Ex-teacher loses lawsuit against Mount Vernon schools

[The Straight Story]

Ex-teacher loses lawsuit against Mount Vernon schools

John Freshwater has lost his court case seeking to overturn the Mount Vernon school board’s decision to fire him for teaching creationism and religious doctrine in his middle-school science classroom.

The two-page decision was handed down today by Knox County Common Pleas Court Judge Otho Eyster.

Freshwater had filed suit in February, saying that state law and school procedures protecting his rights were violated, that a hearing referee's conclusions were flawed and the school's principal contributed to confusion and poor communication of school rules.

Eyster reviewed 6,344 pages of hearing transcript involving 80 witnesses during 38 days of hearings, along with other board evidence. The judge then ruled ruled that “Freshwater’s request that the court conduct additional hearings is not well taken.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/10/05/mount-vernon-teacher-freshwater.html

[Maccagirl]

1. Good.

A fundie wacko.

[rfranklin]

Talk about wasting taxpayer dollars!

This guy is a champ!

[Mz Pip]

2. The guy sounds like a lunatic

He should never be allowed in a classroom again.

It sounds like he should spend some time in jail.


<<The school board put John Freshwater on unpaid leave and voted in 2008 that it intended to fire him. Among the allegations were that he failed to remove religious materials from his classroom and burned crosses on students' arms with a Tesla coil during science experiments.>>

[bluestateguy]

3. Kind of makes you appreciate the importance of being able to fire bad teachers

Rather than have it tied up in a million dollars of litigation and years of appeals and hearings.

[Lionessa]

4. Ouch, I'm not sure I'd bring it up in this discussion, but you do have a point.

[The Straight Story]

5. Problem is who and how bad teachers are defined (nt)