The following testimony took place between 9:59 A.M. and 3:36 P.M. on 3/26/09.
The school administrator testified in the hearing that she “might” have told the investigators from H.R. On Call, Inc that teacher John Freshwater was from a fundamental church with an extreme approach to the Bible. She never attended any services at Freshwater’s church but said that the school board received a letter from the church’s pastor a few years ago that she took negatively.
It was enough, Dr. Lynda Weston said, that she knew people who did attend there. Fundamental churches “adhere to certain philosophy and interpretations and things of that sort,” Weston said.
R. Kelly Hamilton, attorney for Freshwater, then asked Weston if she attended a “fundamental” church.
Weston objected to the question.
At this point, the hearing referee, R. Lee Shepherd, told Weston that he decided what a relevant question was—and that she did have to answer the question.
Weston muttered something.
The answer Weston ended up giving was that she belonged to a “congregational church” and that she did not think they describe themselves as fundamental.
She added that being “fundamental”, “liberal” or “conservative” determines or influences how a person teaches in the classroom. In her church, they would believe that intelligent design and creationism are religious issues—a person can have a belief in God and science as a separate entity, Weston said.
Following this exchange, a ten minute break was taken. During the break, Weston requested taking lunch break sooner than planned, which the referee agreed to.
Weston, formerly Director of Teaching and Learning at Mount Vernon City Schools, Ohio, was in administrative work with the school for ten years. Hamilton said that the report by HROC referred to Weston more than anyone else.
Mystery Student—
Hamilton asked Weston about a statement by HROC that there was allegedly a student negatively impacted on their learning by Freshwater.
Weston replied that that story was told to her by a third party—so has no names of the parents or the student. Allegedly, Freshwater asked for a show of hands from his class of those that believed in evolution; one student raised her hand and Freshwater said, “We will see about that.”
Weston has no evidence for the story but still insisted that it was true. She said that she is certain there is a girl from Freshwater’s class that felt insulted for having said she believes in evolution. Weston was not even able to remember who told her the story.
Religious Displays—
Weston defined a religious display as something that brings students’ attention to information that is religious, be that the Koran or a Christmas display.
Weston never saw any Bibles on desks at the middle school—including Freshwater’s desk.
Deciding whether it would be appropriate to post one Bible verse in a classroom would depend heavily on the purpose of having the verse there, Weston said.
Weston was shown a 4*6 photo of the Colin Powell/George Bush poster. She did not remember seeing this poster before. She said the photo was too small to read the words on it. The poster shows Colin Powell and President Bush in prayer. Written at the top of the poster is a portion of James 5:16: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Controversial Issues—
If a student asks about Easter or Good Friday, Weston said she would respond with information as to where the student could find answers on this topic, such as church resources and internet resources. She would assume that the student already knew he could ask his parents about those topics—it would be OK to suggest to the student that he talk to his parents, Weston said.
When students challenge a teacher on something, the teacher needs to respect the difference of opinion, Weston said. The teacher should then share with them what the accepted science is on the topic, if it is a science subject, Weston said.
Freshwater continued to teach science in a non scientific way, according to Weston. She said that at the eighth-grade level of Freshwater’s class, it is not appropriate to teach them controversy or critical thinking. She based this statement on her experience in elementary education and child development psychology.
In the school setting controversial issues can be taught, Weston said, if they are taught fairly and are based on established information. In such cases, she said that both or multiple sides of the issue need to be looked at.
H.R. On Call Report (HROC)—
Weston said that she has no knowledge as to why she was not called as a witness for the school board during their case-in-chief.
Weston said she was present during two different meetings with HROC—in between those two meetings she prepared a three page statement of her recollections of things related to Freshwater which she said was to make sure she had dates and information correct. She received a subpoena to turn over all documents related to the Freshwater matter to Hamilton. She understood the request, but turned the three page document in question over to the attorney for the school board, David Millstone, instead of Hamilton.
Hamilton asked Weston if she made the statement that is credited to her in the HROC report, that says, “Dr. Weston stated that she has had to deal with internal and external complaints about [Freshwater’s] failure to follow the curriculum for much of her 11 years at Mount Vernon.”
