Typically this blog is reserved for advances in biology but there is a pressing issue. In a bizarre turn of events, a science teacher sued the Mount Vernon school board for religious harassment and a slew of other charges. Apparently, John Freshwater was fired for insubordination when he refused to put away several bibles that were in his classroom. There are conflicting reports so more time is needed to know exactly what happened. The most outrageous claims are that Freshwater taught intelligent design in his classroom, distributed bibles to students, decorated his room with religious paraphernalia and burned students on their arms with the image of the cross.In a quote to the public, Freshwater said, "...I look forward to resolving this situation so I can get back to teaching science." If the claims are true, I counter that Freshwater never actually taught science. Aside from the obvious transgression that denies separation between church and state, Freshwater seems guilty of a heinous crime. Religion belongs in a religion class, or history, or english or almost any class other than science. Despite what Intelligent Designers would have us believe, ID is not science--it is religion packaged as science. Intelligent designers may actually be correct, but there claims are not scientific ones: the ideas are based on faith, not science. Science is clear and unified that evolution explains the diversity of life. Of course there are scientists that disagree, but they are in the small minority. You could find scientists who argue that AIDS is not caused by HIV. I can not say what really happened with Freshwater but I do know that science teachers should teach science. If a science teacher refuses to teach science, then he/she should be fired or apply for another teaching position.
Acknowledgments
Source: http://www.knoxpages.com/?NewsID=7289&CatID=1
Other source: http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2009/06/freshwater-brin.html
Image: http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2008/06/19/MTVERNON.jpg
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Wow, I am very interested in how this ended/if it was resolved. How a science teacher, or a teacher for that matter, could force so much of their own religious beliefs on students to the point where he is burning his students' arms is horrifying.
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