If you read atheist’s blogs, you probably already know about John Freshwater. From wikipedia:
The local school board voted to dismiss Freshwater in June because “Freshwater preached his Christian beliefs about how the world began, discredited evolution and didn’t teach the required science curriculum, the board says. He was told to stop teaching creationism and intelligent design, but he continued to do so, an investigation found.” In addition, the school board released a report showing that Freshwater branded a Christian cross into one student’s arm and several teachers complained for eleven years about Freshwater’s incorrect teaching of evolution. Two of the parents’ of the children branded filed a lawsuit against Freshwater and the school district. He gave an extra-credit assignment for students to see the pro-intelligent design movie Expelled:No Intelligence Allowed, using Jonathan Wells’ discredited Icons of Evolution and work by convicted felon Kent Hovind. According to CNN, “The report also cites evidence that Mr. Freshwater told his students that ’science is wrong because the Bible states that homosexuality is a sin and so anyone who is gay chooses to be gay and is therefore a sinner’.”
Additionally:
The Ten Commandments together with other posters of a religious nature were posted in Mr. Freshwater’s classroom. Most were removed after Mr. White’s letter of April 14, 2008, but at least one poster remained which Mr. Freshwater was again instructed to remove on April 16, 2008, but did not do so.
Mr. Freshwater engaged in prayer during FCA meetings in violation of the district’s legal obligations for monitoring such organizations.
(Source)
I’ve heard a few things lately that the right-wing/Christian media have focused specifically on one issue: keeping a Bible on his desk (which is not any kind of offense, and certainly not one that would get him fired). They continually harp on this one issue and ignore everything else – creating the perception that Freshwater was fired for one and only one thing: keeping a Bible on his desk. Obviously, this gets the Christian / conservative / pro-free-speech people riled up because it creates the illusion of a heavy-handed liberal establishment firing a guy for having a Bible on his desk – as if the “liberals” are out to ban religion, and having a Bible can get you fired from a job.
Here’s a video clip from Breitbart.tv titled “Hundreds Turn Out to Back Science Teacher Fired for Keeping Bible on His Desk”. See how long you have to watch the video before they even mention anything Freshwater did wrong (other than the allegation that he kept a Bible on his desk).
And now watch the ensuing hysteria:
We know it is almost criminal to carry a Bible and worse to have it in your desk at a public school–if you are a techer.This is the state of things in our nation,where christian science teachers are no longer welcomed at public schools nation wide,just because they believe in the Bible… We are in the days in which christianism is gonna be outlawed in the US,while paganism and atheism is embraced gladly by the masses that have hardened their hearts and hate and fight any mention of God anywhere in the country,especially in the public arena…May God help us!!!!!!!!!!! (Source)
It seems obvious this man is being persectuted because of his faith. I would go so far as to call it a witchhunt..being accused of burning a cross into a student’s arm as if he is some crazed zealot because it is well known that he is Christian. To fire a man with over his faith would be UNHEARD of…
(Source)
“I would go so far as to call it a witchhunt..”
Funny, I would consider what has happened to P.Z. Myers in the recent weeks more a witchhunt. I wonder how many death threats Freshwater has gotten from the horrible ‘Pagans and Atheists’.
“would go so far as to call it a witchhunt.”
And who invented witchhunts? You might say that this is some kind of inquisition, or a crusade against Mr. Freshwater.
Bear in mind that among Freshwater’s allies are a group of Christian Nation activists Minutemen United, and they showed up for the BOE meeting. Also in that in that 400-person crowd were 50 or more who supported the Board’s action, all local so far as I could tell. Further, a good part of the crowd supporting Freshwater was from out of the district — Freshwater’s pastor asked for support from a number of pastors across central Ohio, and judging from the ‘foreign’ county-coded license plates in the parking lot there were people from at least four counties and three states at the meeting. Watching the prayer meeting in the parking lot before the meeting, those ‘foreigners’ joined it, confirming their support of Freshwater. His local support is substantially less impressive than it appears at first glance.
Wikipedia is wrong in a couple of respects. Most notably, Freshwater hasn’t been fired (yet). The Board initiated termination proceedings in late June. The next step is a hearing before a referee on August 26, which, I am told now, will most likely not be public. Much as I don’t like private hearings on these kinds of matters, given the difficulty the crowd had in controlling its verbal reactions at the meeting Aug 4, that’s probably a good thing. The hearing would be a raucous zoo if it were held in public.