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 It gets weirder in Freshwater "cross-burning" case
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 02/08/2010 :  20:26:27  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The hearings on the dismissal of Mt. Vernon, Ohio public school science teacher John Freshwater, a Fundamentalist and Creationist who used a Tesla coil to burn crosses onto the arms of his eighth-grade students, have been long, filled with lying, often delayed, and just plain creepy-Christian strange.


John Freshwater



The cross Freshwater burned on the arm of a student

Now, "new evidence" has (possibly) been "found," thanks to a midnight mission by Freshwater's pastor and an armed escort:
According to Matolyak’s account he received a call from Freshwater the evening of Tuesday, February 2. Freshwater was out of town, and told Matolyak that he had received an anonymous message on his voicemail, the caller apparently trying to disguise his identity. According to Matolyak’s account, the caller claimed that
”… there was more information-materials for John. They would be found in a plastic bag by a garbage can at the corner of Mt. Vernon Avenue and Division Street. We assumed this was the person who sent the previous letter in the mail to John & School Superintendent, Steve Short.
The corner of South Division Street and Mt. Vernon Avenue is near the high school and middle school, less than half a mile away from them. It’s open terrain, with a city park with softball fields in the northeast quadrant, the high school baseball and soccer fields in the southeast quadrant, a farm field (now snow covered, but with corn or soybeans in season) in the southwest quadrant, and a batting cage and miniature golf course in the northwest quadrant.

The “previous letter” phrase refers to an anonymous letter sent to Freshwater and Superintendent Short shortly before the last session of the hearing was due to resume in January but which was postponed after 2.5 hours of attorney conferences. It turns out that anonymous letter was the stimulus for the postponement of the hearing that day.

Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.

Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/09/2010 03:41:41

Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 02/08/2010 :  21:24:15   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I just would have quoted these sentences:
This is now officially past bizarre. It has mysterious phone calls, midnight missions with an armed escort, and hundreds of photographs and a stack of documents in a black bag in a parking lot.

...

This now looks more like the documents (assuming they are genuine, which seems now to be a safe assumption) were stolen from the school, and that almost certainly by an insider.
"Past bizarre" is an understatement.

When did a public-school termination hearing with a First Amendment angle start becoming a Spy-vs.-Spy cartoon?

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 02/08/2010 :  21:33:36   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dave W.

I just would have quoted these sentences:
This is now officially past bizarre. It has mysterious phone calls, midnight missions with an armed escort, and hundreds of photographs and a stack of documents in a black bag in a parking lot.

...

This now looks more like the documents (assuming they are genuine, which seems now to be a safe assumption) were stolen from the school, and that almost certainly by an insider.
"Past bizarre" is an understatement.

When did a public-school termination hearing with a First Amendment angle start becoming a Spy-vs.-Spy cartoon?
You not only would have, you did! Thanks for adding that, Dave.

Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 02/09/2010 :  01:06:17   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
For any of you who may be unaware, Richard B. Hoppe at The Panda's Thumb is, in my opinion, the go-to guy for information on the Freshwater case. He lives in the Mt. Vernon area, attends most of the hearings, and sometimes talks with principals in the case. Depending on activity (and there have been many prolonged delays in the case), Hoppe posts updates at PT almost unfailingly every day, week or month. Hoppe doesn't just report, but adds his interpretations and thoughts as well.

Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/09/2010 01:16:43
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict

2830 Posts

Posted - 11/10/2012 :  20:40:30   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send sailingsoul a Private Message  Reply with Quote
It's been five years since the cross burning but it's finally made it to the supreme court in Ohio. It shouldn't be long now. The linked article covers the whole issue nicely.

There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 11/10/2012 :  23:07:11   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Many on the secular science education side of the Freshwater case, including the Dennis family, are alarmed at the slow pace in resolving this case in the justice system. I, however, look at it differently.

Freshwater deserves his full rights to appeal his firing. I have absolutely no sympathy for that fatuous fundy scoundrel as a person, but if anyone has a right to be protected from possible government abuse, everyone must be. Even sadistic, fundamentalist ass-hats like John Freshwater.

This litigation is costing the Rutherford Institute and other fundies big bucks, and is only adding to their list of inglorious defeats.

Entertainment and education flow freely to all of us during this process.

Freshwater remains fired in the interim. He's unlikely to get his job back.

What's not to love here?

Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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The Rat
SFN Regular

Canada
1370 Posts

Posted - 11/15/2012 :  14:34:13   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit The Rat's Homepage Send The Rat a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by HalfMooner

Many on the secular science education side of the Freshwater case, including the Dennis family, are alarmed at the slow pace in resolving this case in the justice system. I, however, look at it differently.

Freshwater deserves his full rights to appeal his firing. I have absolutely no sympathy for that fatuous fundy scoundrel as a person, but if anyone has a right to be protected from possible government abuse, everyone must be. Even sadistic, fundamentalist ass-hats like John Freshwater.

This litigation is costing the Rutherford Institute and other fundies big bucks, and is only adding to their list of inglorious defeats.

Entertainment and education flow freely to all of us during this process.

Freshwater remains fired in the interim. He's unlikely to get his job back.

What's not to love here?


+1


Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.

You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II

Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict

2830 Posts

Posted - 11/15/2012 :  15:07:56   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send sailingsoul a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by The Rat


+1
Agreed but it will be more lovable when the outcome plays against them. And that day has not arrived, yet.

There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 11/15/2012 :  19:51:48   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by sailingsoul

Originally posted by The Rat


+1
Agreed but it will be more lovable when the outcome plays against them. And that day has not arrived, yet.
His firing was the outcome. There only remains the worrisome outside possibility that the court might force his reinststement.

Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 10/08/2014 :  08:33:44   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Almost another two years has gone by, but good news has arrived: the Supreme Court of the United States has declined to hear Freshwater's appeal, so his case is dead, and he will remain fired.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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