Board Reprimands Science Teacher for ‘Advancing Religion’

An administrator is monitoring the classes of an eighth-grade science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio, as the local school district investigates allegations regarding a Bible on the teacher's desk and accusations that he burned crosses into students’ arms.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that the debate surrounding John Freshwater’s employment began when he refused to remove a Bible that he placed in a visible spot on his desk. The accusations of branding students with crosses, or conducting “healing sessions” as witnesses have called it, come from a Mount Vernon middle school student who details a particular event in a science class in which Freshwater asked for volunteers to demonstrate how an electrical device in the classroom functioned. The student volunteered and claimed he was branded.

“He didn’t know it was going to be a cross, and it he didn’t know it was going to hurt,” Philemond said.

A spokesperson for Freshwater, Dave Daubenmire, said that the so-called “burning” accusations came to the board’s attention in December but they chose to hold onto that information until recently. A week ago, Mount Vernon middle school principal William D. White asked Freshwater to remove “all religious items” from his classroom. 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. Freshwater also reportedly discussed the meanings of Easter and Good Friday while in front of his students.

Mount Vernon City Schools Superintendent Stephen Short said the board’s action is not because of the Bible on Freshwater’s desk but because they believe he is advancing religion in his classroom, which they will not allow.

R. Kelly Hamilton, an attorney for Freshwater, said that the Bible serves as inspiration for the teacher and is no different than photos that most people put on their workplace desks.

An independent investigator will be hired to look into the claims. Mount Vernon is located in Central Ohio about 50 miles northeast of Columbus.