John Freshwater Facing Legal Storms

Righting 1st Amendment Wrongs

The mighty winds, spawns of Hurricane Ike, that blew through central Ohio last evening, reminded me of all the legal issues swirling around a middle school science teacher, who is awaiting his day in court, suspended without pay. I think of the poor students caught in the eye of the hurricane, who are missing the teaching and caring of one exceptional teacher. What a tragedy.

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Prior to last week’s school board meeting Mr. Freshwater’s Pastor informed the crowd assembled in the parking lot that his termination hearing will begin in early October. The School Board will provide their side of the case to the referee for several days. Then sometime in the middle of the month John Freshwater will be able to present his case to the same referee. Mr. Freshwater is seeking to make at least his portion of the hearing open to the public. Once both parties present their respective cases to the referee, he will then make his final recommendation to the Mount Vernon School Board, which I suspect will be later that month.

It seems that like in many of our court cases justice move snail pace slow.

Also, the original lawsuit filed by the parents of the anonymous student which precipitated much of this outlandish, frivolous and insulting assault on Mr. Freshwater constitutional and first amendment rights of freedom of religion and freedom of expression is proceeding through the courts. So is Mr. Freshwater’s own countersuit against the anonymous complainants working its way through the court system. Those court cases could drag on a long time.

See my previous articles if you would like to become more informed about this most interesting and important case.

The story below was written by Donna Willis and appeared on the NBC-4 (Columbus, Ohio) online website Friday 9/12/08. It gives a bit of the background of the John Freshwater story.

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio -- The Mount Vernon teacher who was accused of bringing the Bible into the classroom has filed a counterclaim to a pending lawsuit, NBC 4 reported.

John Freshwater claimed emotional distress, lost time from work and anxiety in his lawsuit. Plus, he wanted this case to be heard before a jury.

Accused of bringing the Bible to class, making inappropriate statements to students and causing physical injury to one student, the school will decide in October whether Freshwater will lose his job.

Here's where the case stood Friday:

Freshwater's counterclaim stated he's endured emotional distress, lost time from work and anxiety.

He also wants the federal case to be heard before a jury.

He faces a termination hearing scheduled for October 1st.

Stay tuned to NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com for more information on this developing story.