Posted on 10/31/2008 3:45:24 PM PDT by Soliton
A second Mount Vernon student said his 8th grade science teacher burned a cross on his arm with an electrical device, but that he didn't tell his parents or complain about the incident.
And two school teachers, one of whom spent most of last year in Freshwater's class, described being uncomfortable with what he was teaching.
Simon Souhrada, 17, said Freshwater used a high-voltage static electricity device to burn a cross on his arm four years ago. But, he testified, "it never even registered with me as being anything, really."
Simon, now a junior at Mount Vernon High School, said the cross stung a little at first, redness lasted a couple of days and the mark was completely gone after a few weeks. He said he was more concerned about what Freshwater was teaching.
He desribed Freshwater as "a very good teacher," but one dismissive of evolution.
"He would try to do things to discredit evolution," Simon said, "to make it seem like he didn't want to teach it."
(Excerpt) Read more at columbusdispatch.com ...
Dude needs to be locked up.
It never even registered with him as being anything and never told anyone???
It is the minds he was trying to brand that bothers me more.
There are pictures. He was mentally molested before he was physically molested.
Talk about making a mountain out of mole hill.
Yes branding a child is a small thing.
Calling it “branding” may be a little over the top. The business about discussing religion in class and telling his students that “Catholics aren’t Christians” seems out of line.
I agree with you there. Way out of line.
I suppose that's how any public expression of Christianity feels to you eh Sol?
Using a high-voltage device to mark a student’s arm may be an expression of something, but I don’t think I’d call it “Christianity.”
Injuries resulting from a static electricity thing might not seem so earth-shattering to a student at the time... heck, I remember the boys (ie, everyone except me) in my AP physics class touching each other’s arms with hot light bulbs, or feeling the edge of a razor blade to ‘see how sharp it is’, or getting other minor injuries as the result of stupidity pretty much every single time we had a lab. So, maybe the student thought it wasn’t supposed to leave a mark, so it was accidental, or something like that?
I don’t know for sure what the kid was thinking, but when you’re 13 the world seems like a much more benevolent place.
LOL....riiiiiight, and it was just some 4 years later that he really knew this.
Notice the issue isn't being branded, it's all this horrible "dude is a Christian" that's the issue.
Like I said his mistake was not using circles instead of an x, that way if a full circle wasn't made and it looked like a crescent, no big deal!
Telling his students that "Catholics aren't Christians" wasn't a mistake? That's "teaching science"?
Telling his students that “Catholics aren’t Christians” wasn’t a mistake? That’s “teaching science”?
I don’t know what he said, if he said that, it’s incorrect, but how do you know that’s what he said? Based on what some kids said that didn’t think about their “branded arms” for 4 years?
Push away from the kool-aid!
I know what it says in the article. It's possible the article is in error. It's possible it's a complete fabrication. It's possible everything you've ever read about anything was fiction.
it’s quite possible you’re a figment of my imagination!
If that's the case, you should probably stop posting to me.
Given the number of other things that seem to be, you might want to consider that possiblity.
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