Saturday, June 12, 2010

Secret Audio Recordings: Former School Board Member Talks about John Freshwater Controversy

The following testimony took place 12:25 p.m.—2:05 p.m. on 6/07/10.

Steve Hughes, a former Mount Vernon Board of Education member, spoke with John Freshwater in January in two conversations that were secretly recorded by Freshwater.

A copy of the recordings, and a transcript made by Freshwater, were submitted as exhibits in the hearing that is taking place before a referee. Hughes was brought to the hearing to testify about the content of his conversations with Freshwater and his knowledge of the matters related to the charges brought against Freshwater by the school board in 2008.


(Hughes in 2009 at a meeting of the school board.)

Secret audio recordings

Prior to the recorded conversations, Hughes and Freshwater had occasion to speak briefly when Hughes purchased apples and then later a Christmas tree from Freshwater.

Five days before the January 19 recordings, Hughes spoke with Freshwater’s attorney R. Kelly Hamilton. Hughes said he happened to meet Hamilton near the Knox County Service Center where Freshwater’s hearing was taking place that day.

The first recorded conversation took place outside Hughes’s law office. The second conversation took place that evening over the phone.

The school board’s attorney, David Millstone, frequently objected to questions that Hamilton asked Hughes. The concern that Millstone raised was that some of the content in the recorded conversations dealt with matters covered by attorney client privilege, confidentiality agreements and executive session rules.

One of the questions Millstone objected to concerned why Hughes said that he had “wanted to get rid of Millstone from the very beginning” and that he was “not happy with the way [Millstone] is handling” the Freshwater matter.

The referee upheld the objection.

Insubordination

Hughes stated in one of the recorded conversations that if the school board wanted to fire Freshwater based on insubordination that “it still has to be refusing to obey a legitimate and reasonable order.”

Hughes said in the hearing that his statement was based on his limited experience with employment law.

Religious display

It could be a lawful order for an administrator to tell a teacher to remove his or her Bible, Hughes said. The individual circumstances, Hughes said, would determine whether the Bible was part of a religious display and needed to be removed.

Hughes said that a singular Bible on a desk does not make it a religious display.

Hamilton asked Hughes if having the “Good Thinking and Ten Commandments” book covers placed over an interior window, for security reasons, was lawful.

Hughes said in that context, alone, the book covers have a legitimate purpose.

School board’s 2008 resolution

Hughes said that when he voted for the 2008 resolution “Intent to consider the termination of the teaching contract(s) of John Freshwater” he didn’t know Freshwater’s side of the story.

Between Hughes’ statements in one of the recorded conversations and his testimony in the hearing, the reason Hughes voted for the resolution was apparently so that Freshwater’s side of the story could be brought out during the hearing.

Hughes said that he did understand that if there had been no resolution that there would have been no need of a hearing.

The school board did base their resolution on the investigative report done by H.R. On Call, Hughes said.

In one of the recorded conversations, Hughes gave his understanding of how the insurance industry works: “the whole idea is to […] starve them out, to postpone the case, make it last as long as possible.”

Hughes testified that he used to be employed by an insurance company.

Hughes said that he didn’t know why Freshwater was suspended without pay. He did not recall any others teachers within the school district being suspended without pay.

Anonymous tipster

Hughes said that he has no knowledge of who the anonymous tipster is. He also said that he never communicated with Freshwater by anonymous letter.

Hughes said that he is not aware of any stuff from Freshwater’s classroom being stored anywhere in the school district.

Legal fees

In one of the recorded conversations, Hughes said that the school board does not know how much Millstone is charging them per hour. “All we know is we get a statement that says the total number of hours and what the bill is, but doesn’t say who did what,” Hughes said.


Millstone did not cross examine Hughes.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

John Freshwater Testifies About ‘Truckload’ of Information

The following testimony took place 12:54 p.m.—4:01 p.m. on 6/03/10; 9:17 a.m.—4:36 p.m. on 6/04/10; and 9:53 a.m.—12:07 p.m. on 6/07/10.

A letter from an anonymous tipster back in January resulted in the discovery of what John Freshwater described as a “truckload” of stuff from his classroom.

The longest exhibit in the hearing came from that batch of stuff—7,242 pages.

Freshwater said that the information from that storage room provides a better understanding of what he taught at Mount Vernon Middle School.


(Freshwater examines items from his classroom.)

Anonymous tipster and the “black bag”

Freshwater received the first letter, through the mail, from the anonymous tipster on January 14, 2010. Freshwater said that on February 2 he received a message on his voice mail that said there was something he might be interested in near a trashcan at the school’s ballpark.