Weston said that she did make the statement—but upon reading it, when the report came out, she was frustrated with herself for having said it. It is an inaccurate statement. She notified the school in the summer of 2008 that she was adjusting that statement, Weston said.
The complaints about Freshwater, that Weston has, start in 2002. She said that the other complaints were ones she heard from other teachers, but has no personal knowledge of them.
Weston gave a list of five teachers and one family, Souhrada, who she said made complaints to her. She knows of no other people who made complaints to her.
Weston admitted that she never asked those five complaining teachers if they ever spent any time in Freshwater’s classroom. Weston said that her role was not in the supervising of teachers and that she had never been in Freshwater’s classroom.
The only documentation of those complaints were emails from two of the people and a handout that allegedly came from Freshwater’s class. She said she could not recall any further documentation of those six complaints. (Later in her testimony, she said she saw a couple more handouts—this may have been related to complaints that were not told to her by the complaining parties.)
Weston said that she thinks that the handouts create a body of evidence and that there is no need to research each one, no need to find out how they were used in the class—she knows that they were used, because they were in the students hands.
Weston said that Freshwater was being “underhanded” because of the handouts and because of having students question the textbook when the textbook did not match his philosophy. She has not talked to Freshwater about his philosophy, Weston admitted.
Hamilton reviewed Weston’s past job performance evaluations. One evaluation mentioned “importance of follow-up depending on item of information.” Weston said that she did not remember why that was in the review, but said that she does not think she has a pattern of problems with follow-up. “I believe I follow-up on things,” Weston said. She went on to add that people assume she had responsibility for things that she did not have responsibility for.
One of the evaluations of Weston mentioned “improving conflict resolution.” There was also a mention of “understanding how change impacts people.” Weston said that these evaluations are several years old. (Weston said that some or all—[note: not sure which ones she was referring to]—of the things in those evaluations did not show up again in future evaluations.)
Weston said that she did not tell HROC that Freshwater was not allowed to be teaching on evolution. She agreed that the eighth-grade content standards for science teachers include teaching evolution.
Zachary Dennis—
Weston said that she was not involved in the investigation of the alleged burn on Zachary Dennis’ arm. She said she saw the photos in the newspaper.
Weston said that she was the one who ran the child abuse prevention training for the school system. Training would be offered each year to make sure new teachers had their training. Weston said that reporting of the incident to Children’s Services would be required.
Andrew Thomson—
When Hamilton asked Weston if she knew a person by the name of Andrew Thomson, she immediately began to become emotional. She said that Thomson means a lot to her. Hamilton quickly asked Weston if she needed a ten minute break, but she responded that she thought she could keep going.
Thomson spoke at the August 4th school board meeting.
(Video of Andrew Thomson, he is the first person to speak on this video.)
Weston described Thomson as speaking in favor of Freshwater at the August 4th school board meeting. She talked with Thomson afterwards and told him that what he said took a lot of courage—she also said that during that time period Thomson was questioning whether or not he should remain a teacher, so Weston talked to him about staying in teaching, Weston said. She also said she told Thomson that there had been a lot heard on both sides in the Freshwater matter.
Freshwater’s 2003 Proposal—
Weston said that Freshwater did well with bringing his proposal in 2003 and that he handled it in the manner a teacher should. She said that the decision about that proposal made it very clear how Intelligent Design should be handled.
The curriculum committee did not approve the proposal—they decided that ID is not testable, or measurable, said they already teach critical thinking, and that ID was religious, Weston said.
Weston said that Tim Kieb—because he came from the same religious philosophy as Freshwater—told her he would talk to Freshwater and help him understand the difference between public education and religion.
After that proposal, Weston said she never asked Freshwater if he was teaching ID—she said that was not her job. What she did do was to provide opportunity of training for Freshwater. She did not talk to Freshwater about the handouts.
Weston claimed that Freshwater’s colleagues had trouble talking with him because he was so set in his ways about what science was. She offered as evidence of this that Freshwater did not attend the professional development meeting/training—but it was not required for him to attend.
