Holy Psycho, Batman!
alk about appalling:
Ohio Teacher Burned Cross On Kids’ Arms
A public school teacher preached his Christian beliefs despite complaints by other teachers and administrators and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students’ arms, according to a report by independent investigators.
Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater also taught creationism in his science class and was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom, the report said.
School board members were scheduled to meet Friday afternoon to discuss the findings by consulting firm H.R. On Call Inc., hired by the district to investigate. The report was released Thursday.
Holy fucking shit! I mean — Jesus! Burning crosses on his students’ arms?! Shit! I’m . . . I’m fucking speechless. I cannot imagine the atrocities I would inflict on a school system that allowed that to happen to my kid. Oh, and here’s the money shot: “With the exception of the cross-burning episode … I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district.” [Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire, defending Freshwater]
According to the article, the district officials had been fielding complaints about this Freshwater guy for eleven years. He’s preaching in class, was teaching creationism in a public school system, had Bibles and shit all over the place, and he was burning crosses into kids’ arms! Okay, okay, for you fundies out there who may not actually be able to see what’s wrong with this picture, replace all the Jesus, creationism, Bible, crosses, etc, with Nazis, Aryan race, Mien Kampf, and swastikas. Now do you see what the problem is?
I’m fucking agog with disbelief. I mean, people must have realized this guy was a little nutty, right? And they let him keep teaching. I mean, you don’t just up and decide to start branding your students one morning after breakfast. You have to work up to it, starting with smaller psychosis, first. They had to have been able to tell the dude wasn’t right.
What the hell is going on in our schools, for fucksake? And isn’t it about time we start paying more attention?
(Photo credit: Cross-shaped Burn.)
July 5th, 2008 at 5:12 am
…waitaminnit.
Never mind the school. Never mind the parents.
What the hell is wrong with the students?
You or I would never have put up with that kind of shit from a teacher. I’d have argued separation of church and state with him, nose to nose. You’d have, I don’t know, set him on fire or something. Are the students all such sheep that they’ll meekly submit to being branded?
Where’s the jock who’d kick his ass? Where’s the geek who’d blow up his car? Where’s the school slut who’d take one for the team and cause this guy to lose his teaching career in a scandal?
Goddamnit. When did we become such a nation of victims?
July 7th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Y’know, that part hadn’t even crossed my mind. It’s like that case a couple of years ago where the perv was talking McManagers into strip-searching their underage employees (posed as a cop on the phone). I couldn’t imagine ever submitting to that, and yet, several young women did. (Louise Ogborn)
I’m trying to conceive of the circumstances under which I’d allow a teacher to brand me with any symbol, cross or whatever, and I’m not coming up with anything. The article doesn’t give a lot of information about the kids, either, so we don’t know — maybe they were held down, or willing? But Jesus, you’d have pretty much had to hold me down all day, because the second you let me up, I’d have been straight to the principal like a shot, or calling the cops or my folks or something.
I’m baffled. These people baffle me.