Day 8 of the John Freshwater Inquisition

Righting First Amendment Wrongs

The John Freshwater contract hearing continued today. See my previous articles and comments regarding this case, including the first seven days of the hearing, which were held last October and restarted on Tuesday of this week.

Today, Kelly Hamilton, Freshwater’s attorney, continued to question Thomas Herlevi, owner of HR on Call, the firm hired by the Mount Vernon Board of Education to investigate allegations against the middle school science teacher. According to MountVernonNews.com, reporter Pam Schehl, special emphasis today was put on information Herlevi found regarding the alleged Tesla coil injury.

To me the big story is what happened outside of the hearing room. It was the Columbus Dispatch editorial that was published today in the midst of the hearing. I will comment on some of what the malicious editor(s) stated.

“A TEACHING MOMENT”

The liberally biased and Columbus based Dispatch newspaper, a big player in the Opposition Media (opposing everything that America has stood for since its founding – its Judeo-Christian roots, its respect for God, its values and virtues in favor of being perfectly politically correct, - according to the most extreme of special interests – including the homosexual advocates, the abortion lobby, the national teachers unions, the ACLU-types, etc) took the opportunity of the John Freshwater “trial” to try to make an example of Freshwater. They have him convicted already, before the hearing has even been completed. This is what they have done all along. It was this yellow journalistic rag that leaked the results of the Investigator's Report to the public even before John Freshwater or his attorneys had an opportunity to review it. They had him convicted back before the “trial” began. Apparently this is their form of Amerikan justice.

The disgraceful Dispatch held Freshwater up as an example of what not to permit to occur in our what amounts to government indoctrination centers, “The unfortunate experience (the Freshwater situation) should be a cautionary lesson to other school districts dealing with teachers whose personal beliefs get in the way of their responsibility to educate: Don't look the other way for years, even if the teacher is well-liked and personable. The mistake was not in firing Freshwater but in waiting so long to do it.”

Are they suggesting personal beliefs be outlawed? Is this Leningrad or Moscow or Havana or Ho Chi Min City? No, it is Mount Vernon, Ohio, USA! Are teachers expected to check there personal faith at the door before they enter the school building? I do not think that that is what our Founders had in mind when they established this nation.

The editorial also fails to mention that Freshwater was an excellent teacher. His students did better than the other Mount Vernon middle school science students on the state tests. This was conveniently overlooked by the very biased, agenda-driven Dispatch. Apparently a gift and a love to teach and motivate kids to higher standards and higher achievement and higher aspirations is no longer necessary or important in 21st century American schools. Here we are driving away a great teacher instead of fostering and encouraging him. What is this telling our teachers?

Another interesting point made by the Columbus Dispatch was their statement that “The complaint of the "branding," brought by one student's parents, was shocking, but it wasn't new to school officials; neither were the complaints about Freshwater's religious comments nor, most important, that he used a science classroom to promote nonscientific, religiously based ideas of creation.” Did you catch that last phrase? Isn’t that precisely what Darwinian Evolution itself is? The Darwinian Theory of Evolution is a flaw-filled theory. It has more weaknesses than strengths. Aren’t you promoting the secular-humanistic religion when you advance that creed? Is it okay to promote one “religion” and not another viewpoint?

The editorial declares, “All public-school students are entitled to education free of religious indoctrination, yet he told students that homosexuality is a sin and declared that some non-Christian religions are false.”

So are the editors of the Dispatch saying that there should be a separation of God from the state? Are they saying that children should be protected from being poisoned by their Creator? Is the Dispatch saying that one type of indoctrination (Marxism, evolutionism, radical environmentalism, feminism) is preferred over sharing of centuries-old truth and principles?

By the way, the Bible, the ultimate authority for man, not John Freshwater, declares homosexual behavior to be sinful. The truth is that homosexual behavior is abnormal, immoral, unnatural, and unhealthy. That may not be politically correct, it may not even be tolerant, but it is truthful! But I guess that is no long the standard we hold forth, now is it?

Newsflash, not everyone who declares themselves to be “Christians” are Christians. There are many apostate Christians. For me anyone who supports, promotes abortion or homosexuality is suspect of not being a true Christian. Again, truth may not matter anymore to some.

Furthermore, I do not buy the Dispatch editors comment that Freshwater “(D)emonstrated disregard for science. . .(and this is one of the major reasons which) . . . . disqualifies him to teach in public schools.” Questioning evolution is NOT disregarding science. It is itself scientific inquiry. It is critical thinking to challenge the status quo. However, in the minds of the Dispatch editors apparently the status quo, in this case, the false theory of evolution, is the only acceptable standard.

I had to laugh (because it is otherwise so heart wrenching and I didn’t want to cry) at the concluding paragraph of the Dispatch editorial, “Other school districts with budding John Freshwaters should take heed. Confronting a popular teacher is controversial, but preserving sound education is essential.” Really? So promoting godless, secular-humanistic Marxist indoctrination is a better way of preserving sound education? I don’t think so.

LESSON LEARNED?

The more the dizzy Dispatch and other supporters of our present failed public schools talk and argue for its continuance. The more they promote its God-free environment. The more ammunition and reason they give parents for seriously considering yanking their children out of those literal hell-holes, destructive dens of iniquity. The time, in fact, is now to do so. See the Exodus Mandate Project.

The John Freshwater case has also been instructive in pointing out how far our public schools have fallen in terms of what is being taught and what is important to the so-called educators. What they are most concerned about? It seems to me, that it is preserving the status quo – an entrenched failed system itself. Anyone who dares to come up against that system in anyway is a marked man or woman.

What is ultimately at stake here in this case is – freedom to express one’s faith and academic freedom.