Weston said that she found the handouts that she received from other people to be pretty much first hand information.
The only occasions that Weston heard Freshwater speak about ID and creationism was at meetings—she did not speak to him personally about the subject.
Weston’s “Concern”—
The HROC report contained this sentence credited to Weston: “She stated Mr. Freshwater has a lot of influence with his students that causes her concern.”
Weston said that she did make this statement. If students are taught something that is wrong they will believe it—she was concerned that Freshwater was causing his students “intellectual” harm.
Weston said that her retirement from the school district is final and that she has to be out of her office by April 1st.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
“Bible on the Desk” Teacher Was Singled Out, Witness Says
The following testimony took place 1:42 P.M.—3:56 P.M. on 3/25/09 and 9:02 A.M.—9:46 A.M. on 3/26/09.
She tried to read the investigative report last summer about her colleague, John Freshwater, but the bias and slant of it disgusted her. It was at that time that she learned she was also doing some of the same things as Freshwater—when she taught science, she used the Tesla coil and she had a Bible on her desk.
Seventh-grade teacher Lori Miller said that during the last three years she has learned more about Freshwater. When her classroom was near his, Miller said she saw Freshwater greeting every one of his students as they came to class. Freshwater even went so far in his efforts to connect with the kids that he asked Miller to look at his eighth-grade student list so he could learn about them from her.
While giving her testimony at the Freshwater hearing, Miller gave her take on the Mount Vernon City Schools’ dealings with Freshwater. “He has been singled out,” Miller said. “The biggest thing is that I still have a Bible on my desk and the administrators know this—and I haven’t been asked to remove it.”
During a meeting on August 21, 2008, Superintendent Steve Short told Miller that she could keep the Bible on her desk, Miller said.
Attorney for the school board, David Millstone, acknowledged—upon listening to an audio recording Miller made of the meeting in question— that Short said she could keep the Bible on her desk until the school board said otherwise.
The Bible is not the only religious item in Miller’s classroom. She also keeps several devotional books on her desk and a rock that has Philippians 4:13 on it: “I can do all things through Christ who strengths me.” Children come up, see the rock and comment that they like the verse, Miller said.
A bulletin board in her classroom was deemed by the school to be a “religious display” and she was asked to remove the items from the board, Miller said. The items on the board included the daily notes that her husband would write her that included a Bible verse.
Attorney for Freshwater, R. Kelly Hamilton, asked Miller about the Colin Powell/George Bush poster. Miller said she remembers the poster being distributed at the school and that she used to have one in her classroom until it was lost three years ago when she switched rooms.
Before the recent controversy came out, she would say things to her class on a regular basis that were praises to the Lord. She even prayed with kids—be that at lunch time, in the hallway, when students would ask her for prayer or when she felt led to pray for them and so asked them if she could. Miller said that at the time she did not think there was anything wrong with this.
At the end of the school year, Miller said that the mother of one student wrote her and thanked her for being such a good influence.
Miller no longer prays with the students.
After Freshwater refused to remove the Bible from his desk, last April, an allegation emerged that the use of a Tesla coil in his science classroom resulted in a student being burned.
Miller said that when she taught science, she also used the Tesla coil—she gave an estimate of zapping 300 to 400 student volunteers with the device. She first used it on herself before asking who wanted to try it out. The zap only lasted for a fraction of a second as she briefly touched the arc to the student’s arm. Miller said that she did not attempt to create any drawings with it.
The students loved the Tesla coil and would have used it every day if she let them, Miller said.
Miller was shown the school board exhibits of the alleged photos of Zachary Dennis’ arm with burn marks from a Tesla coil. “In all my experiences of using it I have not seen anything even remotely like this,” Miller said. She told about seeing the photos on television and thinking that mark was self induced or caused by something else.
Hamilton asked her if it is appropriate for a teacher to question the textbook. Miller said that she’s had incidences where she found the textbook to be wrong such as once when the textbook gave the weight of an Ostrich egg incorrectly. She told the students, that, “Hey, you have to watch out for stuff like this.”
