Teaching creationism and burning crosses on students

[joeactor]

Straight from my wacky home state of Ohio:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/20/teacher.cross/index.html?iref=newssearch

Teacher accused of burning cross on student's arm
Story Highlights:
Ohio teacher accused of branding cross on student's arm, teaching creationism
John Freshwater was reprimanded for refusing to move his Bible from his desk
School board passed resolution to terminate Freshwater's employment

[curiosityandthecat]

Read about this some time ago. There's a lot to it, really. Normally I'm the first one to jump on this kind of stuff, but ... well, here.

The Post (Ohio University's student-run newspaper) had an opinion piece about this some time ago. Here it is. The gist of the article was stating that the Bible on the teacher's desk was "personal property" and not intended to sway students' beliefs one way or another. The title of the article: "Teacher's Bible was personal possession, not for preaching"

To which I replied:

Headline: Teacher's paddle was art piece, not for punishing students.
Headline: Teacher's machete was butter knife, not for hacking students.
Headline: Teacher's propane tank was grill attachment, not potential bomb.
Headline: Teacher's gun was kept for self-defense, not for pistol whipping students.
Headline: Teacher's lingerie was for Rocky Horror rendition, not cross-dressing students.
Headline: Teacher's whiskey bottle was candle holder, not for inebriating students.
Point: it doesn't matter what it's for; it shouldn't be there.

You should see some of the comments defending this teacher on the link in the comments section of the article. They're insane, and I mean that genuinely. In-friggin'-sane. Gotta love being from Ohio, eh, joeactor?

[Evolved]

Mother fucker should be fired and arrested for assault.

[joeactor]

Meh.  There's a lot of good stuff in Ohio.

This isn't one of them!

Smell the burning Christian flesh,
JoeActor - the other other white meat

[leftyguitarjoe]

Its good to hear that he was fired.

Now we wait for the appeal on the grounds that it infringes on his religion, and he gets off the hook.

[afreethinker30]

Straight from my wacky home state of Ohio:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/20/teacher.cross/index.html?iref=newssearch

Teacher accused of burning cross on student's arm
Story Highlights:
Ohio teacher accused of branding cross on student's arm, teaching creationism
John Freshwater was reprimanded for refusing to move his Bible from his desk
School board passed resolution to terminate Freshwater's employment

The bible makes people crazy.Not to far from where I live to.I ever find out this crap goes on in my children's school I will pull them out and homeschool them.They need to let the parents of the students that were branded get ahold of this creep.

[Asmodean]

Mother fucker should be fired and arrested for assault.

Then shot, hanged and fired again.  

[nikkixsugar]

Meh.  There's a lot of good stuff in Ohio.

This isn't one of them!

Smell the burning Christian flesh,
JoeActor - the other other white meat

Smell the burning Christian flesh? I think that's a Cannibal Corpse lyric. hahaha. Or maybe from a Cicero speech.  

[leftyguitarjoe]

Meh.  There's a lot of good stuff in Ohio.

This isn't one of them!

Smell the burning Christian flesh,
JoeActor - the other other white meat

Smell the burning Christian flesh? I think that's a Cannibal Corpse lyric. hahaha. Or maybe from a Cicero speech.  

[nikkixsugar]

Meh.  There's a lot of good stuff in Ohio.

This isn't one of them!

Smell the burning Christian flesh,
JoeActor - the other other white meat

Smell the burning Christian flesh? I think that's a Cannibal Corpse lyric. hahaha. Or maybe from a Cicero speech.  

Wow, conversing with Asmodean, and an Atheist Death Metal Fan! It's meh lucky day! Say, are you into anything like....say...Bad Religion, Slayer, Rammstein, KMFDM, System of a Down? Classic Rock are good too. Guns & Roses, Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominoes, Jimi Hendrix. Jeez, I gave you so many bands, I might as well asked you what you don't like. Sorry, a little caught up in the moment.  

[LoneMateria]

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/06/21/Freshwater_decision.ART_ART_06-21-08_A1_ABAI539.html

Just when I think there might be an inkling of hope for humanity I see shit like this.  This piss poor excuse for a science teacher should be faced with jail time.  He is a religious fundie who teaches ID and refuses to teach evolution (which is what they are firing him for) but thats not the bad part.  It's bad enough he does that but then this teacher decides to burn crosses into certain children's arms, while voicing his opinion that homosexuality is a sin blah blah blah.  He should get freaking 20 years in jail for branding children like they are fucking slaves.  Christians, assholes like this are representing Christianity ... you should be more pissed off then we are.

If all this wasn't bad enough the miserable excuses for human beings (aka the local fundie christians) showed up to pray for the teacher so he wouldn't be fired.  I guess all is right if you are a proponent for ID, it doesn't matter that you are mentally abusing children by feeding them lies OR  if you are physically harming them by burning your religious symbol into them (marking them) like you would cattle or a slave.  This frustrates the hell out of me.  [/rant]

[SSY]

That is ten pounds of crazy in a one pound bag right there.

Edit: prayer loses yet another fight, surprise surprise.

[Big Mac]

Actually no, they prayed that the board would do the right thing and it did. His ass got fired.

[LoneMateria]

Actually no, they prayed that the board would do the right thing and it did. His ass got fired.

That's not what I read from a reddit article that i can't find right now.  I read they prayed he would keep his job.  Since a ctrl+F can't find pray in the article I posted which article are you basing this off of?

[churchgoingatheist]

I'm pretty skeptical about the burning cross thing.  Seems like that could be a misunderstanding, mistake, or fabrication.  What scares me is the number of people in the community who support this guy.  One thing that makes religion so dangerous is that it almost requires of its believers that religion trumps the laws of society.  This is why people shoot doctors that perform abortions and fly planes into buildings.  If you really believe you are not subject to society's laws because of some higher law, you're not really fit to live in that society.  Sometimes I think it would be better if all the Christians moved to the same state (I nominate Antarctica) and they could make their laws based on Biblical teaching.  You know, go back to having slavery and stoning adulterers and the like.  Then again, I don't really think that, because nations like that do exist (Saudi Arabia, for example) and they can never manage to keep their beliefs contained within their own borders.  The hypothetical Christian nation of Antarctica would still cause problems for a secular USA.