John Freshwater was a public school teacher in Ohio who was teaching creationist ideas in his science classes, keeping Bibles on his desk, and had the 10 Commandments posted on the wall. In one case, parents charged that he had used a Tesla coil to make the sign of a cross on a student’s arm. He was dismissed in 2011 after he refused to obey a district demand that he refrain from such actions.
Of course, being the good Christian that he is, he saw the denial of his ability to proselytize his students as a persecution of Christians and a violation of his free speech rights. He sued in state courts but was rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court back in November 2013.
But Christians who feel persecuted are nothing if not dogged and he took his case to the federal courts and lost but made a final appeal to the US Supreme Court. But on Monday the court rejected his appeal without comment so this long saga has finally come to an end.
But we can now expect him to claim to be a martyr for Christ and be a hero to those who think like him.
For anyone with the appetite for it, the saga can be relived in its entirety over at The Panda’s Thumb. What a colossal waste of time, effort and money. The Christian Right always knows how to pick their poster boys well -- this guy burned a cross onto a student’s arm, for crying out loud!