She went on to explain the importance of this. “They need to know that just because it is printed in the textbook, that doesn’t mean it is right,” Miller said.
She tried to read the investigative report last summer about her colleague, John Freshwater, but the bias and slant of it disgusted her. It was at that time that she learned she was also doing some of the same things as Freshwater—when she taught science, she used the Tesla coil and she had a Bible on her desk.
Seventh-grade teacher Lori Miller said that during the last three years she has learned more about Freshwater. When her classroom was near his, Miller said she saw Freshwater greeting every one of his students as they came to class. Freshwater even went so far in his efforts to connect with the kids that he asked Miller to look at his eighth-grade student list so he could learn about them from her.
While giving her testimony at the Freshwater hearing, Miller gave her take on the Mount Vernon City Schools’ dealings with Freshwater. “He has been singled out,” Miller said. “The biggest thing is that I still have a Bible on my desk and the administrators know this—and I haven’t been asked to remove it.”
During a meeting on August 21, 2008, Superintendent Steve Short told Miller that she could keep the Bible on her desk, Miller said.
Attorney for the school board, David Millstone, acknowledged—upon listening to an audio recording Miller made of the meeting in question— that Short said she could keep the Bible on her desk until the school board said otherwise.
The Bible is not the only religious item in Miller’s classroom. She also keeps several devotional books on her desk and a rock that has Philippians 4:13 on it: “I can do all things through Christ who strengths me.” Children come up, see the rock and comment that they like the verse, Miller said.
A bulletin board in her classroom was deemed by the school to be a “religious display” and she was asked to remove the items from the board, Miller said. The items on the board included the daily notes that her husband would write her that included a Bible verse.
Attorney for Freshwater, R. Kelly Hamilton, asked Miller about the Colin Powell/George Bush poster. Miller said she remembers the poster being distributed at the school and that she used to have one in her classroom until it was lost three years ago when she switched rooms.
Before the recent controversy came out, she would say things to her class on a regular basis that were praises to the Lord. She even prayed with kids—be that at lunch time, in the hallway, when students would ask her for prayer or when she felt led to pray for them and so asked them if she could. Miller said that at the time she did not think there was anything wrong with this.
At the end of the school year, Miller said that the mother of one student wrote her and thanked her for being such a good influence.
Miller no longer prays with the students.
After Freshwater refused to remove the Bible from his desk, last April, an allegation emerged that the use of a Tesla coil in his science classroom resulted in a student being burned.
Miller said that when she taught science, she also used the Tesla coil—she gave an estimate of zapping 300 to 400 student volunteers with the device. She first used it on herself before asking who wanted to try it out. The zap only lasted for a fraction of a second as she briefly touched the arc to the student’s arm. Miller said that she did not attempt to create any drawings with it.
The students loved the Tesla coil and would have used it every day if she let them, Miller said.
Miller was shown the school board exhibits of the alleged photos of Zachary Dennis’ arm with burn marks from a Tesla coil. “In all my experiences of using it I have not seen anything even remotely like this,” Miller said. She told about seeing the photos on television and thinking that mark was self induced or caused by something else.
Hamilton asked her if it is appropriate for a teacher to question the textbook. Miller said that she’s had incidences where she found the textbook to be wrong such as once when the textbook gave the weight of an Ostrich egg incorrectly. She told the students, that, “Hey, you have to watch out for stuff like this.”
She went on to explain the importance of this. “They need to know that just because it is printed in the textbook, that doesn’t mean it is right,” Miller said.
***
Teachers Can Respond To Controversial Questions
The following testimony took place between 9:04 A.M. and 12:27 P.M. on 3/25/09.
It is OK for students to bring up controversial issues about evolution and teachers are allowed to respond to the credibility of the information, said former superintendent of the Mount Vernon City Schools, Jeff Maley.
During day fifteen of the John Freshwater hearing, Maley was questioned about his knowledge of Freshwater’s conduct, the use of supplemental teaching material, what an appropriate response would be to an allegation of a child being injured and how religion should be dealt with in the public school system.
