I thought we heard the last of John Freshwater, the Creationist middle school teacher who branded his students with a cross, after he got fired and his appeal was rejected last November.
But his lawyers filed another appeal and the Ohio Supreme Court has elected to hear it.
Freshwater openly admitted to teaching Creationism in his Science classes and the Court may give him the opportunity to do it again:
“This Court must intervene if students and teachers in America’s public schools are to remain free to engage in open, respectful dialogue about competing academic theories and their respective merits. Nowhere is such freedom more crucial than in a science classroom, where the asking and answering of questions is the very basis of the universally acknowledged “scientific method,” Freshwater’s attorney, R. Kelly Hamilton argued in his request for the court to hear the case.
This isn’t a matter of free speech and academic freedom. This is all about treating the classroom like a church. If you want to preach bullshit, church is a perfect place to do it. If you want to learn proper science, the classroom should be your haven. Freshwater has never understood that and he’s bought into a whole host of lies as a result:
That all questions are good questions.
That any gap in our knowledge automatically means “God Did It.”
That he is qualified to teach science.
If the Court rules in Freshwater’s favor, they would be opening the door to a further dismantling of science education, courtesy of a Christian who doesn’t understand a damn thing about it.
(Thanks to Dan for the link)
