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Ohio teacher burned cross on kids' arms

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 Achilles
06-26-2008, 9:20 PM
#1
Link to text article (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D91DVT200&show_article=1)
Link to YT video of local news story (http://youtube.com/watch?v=gvF116lD310)
The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.

School board members voted 5-0 to fire Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater. Board attorney David Millstone said Freshwater is entitled to a hearing to challenge the dismissal.

Freshwater denies wrongdoing and will request such a hearing... And from the article:But Lynda Weston, the district's director of teaching and learning, told investigators that she has dealt with complaints about Freshwater for much of her 11-year term at the district, the report said.
Suck
 Ravnas
06-26-2008, 10:36 PM
#2
:giveup:It's a shame I guess, more creepy religous stuff is circling than usual it seems. Very Odd.
 M@RS
06-27-2008, 12:43 AM
#3
Watch out! we have a sadistic teacher on our hands!!!! :lol:
 MdKnightR
06-27-2008, 1:04 AM
#4
:disaprove More bad press for the noblest of professions.
 90SK
06-27-2008, 1:13 AM
#5
Yikes.
 TriggerGod
06-27-2008, 1:25 AM
#6
Teachers these days... maybe they should do what they did to kids in the 1800's to the teachers (paddle) when something like this happens
 Nedak
06-27-2008, 1:43 AM
#7
Ps-ps-ps-ps-psycho!
 General LiWar
06-27-2008, 2:06 AM
#8
1) you can't force religion on anyone, they have to accept it for themselves
2) think about how you're going about this before you end up giving a bad name to Christians.
3) you're going to get fired for burning anything into a students arm what are you thinking
 Rabish Bini
06-27-2008, 4:00 AM
#9
Now that's just wrong. I'm a Christian, but it honestly doesn't bother me what other people's religions are. All paths lead to God, you just have to choose one, is what I think.

And that teacher, disgraceful, that's not acceptable no matter where you are or what you do. :tsk:
 EnderWiggin
06-27-2008, 7:53 AM
#10
Teachers these days... maybe they should do what they did to kids in the 1800's to the teachers (paddle) when something like this happens

.....No. Start another thread about corporal punishment if you wish (not sure if it's on topic really) but I disagree wholeheartedly.

Anyway - sad to see something like this happen. MdKnightR is right. Overall, it's a valiant thing, to teach.

_EW_
 NightHammer
06-27-2008, 9:15 AM
#11
I'm betting every time people hear about some teacher doing something insane like this it doesn't help the overall respectability of teachers. Some will give all teachers a bad rap because of what a few that do things like this.
 Da_Man_2423
06-27-2008, 10:01 AM
#12
I'm betting every time people hear about some teacher doing something insane like this it doesn't help the overall respectability of teachers. Some will give all teachers a bad rap because of what a few that do things like this.

Eh...not really. Why would this lead people to believe ALL teachers are like this?
 General LiWar
06-27-2008, 10:45 AM
#13
Eh...not really. Why would this lead people to believe ALL teachers are like this?

It wouldn't, it just gives christians (especially the teachers now) a bad reputation
 NightHammer
06-27-2008, 11:55 AM
#14
That's what I meant. People hear more about this than the good teachers some or all of the time. It hurts the reputation of the teachers.
 ForeverNight
06-27-2008, 11:58 AM
#15
What kind of stupid is this guy?

He's hurting Christiandom as a whole, and giving Teachers a bad rap... and then he only gets fired?

Where's the justice? If this guy did indeed burn a cross into a student's arm, then why the heck isn't he serving time?

Stupid decision made by a stupid person...
 Arcesious
06-27-2008, 12:04 PM
#16
Yeah... This is quite saddening. I have to agree with what everyone else seems to be saying about this... I mean, what does burning a cross on a person's arm have to do with Christianity, or what it teaches, for that matter? And why isn't he getting higher punishment?
 El Sitherino
06-27-2008, 3:08 PM
#17
All this does is make me think twice about exposing skin to a guy wanting me to accept his god. There's no reason to be suspicious of teachers after this, no reason to be suspicious of all Christians.

There's all kinds of crazies, and like all crazies, this one had his vocal point. Christianity is his spark, go figure.


What I wonder is if his cat talked to him.
 MdKnightR
06-27-2008, 3:28 PM
#18
What I wonder is if his cat talked to him.

I have it on good authority that it was his Bobblehead Jesus. :lol:
 Jae Onasi
06-28-2008, 2:39 PM
#19
11 years of complaints? Assuming he's been branding kids all that time, why hasn't anyone brought this guy up on charges of assault/battery? He's abusing kids physically--the religion part is completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it's a cross, a crescent, a swastika, or the emblem of the ACLU. It's just plain wrong to burn a kid.

