A Little More from Mount Vernon Schools

In further news from Mount Vernon School District, they have settled a federal law suit with a student whose family sued because the student was being taught religion in science class in violation of his constitutional rights. The school board's insurance co. agreed to pay $55oo to the the family and $1 each to 2 other individuals plus paying $115,500 of the plaintiffs' legal fees. A similar suit is still pending against John Freshwater.

An article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer mentions that the suit against the school was was brought by the family of the boy who said he was burned by Freshwater. At the end of the article, it is pointed out that 12 fellow teachers have testified on Freshwater's behalf. The article doesn't mention that most of those teachers are also members of the church Freshwater attends or that some of them had also been promoting their religion at school.

What angered me most in the Plain Dealer article was the mention that the plaintiff family has moved to another town and school district do to the backlash against them in Mount Vernon. Those doing the backlashing would, of course, be the loving, forgiving, good, evangelical Xians of the area who apparently feel that as long as their dogma is being taught, that trumps contractual agreements, state and federal laws, and any truth that might indicate Freshwater's guilt. Speaking of that kind of Xian, the photo in the Plain Dealer article shows Freshwater standing next to god's playground bully; Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Min.

More on the Freshwater Case

The Freshwater Hearing was back in session today and the injured boy, Zachery Dennis and his mother, Jenifer Dennis took the stand today to give testimony about Zach’s injury that was inflicted by John Freshwater and about Christianity taught in the classroom. Richard B. Hoppe, a visiting professor at Kenyon College has been following the case and posting info at http://pandasthumb.org/.
Freshwater’s lawyer insisted that the injured boy’s identity be made public the first day of the hearing, and I was worried that he might be harassed or hurt by passionate supporters of Freshwater, but, thank goodness, that appears not to have happened. Jenifer Dennis gave her first interview to the Columbus Dispatch to comment on the case and to promote her efforts to get state laws changed to protect the identity of young people in similar cases. She has set up a website: www.protectingstudents.org to help with the effort.
The Dispatch story can be found at: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/10/28/Freshconference.ART_ART_10-28-08_B1_R9BNMD3.html?sid=101
If you want all the background and the latest news go to: http://www.mountvernonnews.com/local/freshwater/