TRI In The News

Embattled Ex-teacher John Freshwater Tells His Story to Mansfield Tea Party

July 26, 2011

7/26/2011

TRI IN THE NEWS: EMBATTLED EX-TEACHER JOHN FRESHWATER TELLS HIS STORY TO MANSFIELD TEA PARTY

From Mansfield News Journal

MANSFIELD -- Local tea party members plunked cash into a white bucket Monday to help former Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater cover his legal fees.

Speaking to about 60 members of the Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party Association, Freshwater said he lost his house and his Christmas tree farm as a result of his legal battles after he was fired. He had been assigned to teach science.

The Mount Vernon school board suspended Freshwater in 2008, then fired him in January 2011, after 24 years in the classroom. School officials focused on his Christian beliefs, including the Bible he kept on his desk, he said. In a story that garnered statewide attention, Freshwater was accused of branding a cross on a student's forearm with a Tesla coil, an electrical device used in science classes.

Freshwater said a referee for a state hearing, Shelby attorney R. Lee Shepherd, found two reasons supporting termination -- fervent, deep-seated Christian beliefs deemed inappropriate for a classroom, "and they said I was insubordinate."

But Freshwater said the referee found allegations that he had branded a cross onto the student's arm.

The teacher and two Knox County supporters -- the Rev. Don Matolyak and former Ohio Senate candidate Thom Collier -- said his troubles escalated after the boy's family complained to school officials.

"The principal never asked to see the boy," Freshwater said. "Children Services was never called. So, question, does the superintendent think there was really an injury?"

Freshwater said things culminated in April 2008 when he was asked to remove a Bible from his desk, then was suspended without pay.

Supporters said the teacher won a battle last week, after the Ohio Department of Education removed from his file an admonishment letter that had labeled him as making poor choices in the classroom. Free legal help from the Rutherford Institute was instrumental in getting that done, Freshwater told the tea party.

The red flag on the teaching license had shut him out of finding other jobs, he said.

Freshwater's supporters said his remaining battle now is the civil action he filed to fight his termination. A U.S. District Court judge has remanded that case back to Knox County Common Pleas Court.

Now it is down to the Constitutional issue of whether Christian beliefs are inappropriate in a school setting, Collier said.

"I want my job back," Freshwater said. "I want my Bible put back on my desk. And I'd like to be able to critically analyze evolution."

At the meeting's end, tea party group leader Bonnie Oleksa produced a bucket to take cash donations for Freshwater's legal fees. Supporters said they have raised $40,000.

"The school district has spent $900,000. John Freshwater doesn't have big pockets. He has been a teacher," Matolyak said.

Freshwater's talk of civil lawsuits and depositions resonated with the tea party -- which filed a lawsuit against the Mansfield City Schools Board of Education after it refused to allow the group to use the high school to host a controversial speaker on Muslim beliefs.

Oleksa on Monday raised some money for future tea party speakers by announcing a raffle with an unusual prize: The winner could sit silently beside her Wednesday, when the tea party attorney deposes the Mansfield school board president and police chief.

Several tea party members expressed solidarity with Freshwater Monday.

"I'd love to have you in my foxhole any time, man," said Al Beyer, of Bellville.

"I'm a retired teacher. My cross I'm wearing," said Nancy Schneider, of Shelby. "If we don't take a stand, some day they'll be coming after us for anything visual that says you're Christian."