Maley said he became superintendent around 2000 and continued until August 31, 2007 when he retired. He was superintendant in 2003 when Freshwater submitted a proposal to “teach the controversy” surrounding origin-of-life science. Maley said that he did not believe his handling of matters related to Freshwater cost him his job.
While Maley was OK with a teacher responding to students questions concerning evolution, his position is that “the other side” is not science and that the response by the teacher should be brief. Anytime that a student brings up something that is not commonly accepted, the teacher can tell the student that it is not accepted science, Maley said.
In a situation where the teacher is giving a lesson on the lunar cycle, the spring equinox and how those determine when Easter and Good Friday are—the teacher may answer questions by the students, Maley said. The question’s relevance to the class should determine how much time to spend on it. He said that he would tell students that those holidays are celebrated in many different ways and that the students should talk to their parents about the subject.
Maley acknowledged that sometimes a teacher will not know if an answer to a controversial question is appropriate until after the answer is given. He found that the problem would arise if a teacher had a reoccurring problem in how he or she answered those questions.
A teacher would not need to get permission before bringing supplemental teaching material into the classroom, Maley said, as long as it supported the content standards. He explained that it would be impossible to manage five-hundred teachers everyday if they brought all of their supplemental materials for review. Anyone that encountered the material could raise questions about it, be that student or parent, but the teacher has the primary responsibility to make sure the material is appropriate, Maley said.
Maley was shown the school board exhibits of the alleged photos of Zachary Dennis’ arm with burn marks from a Tesla coil. During his time as superintendant, Maley said that he never heard of students being shocked. He could not tell from the photos if it was an arm of a child or not, and was unable to judge whether it was an injury, but he said that the markings on the arm were not normal.
If he was told by parents that the markings were made by an electrostatic device, he would investigate. He added that he would also do it as quickly as possible because the injury could heal. One of the things he said his investigation would include is looking at the actual arm itself, and not just the photos.
The only complaint about religious displays in the school system during his time as superintendant was at the high school. He said that students in Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) had signs on their lockers that included crosses.
Maley said that he had no knowledge of the Colin Powell/President Bush poster being on display at the school. If he had seen it, his instructions would have been to cut the top of the poster off—the portion with James 5:16: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
R. Kelly Hamilton, attorney for Freshwater, grilled Maley over what his bases was for finding the quote inappropriate. He admitted that he was not certain what “James” referred to, but he was almost certain that it was religious and from the Bible. As a superintendant, he said he would have researched the source and found out if it was religious.
Hamilton asked Maley if a teacher could safely assume that the poster was approved to be displayed if it arrived through their school mailbox. Maley replied that one of the teachers should have gone to the principal and asked who sent it.
Hamilton then asked Maley if a teacher could safely assume that the poster was approved to be displayed if the assistant principal had one in his office and signed some of the posters. Maley replied that he would have dealt with that assistant principal.
Maley said that he never knew of Bibles on teachers’ desks. He said that he would have a problem with a teacher having a Bible, or Koran, sitting on their desk, because it might influence students—even if the teacher said that it was his inspiration. “Once the issue is broached, they all need to be removed,” Maley said.
During his time as superintendant, he only had knowledge of three issues regarding Freshwater, all of which he said were resolved.
He said that he did make a comment to the investigator from H.R. On Call Inc. about trying to find Freshwater a job other than teaching science. Based on past conversation with Freshwater, he believes Freshwater does have a difficulty resolving his philosophy with that of the scientific community over the issue of evolution. Maley deemphasized the significance of that attempt to find Freshwater another position, saying that it was just his way of trying to help a teacher out.
Hamilton asked Maley if he would be surprised to learn that Freshwater’s students passed with an 86 percent on life science issues. That didn’t surprise him. “I would expect John Freshwater’s students to do well,” Maley said. Everything he said he knows about Freshwater “is that he is very good at conveying knowledge.”
It is OK for students to bring up controversial issues about evolution and teachers are allowed to respond to the credibility of the information, said former superintendent of the Mount Vernon City Schools, Jeff Maley.
