Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Freshwater Legal Defense Fund


The above image is taken from a T-Shirt purchased at Sunday's rally for teacher and bible believing, Christian John Freshwater. The saying on the T-shirt may seem presumptuous, but God promises to support His own.

"For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. . ."
- - - 2 Chronicles 16:9 (NASB)

TAKE ACTION

Please seriously consider support Mr. Freshwater with a check to with his legal fees as he tries to defend himself because he dared to live by his Judeo-Christians principles.


FRESHWATER LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
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Please make your check payable to the:
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Community Council for Free Expression
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Mailing Address:
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c/o Trinity Assembly
1051 Beech Street
Mt. Vernon, OH 43050


12 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:57 AM

    Why is there a Defense Fund when there are no lawsuits filed?? Where is the money going to go if there aren't any filed? Are we safe to assume you are just raising money, and when you raise enough Mr Freshwater is filing a law suit?

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  2. Anonymous10:15 PM

    Please change the address for the Freshwater Defense Fund to 1051 Beech Street.

    I can answer anonymous about the funds..... While John Freshwater not filed a law suit he has had to hire lawyers to both advise him and defend him against the action the school board has begun. This has already cost him thousands of dollars.

    Any money that comes in beyond expenses for John's legal fees will be used to provide a scholarship for a college student who is an education major at a Christian University in Ohio.

    Don Matolyak
    Community Council For Free Expression

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  3. Thank you, Don -

    Thanks you for your comments and your clarification on the address. That was my nistake on the address. I have changed it to 1051 Beech street.

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  4. If god can create the earth in six days, surely he can create a lawyer who will defend John Freshwater pro bono?

    I'm spending my money on plastic dinosaurs.

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  5. Have 4th of July Mr. Freshwater, and thank you. We support you and know the truth.

    http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3817

    Shame on the Associated Press – The Truth About John Freshwater, A Deserving Teacher of the Year
    Canada Free Press ^ | 07/04/2008 | Yomin Postelnik

    Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 10:40:25 AM by Yomin Postelnik

    A detailed account of the character assassination leveled by the Associated Press against an Ohio teacher.

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040724/posts

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  6. Anonymous6:20 PM

    How audacious of the Freshwater camp to "quote" God. Isn't God in support of ALL people? This t-shirt portrays a message of God being AGAINST those not in support of Freshwater. Pastor Matolyak of all people should be couseling Freshwater to humble himself as Christ did, but instead is involved in the uplifting and praising of a man that blatantly was insubordinate of his superiors.

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  7. 6:20 PM 7/6/08 Anon -

    No, God DOES NOT support ALL people. "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that He may strongly support those WHOSE HEART IS COMPLETLEY HIS." This was John Freshwater's "problem." He was living out his Christian, God-fearing life. You can't do that in the government indoctrination centers today!

    You are correct that God is against those that despise and hate Him. God is a jealous God. Oprah Winfrey may not like that idea, but it is the truth. God is love, but He is also just. Many people want the love, but reject the just part.

    Sticking up for one's freedom is not insubordination it is courageous.

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  8. Anonymous10:20 PM

    Perhaps I misspoke (mis-typed?) yesterday...God LOVES everyone. Therefore, he does not "support" Mr. Freshwater over the school board, or vice versa.

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  9. Anonymous10:38 AM

    What about the branding? Where in the Bible does it mention branding children is okay?

    I would send money to defend religious freedom, but I will not defend the branding. That's child abuse.

    Why aren't you medntioning the branding? Does your silence mean you support it?

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  10. Anon 10:38 071208 -

    There was no branding. See related articles:

    http://agoodchoice.blogspot.com/2008/07/john-freshwater-in-his-own-defense.html and

    http://agoodchoice.blogspot.com/2008/07/fresh-truth-on-freshwater-case.html

    I agree deliberate branding or burning of a child would be abuse. However, the pictures circulating are not necessarily truthful. It will take a hearing (8/26) and the lawsuit to examine the "evidence" of the photo.

    John Freshwater stated that he did not burn or brand any child.

    There is some suspicion that the photos are not photos of any student resulting from the experiment done in the classroom.

    I heard Columbus area talk show host Bob Burney say that his grandson this past school year was a student in Mr. Freshwater's class - an eye witness and he told his grandfather that their was no branding.

    The branding issue was blown up by the Columbus Dispatch, the school board and the investigator - to embellish their position.

    We will see what happens as the hearing and the trial plays out . . .

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  11. Anonymous9:57 PM

    Gregjaye writes: “John Freshwater stated that he did not burn or brand any child.”

    Technically, I suppose, if you want to argue semantics. No, he did not press a red-hot metal object onto anyone’s skin in order to leave an identifying mark.