(See previous article for related video and documents: “Photographs of Missing Evidence — John Freshwater Addresses School Board.” )

Over 400 pages of material were found in the “black bag” left by the anonymous person. (This was the same bag that Freshwater had used in 2003 to store items regarding his curriculum proposal “Objective Origins Science Policy.” ) In the hearing, Freshwater went through the stack item by item. He testified that in the stack was:

• A document related to his 2003 proposal that has handwritten notes in the margins. Nowhere on the document does it say that he wants to teach Creationism or intelligent design.

• A copy of the school’s controversial issues policy.

• A letter dated May 26, 2003 from a parent of one of his students. The letter sounds like the person understands that he wants to teach more about evolution.

• A letter, not written by him, that says the 2003 Science Curriculum Committee brought up their perception of his religious beliefs during a committee meeting.

• A piece of “hate mail” that says he should go teach at Bob Jones University.

• A letter-to-the-editor written by Richard Hoppe. There is a note written on it by another person who probably gave him the newspaper clipping.

• The notes he took to the school board meeting in 2003. Part of the notes mention critically analyzing aspects of evolution.

• A letter from then superintendent Jeff Maley. He had asked Maley if he could tape record the conversation with the Science Curriculum Committee. In this letter it looks like Maley is suggesting that he not do that because it would inhibit conversation.

• A letter related to No Child Left Behind.

• A letter from the National Center for Science Education. The NCSE tries to defend the teaching of evolution in schools.

• A copy of a page from the NCSE website that says people can call or write them for advice.

• An article by Rick Santorum in a science teacher’s magazine.

• One of his quizzes. The quiz covers Charles Darwin and also the Big Bang. The material is in line with the academic content standards and is not oriented toward Creationism or ID.

• A document that directed him in 2002 to block his classroom windows that faced the hall. This is the reason that he placed the “Good Thinking and Ten Commandments” book covers over the windows. When he and his attorney R. Kelly Hamilton went through his classroom stuff previously they did not find this document. The instructions do not say what type of covering to use—he obtained the covers from the administrative office.


(The book covers Freshwater used to meet a security directive to cover interior windows.)

• A document about Darwin’s theory of evolution—there is nothing in it about Creationism, ID or the Bible.

• A document from a publisher about a 150 million-year-old fossil of a dinosaur.

• A document on the scientific method.

• A letter to Marcy Rinehart, WNZR director, about his 2003 proposal. In the letter he says that the issue is not about religion and that he does not want to take evolution out of the curriculum.

• A couple of the permission slips for Fellowship of Christian Athletes that he created. The school administration had stated that permission slips would need to be used but did not provide any—so he created the slips.

• A poster created by the FCA club.

• A “curriculum map” that was used after 2004 that included the teaching of the periodic table of elements. This provides counter evidence to the school board’s resolution that stated he was not supposed to be teaching the periodic table of elements.

He also said that there were materials in the bag that had been in the classroom when he inherited the room.

Freshwater said that if the anonymous person had not left the bag he would be hampered in offering his defense—the items contain clarifying information regarding the charges made against him.

The Mount Vernon News article “Anonymous source leads to ‘black bag’ find,” by Samantha Scoles, includes a response from the school board’s attorney regarding the black bag find.

Truckload of stuff

After Freshwater testified about the items in the black bag, his attorney began presenting the items found in the storage room at the school district’s central office.

Freshwater said that there was enough stuff to fill-up the back of a regular size pickup truck and that it took approximately five days to review all of it. Of the 50,000 pages of materials, Freshwater said he requested that the school provide copies of over 11,000 pages.

Other people’s materials were mingled in with his classroom content, Freshwater said. Those other people included students and the teacher that used to have his position. He noted that he did have some of his items stored in what the teachers called the “rat hole” that had open access.

Freshwater said that there were discrepancies in the labeling and dating of the 16 boxes of stuff. As an example, a box labeled “11” has a shipping label on it that shows the school received the cardboard box on or after November 13, 2008. However, there is also handwriting on it that says “2 of 2 ROOM 215 8-12-08.”

Freshwater said that it’s confusing as to why there is a handwritten date on a box that hadn’t even arrived yet.

Freshwater said that he has the impression that someone was trying to set him up, that people took items and added items.

Freshwater testified that in the collection of stuff from the storage room there was:

• A poster titled “Culture America: African Americans.” He had this hanging up in his classroom during February.

• A poster titled “Spoken from the heart” that shows images of hearts with quotes within the hearts. Does not see anything religious about this poster.

• A sheet about hissing cockroaches.

