One Hot School Board Meetin’

Righting 1st Amendment Wrongs

(MOUNT VERNON, OHIO) It was the regular first-Monday of the month school board meeting for the Mount Vernon City School District Board. Schedule for 7:30 PM the meeting was delayed 20-25 minutes because upwards of 500 people tried to cram into the Middle School Library to take in the deliberations of this important meeting.

What made this school board important? John Freshwater, who is embroiled in a controversy of his right to keep his personal Bible on his classroom desk, would have a chance to present his case in public to the school board. It was his side of the story that was terribly short-changed and maybe deliberately misreported by the media, especially the liberal propaganda purveyor to central Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch. It was also overlooked, for the most part, in the recently completed investigative report commissioned by the Mount Vernon City School District Board. That report was at best a hatchet job.

I attended the relocated board meeting. In the new digs I had a much better view of the proceedings - sitting at the end of the fourth row -than I did standing and peering between the stacks in the middle school library. Talking about crowd control. Think about trying to fit 500 people into a typical school library. The local fire chief who visited midway during the relocated board meeting, would have freaked out had he seen the wall-to-wall people sardined into the inadequate capacity.

Twenty-six people availed themselves of the opportunity to speak for and against John Freshwater. Most were well prepared and spoke convincingly. Some rightfully argued against the false interpretation and false notion that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the separation of church and state. This is an atrocious lie perpetrated mostly by God-haters and people who defy absolutes, especially absolute morality. A precocious few spoke praised the actions of the school board in moving to terminate John Freshwater’s employment. More spoke fondly of Mr. Freshwater as an excellent example of living Biblical Christianity, of being a model of effectiveness as a teacher and mentor to other teachers. One peer even spoke of having her classroom kitty corner from Mr. Freshwater’s and watching as he would personally welcome each and every student each day into his class. He would do this by shaking hands or patting the student on the back. Wow! In 18 years of schooling I can never remember every being greeted that way by any teacher. The guy is exception.

But maybe the standard that our school administrations, school boards and teachers today is conformity and mediocrity, and not excellence. The product being produced, the grossly unfit and undereducated students, is stark evidence to that reality. Interestingly, the only science class in the Mount Vernon Middle school to pass the state proficiency test this year was Mr. Freshwater's! Again, obviously and God-forbid, we cannot tolerate excellence in our schools.

FINALLY FRESHWATER GETS HIS SAY

But let’s get to the heart of the matter. Let’s get to the real reason why 500 people showed up to offer support for this beleaguered Christian champion of the classroom. The Mount Vernon News, the local daily newspaper service Mount Vernon and Knox County and environs had a comprehensive article about last night’s board meeting. See the more sketchy Columbus Dispatch coverage here. The following is a transcript of Mr. Freshwater’s extended remarks to the School Board. He was allowed to speak longer than the 3 minutes allotted to the other 25 speakers. Here is his own defense in his own words. Let them speak for themselves.

“I’ve been a public school teacher for 24 years — 21 years in this building. I take my responsibility for teaching seriously. And I feel like I’ve done a good job. I’ve done an excellent job. My personnel file, 240 pages of it, I have no reprimands. It’s clean. It’s absolutely clean, 240 pages. I have excellent evaluations. I have no written reprimands against me.

“It is my understanding that the members of this board of education have elected to have my termination hearing heard by a referee. A referee. Why not you? ... Because you have chosen not to hear the facts for yourself firsthand, I want to make certain there’s no confusion in the translation of the evidence and the testimony from the referee to the members of the board of education. No matter what you hear or perceive that you hear, I want you to know the following facts:

“One. I never, never branded or burnt a person. I have never branded or burnt myself. I have never branded or burnt or put a religious mark on my family. I have never done that to a student.
“Two: I never taught evolution and creation in a public classroom. (The written text reads, ‘I have never taught creationism nor intelligent design in a public classroom.’)

“Three: I have never taught anything in the public classroom that was prohibited by the mandates of the curriculum for state standards.

“Four: I have never exceeded the boundaries or the parameters established for being a teacher monitor, facilitator or supervisor of FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In fact, I never received any training about how to do so until this year. When I did receive that training, I was pleased to learn that I have been monitoring, facilitating and supervising exactly as mandated by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, (according to the document Superintendent Short had given me).

“I have been told that the members of the school board likely have a preconceived notion of the facts surrounding these untrue allegations. I pray that each one of you has the patience, the courage and the professionalism to be unbiased to proceed on target until after the facts have been presented. You have to keep coming back to this question: What makes sense here? What makes sense here? Why did it take so long to come up with the allegations against me, if I have been acting in violation for 21 years? The answer is, I have done nothing wrong. I have done nothing wrong. Please hear me on that.

.

.

“This case is, and remains to be, my abridged, my paraphrased personal Bible on my desk.”

He was warmly greeted as he approached the packed (SRO) high school theater in the gymnasium, where the school board meeting was moved to accommodate the larger than expected crowd of supports and dissenters. He was loudly and 'longly' cheered as he completed his prepared words and walked off the stage back into the audience. A few more speakers pro and con spoke, but it was all anti-climatic. For nearly 90 minutes or more the open public speech making was carried out. Almost as an afterthought the regular school board meeting was held to what I expected was a sparse gathering as most headed out to the parking lots. I wonder if they reconvened back to the school library . . . no probably not.

See Tracy Townsend's 10 TV News, Columbus video report, "Suspended Teacher Defends Self."

WHAT'S NEXT?

Indeed, what impact, if any, will the overwhelming turnover of support for Mr. Freshwater have on the board? Or did they already make up their minds in April to remove this vestige of godly Christian influence in their school district? It will be interesting to see what the “impartial referee” decides, since apparently the school board itself seems unwilling to make the difficult decision. A hearing is set for August 26 where Mr. Freshwater’s case will be formally tried and prosecuted.