellar or how he could’ve murdered all those poor little girls and buried them in his backyard.
Just think what would have happened to him had he not been a Christian and been discovered doing things like this! This is a great example of Christian privilege.
I cannot believe he was not charged by the state with child abuse. Had a parent branded a child, protection agencies would have swooped in, in a heartbeat. What I don’t understand is why the parents of the child that was abused are not at the very least suing the religious wingnut fundie.
So, there ARE limits to the insanity that some school systems will tolerate in the name of religion. But, look for this teacher to be reinstated after the debate dies down. After all, the teacher did a horrible thing, but s/he meant well.