John Freshwater, center, addresses a sizable crowd on Mount Vernon’s Public Square Wednesday afternoon, proclaiming his First Amendment rights to keep a Bible on his desk at school. With Freshwater are his wife, Nancy, right, and Dave Daubenmire, left, of Pass the Salt Ministries. (Photo by Pam Schehl)
.
(MOUNT VERNON, OHIO) Mount Vernon public school teacher John Freshwater was recently told by his middle school principal to remove the 10 commandments display from his collage of historic documents displayed on windows in his classroom. He was also told to hide his bible from his students. For the past 20 years he has had his personal bible visible on his desk.
Here is a chronology of the John Freshwater story as reported on WorldNetDaily (First article) and the MountVernonNew.com (All other articles):
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - Teacher keeps Bible, cites God-given rights Principal ordered Good Book hidden from students – Here is the original story published on WorldNetDaily that outlines the story.
Thursday, April 17, 2008 - Wednesday afternoon rally in support of teacher – Over 100 student, parents and community members rallied on behalf of Mr. Freshwater.
Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Students rally in support of science teacher – the good guys - High school and middle school students, parents and community members signed petitions supporting Mr. Freshwater.
Saturday, 4/19/08 - ACLU supports MV school board decision – the bad guys - Right here you know the man is on the right side of the law. 90% of the time the anti-American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is involved it is destructive in nature . . .
Monday, 4/20/08 – After reading the above stories on WorldNetDaily and MountVernonNews.com, and listening to a couple of Columbus area radio talk shows, I concluded that Mr. Freshwater’s rights were being violated and sent the following email to the members of the Mount Vernon Board of Education on his behalf:
Dear Mount Vernon School Board Members:
This is an email in support of Mr. John Freshwater’s constitutional right to freely express his faith by having his personal bible on his desk. To prohibit him from doing so would infringe on his rights as a citizen.This is not Communist Red China, where bibles are confiscated routinely and where religion is oppressed. This country, America, contrary to those who want to revise our American history was founded by Christians who read their bibles and acted upon its teachings and principles. In fact, our founding fathers honored God and His Word as opposed to expelling Him and His Word, which our courts have wrongly done in recent times.
Surely it is time to draw the line on the widespread anti-Christian, anti-American bigotry and sentiment and to return to the principles and values of our founders. The Mount Vernon area is strongly conservative and there is an overwhelming Christian element and influence. Please take a stand and ask Mr. Stephen Short to withdraw his demand that Mr. John Freshwater remove his personal bible from the top of his desk.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with having the 10 Commandments posted with other key historic documents, which Mr. Short also demanded that Mr. Freshwater remove. After all, much of our law was based on the principles outlined in that important guideline.
I would be willing to provide the Mount Vernon School Board with financial support of at least $____ if you were sued by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Education Association or any other despotic organization as a result of your action to exonerate Mr. Freshwater and to allow him the freedom to exercise his faith by retaining his personal bible on top of his desk.
It is truly shameful that things have gotten to this point that we even have to have this communication isn’t it? Unfortunately, there are forces in our society that are working to destroy America. Please, I urge you to do what is right.
Today, Tuesday, 4/22/08 - Teacher conduct subject of investigation - the MountVernonNews.com reported that the School Board had decided to have an independent party investigate allegations made against eighth-grade science teacher John Freshwater. Apparently there was more to this story than what was reported so far. Up to this point there was no mention of any misconduct on the part of the teacher
However, the MountVernonNews.com reported that, “In a press release issued Tuesday afternoon, Superintendent Steve Short said, “The allegations against Mr. Freshwater are very serious. This is not about his personal Bible on his desktop. It is about the totality of his conduct.” . . .
The article goes on to describe a couple of allegations against Mr. Freshwater that were not brought out last week.
It is interesting that MountVernonNews.com relates, “While the independent investigation is being conducted, an administrator will be in the classroom with Freshwater, monitoring his activities to ensure board policy is followed and students’ rights are protected.” Did he rape a student? Did he strike a student? No, he may have participated in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) meeting instead of merely “monitoring” the activity. The man may even have had the audacity to pray with the children in that FCA meeting! For shame, how dare he “violate” the students rights and dare exercise his faith!
The MountVernonNews.com article adds, ““As a public school system,” Short said, we “cannot teach, promote or favor any religion or religious beliefs. Our obligation is not to endorse or establish any religion under the First Amendment, but we have an obligation to protect our students’ rights. We are hoping that an independent investigation will get to the truth of the allegations so we can make appropriate decisions as to what should be done going forward.””
.
Our public school have been so confused by and intimidated by the ACLUs that they can no longer think or act logically. There is no separation of church and state, no separation of God from the state anywhere in the Constitution. The exact opposite is true. Actually our Founders recognized that our rights come from God, not the state. Our rights are inalienable.
So now our school administrators and school boards must protect our children from being exposed not to pedophiles, not to rapists, not to child molesters, not to drug addicts and dealers, not to homosexuals and abortion providers, not to communist subversives, but to God? This is pure insanity and must come to an end starting now - here is the line in the sand. This is un-American! Since when has God become Public Enemy No. 1 in America?
“Wow, let’s hope the same thing happens here in November!”