• A document about “science in the news” that was used as an extra credit assignment. Would sometimes give the assignment, when he saw that a student’s grades were low. Was not giving them the grade but instead was making them work for it.

• A poster titled “Winners vs. Losers.” Was from a book on wrestling and was intended to emphasize positive character traits.

• A paper that lists videos that he requested the librarian retrieve from another town’s library. The document is from the mid nineties. The videos are not religious.

• A page from the book Professional Reference for Teachers that recommends doing something similar to what he did so that absent students could still get handouts: he had a shelf in which he stored the handouts and that the students could access.

• A lab book that is labeled for the high school level. He was given this book by the school. He received books from many sources including parents and other teachers.

• A document labeled “scientific method.” He understands that topic to be the primary thing that he needs to teach as a science teacher.

• An agenda for the middle school from August 25, 2004 that lists “Channel 1” as the first item during homeroom time. In order for the school to receive free TVs, the students were required to watch a set number of hours of “Channel 1” each school year. Topics covered on “Channel 1” included religion and homosexuality. There were advertisements within the programming. When he was teaching health class, he found the Snickers candy bar ads to be counterproductive.

• A document labeled “The Chemistry of Chili Peppers.” Along with it is a copy request for 33 copies. This is an example of the kind of handout that he would have students turn back in to conserve paper.

• A “Channel 1” video that has a handwritten list on the outside detailing its contents: “DNA: Life Controller;” “Reproduction: Designer Babies;” “The Science of Cloning;” “The Ethics of Cloning;” “Organic Evolution: In the Beginning. Darwin Naturally. Factoring In Mendel. The Meiotic Mix. The Population Picture. Mutation and all that.” (Click her to view “Organic Evolution” video clips.)

• A poster of Albert Einstein with a speech balloon that says, “I like science, Mr. Freshwater.”

• A copy of the Ohio Achievement Test scores for his 2007-2008 classes. The average for his five classes was a score of 415.2. (The state average was 407 and the school average was 413.) Zachary Dennis scored very well on the OAT.

• Notes taken by Kerri Mahan. Mahan would sit in on his classes and take notes so that she could use it for her class. The notes are about volcanoes.

• A document about scientists only knowing the “most likely solution” to a given problem. It is a resource related to one of his textbooks. The project that he would do with students involved having them try to identify a particular animal by providing the students with bones and other clues. He would encourage the students to come up with their best answer. In order to show how science really works, he would end the project without giving them a definitive answer.

• A picture of young Joseph Barone looking happy. The first time that he found out that Barone had a problem with his class was in the hearing.

• A classroom seating chart that would have helped him earlier on in his defense. Sometimes he has trouble remembering who was in each of his classes and where they sat.

• A document dated July 21, 2008 that lists his students’ grades. He was already suspended by that date. Somebody else placed the document with the items.

• A document about radiometric dating.

• A three-hole punched document that looks like an email. Believes someone else placed it among his stuff because he does not three-hole punch documents.

• A document about the geological time scale. The document says that the age of the earth is 4.6 billion years old. This is what he would teach in his science class.

• A document titled “Mr. Freshwater’s suggested sites for Science Research Reports.” There is no religious website promoted on the list.

• A document about balancing equations from Jeff George. Would not be surprised to find materials from that teacher with his stuff.

• A training announcement from Mount Vernon Nazarene University dated 2003 that lists Dave Daubenmire. In 2003 or 2004 he attended a workshop taught by Daubenmire on the topic of religion and the classroom. What he learned in that class collaborated what he learned from the book Finding Common Ground. (Click here to go a website where you can download a free electronic copy of the book.)

Freshwater said that for the record he does not want to review every last item from his classroom.

“Reaching for the Sky”

The school board’s exhibit number 91—an article titled “Reaching for the Sky”—was, interestingly, found among Freshwater’s classroom stuff already labeled as “Bd 91.”

Attorney Hamilton asked Freshwater if he’d had the foresight to know that someday the document would become an exhibit—and that it would be number 91.

Freshwater answered that he’d not had that foresight.

Hamilton went through a serious of questions on this topic, seemingly puzzled as to who could possibly have written that on the document.

The school board’s attorney David Millstone eventually interrupted and said that he would stipulate that it was his own handwriting that was on the document.

Hamilton replied that he didn’t actually need Millstone to stipulate that.

In addition to the handwriting that says “Bd 91,” the document contained some handwritten notes along the top of the first page that gives some details about the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel. Freshwater testified December 30, 2009 that he did not write the notes that are on the top of the document.

