MOUNT VERNON, Ohio, July 6, 2012 /Christian Newswire/
-- The Ohio Supreme Court has granted The Rutherford Institute's appeal
to hear the case of John Freshwater, a Christian teacher who was fired
for keeping religious articles in his classroom and for using teaching
methods that encourage public school students to think critically about
the school's science curriculum, particularly as it relates to evolution
theories. Freshwater, a 24-year veteran in the classroom, was suspended
by the Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education in 2008 and
officially terminated in January 2011. The School Board justified its
actions by accusing Freshwater of improperly injecting religion into the
classroom by giving students "reason to doubt the accuracy and/or
veracity of scientists, science textbooks and/or science in general."
The Board also claimed that Freshwater failed to remove "all religious
articles" from his classroom, including a Bible.
"Academic
freedom was once the bedrock of American education. That is no longer
the state of affairs, as this case makes clear," stated John W.
Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "What we need today
are more teachers and school administrators who understand that young
people don't need to be indoctrinated. Rather, they need to be taught
how to think for themselves."
In
June 2008, the Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education
voted to suspend John Freshwater, a Christian with a 20-year teaching
career at Mount Vernon Middle School, citing concerns about his conduct
and teaching materials, particularly as they related to the teaching of
evolution. Earlier that year, school officials reportedly ordered
Freshwater, who had served as the faculty appointed facilitator,
monitor, and supervisor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes student
group for 16 of the 20 years that he taught at Mount Vernon, to remove
"all religious items" from his classroom, including a Ten Commandments
poster displayed on the door of his classroom, posters with Bible
verses, and his personal Bible which he kept on his desk. Freshwater
agreed to remove all items except for his Bible. Showing their support
for Freshwater, students even organized a rally in his honor. They also
wore t-shirts with crosses painted on them to school and carried Bibles
to class. School officials were seemingly unswayed by the outpouring of
support for Freshwater.
In
fact, despite the fact that the Board's own policy states that because
religious traditions vary in their treatment of science, teachers should
give unbiased instruction so that students may evaluate it "in
accordance with their own religious tenets," school officials suspended
and eventually fired Freshwater, allegedly for criticizing evolution and
using unapproved materials to facilitate classroom discussion of
origins of life theories. Freshwater appealed the termination in state
court, asserting that the school's actions violated his rights under the
First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and
constituted hostility toward religion. A Common Pleas judge upheld the
School Board's decision, as did the Fifth District Court of Appeals,
without analyzing these constitutional claims. In appealing to the Ohio
Supreme Court, Institute attorneys argued that the Board through its
actions violated the First Amendment academic freedom rights of both
Freshwater and his students.
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