If he did that to my kids, I'd have a. called the cops and child protection services and taken it up the chain of command as needed b.gone immediately to the school board to get the guy removed on grounds of endangerment c. if necessary filed suit since he's violated my kids' religious freedoms, and d. filed a complaint not only with the state board of education but also the state medical licensing board as practicing medicine without a license (a stretch on that, to be sure, but clearly this burn wasn't for something therapeutic like removing a mole).
Then I'd seriously consider removing my child from that school system until I could be assured that my child was safe from teacher abuse and that it wasn't going to take 11 years to fix a problem like this. I will say that I'm sure the vast majority of the teachers are wonderful people who would not do something awful like this and who are likely as appalled by this as I am.
 Nedak
06-28-2008, 2:42 PM
#20
If he did that to my kids, I'd have a. called the cops and child protection services and taken it up the chain of command as needed b.gone immediately to the school board to get the guy removed on grounds of endangerment c.

I would have done all of that AFTER I kicked the guy's a**
 mur'phon
06-28-2008, 3:05 PM
#21
From what I have gathered the burning thing was a one time ocurence, the long time complaints was for preaching during classes/"modifying the curiculum".
 NightHammer
06-28-2008, 6:49 PM
#22
I would have done all of that AFTER I kicked the guy's a**

I hear ya on that! Whether I was the parent or the kid I would do the same thing.
 Relenzo2
07-02-2008, 10:56 AM
#23
Eh...not really. Why would this lead people to believe ALL teachers are like this?

I'd be more worried it'd lead people to believe all Christians are that way. People like me. Ow!

But if it took 11 years for the ****oles on the school board to shut him down and lock him up (and even now he didn't go to jail, I agree he should) then we obviously have a whole schoolfull of sadists here. And aren't the students complaining more? Maybe it's not just the teachers, then again they probably took a lot of psycho-abuse just like most victems.
 Q
07-02-2008, 10:44 PM
#24
OK, the article isn't clear on this, but did he hold the kid down a la Torquemada and burn him? Because it would be rather difficult to forcefully burn a cross on someone if they weren't restrained first, correct? Unless, of course, it was voluntary.

Oh, and I love the theme here:
A sadistic control-freak teacher is a rather common occurance and must be acceptable, as I ran into plenty of them during the long, dark years of my (cough) "education." But a sadistic control-freak Christian (shudder) teacher should be drawn and quartered. :D

Seriously, though, I'm not condoning anything that this idiot, who had no business teaching in a public school or any school for that matter, did.
 Jae Onasi
07-03-2008, 1:23 AM
#25
Someone under the age of 18 cannot give consent to be burned.
 Q
07-03-2008, 1:30 AM
#26
You learn something new every day. :)

Still, how did it happen? The details are rather fuzzy.
 Rev7
07-03-2008, 1:34 AM
#27
This is interesting. The teacher did wrong. Simple as that.
 Da_man
07-03-2008, 2:07 AM
#28
11 years of complaints? Assuming he's been branding kids all that time, why hasn't anyone brought this guy up on charges of assault/battery? He's abusing kids physically--the religion part is completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it's a cross, a crescent, a swastika, or the emblem of the ACLU. It's just plain wrong to burn a kid.
Yet they still need to vote to fire him. :disaprove Is this what democracy has come to, voting on stuff that should be common sense?
 PoiuyWired
07-04-2008, 2:54 AM
#29
1) you can't force religion on anyone, they have to accept it for themselves
2) think about how you're going about this before you end up giving a bad name to Christians.
3) you're going to get fired for burning anything into a students arm what are you thinking

Well, you can BRAINWASH someone for starters...

Yet they still need to vote to fire him. :disaprove Is this what democracy has come to, voting on stuff that should be common sense?

Well, "common sense" changes over time... somewhere in time its "common sense" for girls to "go back to the kitchen"... somewhere in time burning religious symbols on people is an act of "protection against evil"

So be happy there is a vote taking place. But yeah he should be throw out from the window, before/after the whole legal action thingy... Its assault.
 Relenzo2
07-08-2008, 7:57 PM
#30
OK, the article isn't clear on this, but did he hold the kid down a la Torquemada and burn him? Because it would be rather difficult to forcefully burn a cross on someone if they weren't restrained first, correct? Unless, of course, it was voluntary.

Oh, and I love the theme here:
A sadistic control-freak teacher is a rather common occurance and must be acceptable, as I ran into plenty of them during the long, dark years of my (cough) "education." But a sadistic control-freak Christian (shudder) teacher should be drawn and quartered. :D

Seriously, though, I'm not condoning anything that this idiot, who had no business teaching in a public school or any school for that matter, did.

First paragraph: Good point, that's why I suggested the teacher was surely messing with these kids heads. Second: I don't care what religion he is, I'd send him to jail and make him play *insert sadistacally bad video game of your choice* for the next 10 years! The point is he slipped and got caught. For instance, my swim teachers are obsessed, make violent threats, overwork their kids and the pool is almost below 60 degrees... but they never will get exposed as crazies because they never cross the public attack line. We shouldn't let people go that far and STILL get away, as it will lead to violence. Maybe. Or perhaps I'm a crazy conspiricy theorist (Mr. Pringles is trying to kill you! No, just kidding.)
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