    But he did admit that he *marked* his own arm, and his students interviewed clearly report that Mr. Freshwater was “marking” them.

    http://www.dispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/local_news/stories/2008/06/19/Freshwater.pdf

    From page 8:

    He [Freshwater] said that he uses the device about twice a year and has done so for 21 years. At the end of the experiment the kids are excited and ask if they can touch it. He said that he demonstrates it on his own arm by making an “X” and then lets them touch it voluntarily. He said that the incident in question occurred in December 2007. He remembers getting from 3 to 8 volunteers, but couldn’t remember the order or all of the names.

    From page 9:

    “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. The all described the mark Mr. Freshwater put on his arm as a “cross”. One student stated Mr. Freshwater would mark the student with a cross unless the student requested a different type of marking. It was the default mark. The pictures below were provided by the parents.

    “There is some suspicion that the photos are not photos of any student resulting from the experiment done in the classroom.”

    Has Mr. Freshwater stated that? Surely that would have come up in the meeting he had with the principal the day after the experiment in question after the parent had filed a complaint.

    (also page 9 of document linked above)

    There’s also doubt about whether he was ever awarded even once, much less twice, a “Teacher of the Year” award, or who he received it from.

    “’A Christian newspaper, The Chronicle, had exactly the same sentence, and the meme has spread around Christian blogs like a brush fire, morphing into the claim that he got two “Teacher of the Year” awards somewhere along the way.’
    Unfortunately, it is false. I asked a teacher to look into it. It turns out that the Mount Vernon School District does not designate a “Teacher of the Year.” What Freshwater apparently got was a Distinguished Service Award, which was given in 2007 by the outgoing acting middle school principal and friend of Freshwater.”

    http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2008/07/freshwater-pres.html

    As this has not been completely substantiated, you may take it with the proverbial grain of salt. However, if he really did NOT get a “Teacher of the Year” award, or if he tried to misrepresent the educational validity of the organization from which he did get one, that will not be taken favorably in the court of law.

    “I heard Columbus area talk show host Bob Burney say that his grandson this past school year was a student in Mr. Freshwater's class - an eye witness and he told his grandfather that their was no branding.”

    If it was last semester, Mr. Freshwater had already been told to discontinue the experiment and in fact the tool had been confiscated. If it was the Fall semester, Freshwater already stated he does the experiment “twice a year”, so he might have been out of class or otherwise absent the one day it happened. Not seeing something yourself does not mean in didn’t happen. Also, we do not know whether he is using the same semantic meaning as Mr. Freshwater as I suggested above. Bob’s grandson’s logic could easily be, “Nope, no red-not irons, he just had this electrical device thingy, so see? No branding!

    “We will see what happens as the hearing and the trial plays out . . .”

    Yes we will. Whether he will win his appeal is up to the courts, but he is clearly not blameless, and clearly the Bible on the desk is the least of the issues here. As for other allegations, if you bothered to read the report I linked to, there is a clearly documented series of events showing that Mr. Freshwater had had ample opportunity for years to choose to follow the rules and teach what was required by the curriculum, and refrain from teaching what he was told not to, if he did not wish to be terminated from his position. The fact that he was allowed to do so for so long is regrettable. The previous school board members should have taken this seriously years ago, not waited for a kid to get burned and be caused pain before someone would take this seriously.

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  12. Anonymous11:06 PM

    I know, double post, but I'm on a roll.

    You next, Yomen.

    Wanna talk about character assassination? Your overly-long, fact-vacuous, hyperbole-ridden screed was the most horrible thing I’ve read from anyone, from any side of this issue, yet.

    The fact that you link to your own same article, twice, in one post , generally means you want to get more traffic there. I can only assume you somehow make money off it too.

    I noticed the Canadian Free Press doesn’t seem to allow comments. Hmmm.

    However, this site does:

    https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28865181&postID=4394858033972529353

    Canadian Free Press, what does that mean? Anyone is free to post any unsubstantiated thing here, or does it mean that all people posting are posting “for free”, i.e., CFP does not pay you to write for them? If so, well CFP, you certainly get what you pay for.

    Of course it’s OK for you or anyone to like Mr. Freshwater, it’s OK for you to have thought he was overall a good teacher. It’s OK for you to want him to keep his job and sympathize with him. But he did a lot of stuff that was ill-advised at best, and outright insubordination at worst. He made mistakes. He is a human being. Being a Christian, last I heard, does not make one perfect. Christians can err. And they should be humble and admit their wrongs and move on, and they certainly should never, ever, lie about someone else to protect themselves. That’s what this will inevitably come to, if this suit is pursued - Either Mr. Freshwater will feel he has to lie to protect himself, or he will have to accuse his former students, colleagues and/or bosses of lying about him. What a dreadful thing to have to do, or endure, for all involved!

    It’s very simple: If Mr. Freshwater did not believe that he could adequately teach a science class in public school as he was instructed, he needed to leave public school and teach at another school where his job requirements and his beliefs would not have been in such apparent “conflict”.

    The right and honorable thing for him to do right now (not to mention the more fiscally prudent one), would be to drop the appeal, accept the firing, and start applying for other jobs in the area.

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