During day fifteen of the John Freshwater hearing, Maley was questioned about his knowledge of Freshwater’s conduct, the use of supplemental teaching material, what an appropriate response would be to an allegation of a child being injured and how religion should be dealt with in the public school system.
Maley said he became superintendent around 2000 and continued until August 31, 2007 when he retired. He was superintendant in 2003 when Freshwater submitted a proposal to “teach the controversy” surrounding origin-of-life science. Maley said that he did not believe his handling of matters related to Freshwater cost him his job.
While Maley was OK with a teacher responding to students questions concerning evolution, his position is that “the other side” is not science and that the response by the teacher should be brief. Anytime that a student brings up something that is not commonly accepted, the teacher can tell the student that it is not accepted science, Maley said.
In a situation where the teacher is giving a lesson on the lunar cycle, the spring equinox and how those determine when Easter and Good Friday are—the teacher may answer questions by the students, Maley said. The question’s relevance to the class should determine how much time to spend on it. He said that he would tell students that those holidays are celebrated in many different ways and that the students should talk to their parents about the subject.
Maley acknowledged that sometimes a teacher will not know if an answer to a controversial question is appropriate until after the answer is given. He found that the problem would arise if a teacher had a reoccurring problem in how he or she answered those questions.
A teacher would not need to get permission before bringing supplemental teaching material into the classroom, Maley said, as long as it supported the content standards. He explained that it would be impossible to manage five-hundred teachers everyday if they brought all of their supplemental materials for review. Anyone that encountered the material could raise questions about it, be that student or parent, but the teacher has the primary responsibility to make sure the material is appropriate, Maley said.
Maley was shown the school board exhibits of the alleged photos of Zachary Dennis’ arm with burn marks from a Tesla coil. During his time as superintendant, Maley said that he never heard of students being shocked. He could not tell from the photos if it was an arm of a child or not, and was unable to judge whether it was an injury, but he said that the markings on the arm were not normal.
If he was told by parents that the markings were made by an electrostatic device, he would investigate. He added that he would also do it as quickly as possible because the injury could heal. One of the things he said his investigation would include is looking at the actual arm itself, and not just the photos.
The only complaint about religious displays in the school system during his time as superintendant was at the high school. He said that students in Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) had signs on their lockers that included crosses.
Maley said that he had no knowledge of the Colin Powell/President Bush poster being on display at the school. If he had seen it, his instructions would have been to cut the top of the poster off—the portion with James 5:16: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
R. Kelly Hamilton, attorney for Freshwater, grilled Maley over what his bases was for finding the quote inappropriate. He admitted that he was not certain what “James” referred to, but he was almost certain that it was religious and from the Bible. As a superintendant, he said he would have researched the source and found out if it was religious.
Hamilton asked Maley if a teacher could safely assume that the poster was approved to be displayed if it arrived through their school mailbox. Maley replied that one of the teachers should have gone to the principal and asked who sent it.
Hamilton then asked Maley if a teacher could safely assume that the poster was approved to be displayed if the assistant principal had one in his office and signed some of the posters. Maley replied that he would have dealt with that assistant principal.
Maley said that he never knew of Bibles on teachers’ desks. He said that he would have a problem with a teacher having a Bible, or Koran, sitting on their desk, because it might influence students—even if the teacher said that it was his inspiration. “Once the issue is broached, they all need to be removed,” Maley said.
During his time as superintendant, he only had knowledge of three issues regarding Freshwater, all of which he said were resolved.
He said that he did make a comment to the investigator from H.R. On Call Inc. about trying to find Freshwater a job other than teaching science. Based on past conversation with Freshwater, he believes Freshwater does have a difficulty resolving his philosophy with that of the scientific community over the issue of evolution. Maley deemphasized the significance of that attempt to find Freshwater another position, saying that it was just his way of trying to help a teacher out.
Hamilton asked Maley if he would be surprised to learn that Freshwater’s students passed with an 86 percent on life science issues. That didn’t surprise him. “I would expect John Freshwater’s students to do well,” Maley said. Everything he said he knows about Freshwater “is that he is very good at conveying knowledge.”
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