The article was written by Billy Goodman and published in 1988 in Science World, a publication that Freshwater said the school purchased. The beginning of the article includes a quote from someone who says that “ego” is involved in the building of tall structures. The person quoted then goes on to compare modern ego to that of the ego of those who built the Tower of Babel. The bulk of the article deals with the subject of modern tall towers and how they are constructed.

When Freshwater and his attorney were able to review the storage room full of stuff, earlier this year, they found multiple copies of the article. Those copies—except for the one that was already labeled “Bd 91”—did not contain the writing at the top.

There were materials related to the article found in the storage room. After examining the various transparencies and documents, Freshwater said that none of the materials on that topic contained the Biblical references handwritten across the school board’s exhibit.


(An old test that is an example of what Freshwater taught his students on the topic of building tall towers.)

Freshwater told AccountabilityIntheMedia.com that his students would spend about three days working on building their own towers. He would provide them each with 150 straws to use. The students’ projects were tested based on how much weight they could hold. The height of the towers was also factored into the results.

Freshwater said that the students had a lot of fun with the project.

Further reflection

One of the documents presented previously by the school board’s attorney was a “Multiple Intelligences Survey” created in 1999 by Walter McKenzie. Of the 90 questions on the survey, one of the questions asked if religion was important to the person taking the survey.

Freshwater testified at the time that he did not create the survey and had not used it.

After further reflection, and seeing the document again, Freshwater said that he does recognize the survey. He said it was used on the first day of school by the group of teachers designated as “Team 8-1,” of which he was a part.

The survey was not used to find out the students’ religious preferences, Freshwater said.

Freshwater said that based on what a colleague of his said the survey is still being used to this day.

Another document presented previously by the school board’s attorney was one titled “Science Student Data Sheet.” The form asks for the student’s contact information. It also has questions such as “What was the most important concept that you learned in science last year?” and “What are your hobbies?”

There are no questions of a religious nature on the form.

When Freshwater previously testified, he did not acknowledge using this form.

Attorney Hamilton brought the subject up again by asking if Freshwater had a better recollection now that he has reviewed the contents of his classroom.

Freshwater explained that while the form has his name printed at the top he did not create the form. It was, he said, used at the beginning of the school year as a team effort with the other teachers to collect student information.

The very last question on the form is a short creative writing assignment: “CREATIVE WRITING: Write a paragraph describing what this object is, how and where it formed, what are its physical properties. Do not worry about the spelling or grammar, just get your thoughts down on paper.”

While the students were working on filling out the form, the “object,” a fossil, was passed around the room.

One of Freshwater’s students, Zachary Dennis, included in his creative writing that the fossil of a trilobite was stepped on by a human.

Freshwater said that scientifically it is not possible for a human to step on a trilobite because humans and trilobites are from two different time periods. He agreed that students have said that the fossil looks like it was stepped on.

Additional statements by Freshwater:

• Spoke several times with former school board member Steve Hughes. Secretly audio recorded two of those conversations. Hughes, an attorney, gave his understanding that the insurance industry as a general strategy tries to “starve them out, to postpone the case, make it last as long as possible.” Hughes told him that if the school board wants to fire someone based on insubordination that “it still has to be refusing to obey a legitimate and reasonable order.”

• When he previously testified that he had “pitched” stuff from his classroom he was referring to physically tossing the stuff into a trashcan in his barn. The items were stored there until his attorney requested the items. The only items that were actually given to the garbage man were twenty or thirty “Chinese letters” that had lain on the top and were water damaged.

• An email from a school librarian, to him, ends with Psalms 93:4. (The email was brought as an exhibit by Millstone.) Expects that this would be a concern to school administration. Did see other emails from people within the school that included Bible verses.

• Another email from a school librarian, to him, ends with a quote about there being many different sides to an issue. (The email was brought as an exhibit by Millstone.)

• The school, for many years, had an “Advisory Period” which dealt with moral and patriotic topics. Can still deal with those topics in conjunction with “Channel 1” time.

• His personal Bible is missing. This is the same Bible that he kept on his classroom desk and that he has been with him for most of the hearing. The last time that he had the Bible was in the hearing room.

Freshwater said that he has been in the witness chair for over fifty-five hours and that it would be easy to catch him up on a detail. He has been asked to testify over a large portion of his teaching career. He said that when he was teaching he never thought that he would need to take notes so that he could speak about his teaching career with absolute precision.

Coverage of Freshwater’s previous testimony:

“John Freshwater: Investigation Didn’t Follow Contract”

“Missing Evidence in John Freshwater Hearing”

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Former School Board President Testifies in Teacher’s Hearing

The following testimony took place 11:37 a.m.—4:24 p.m. on 6/02/10 and 9:06 a.m.—11:11 a.m. on 6/03/10.

While Ian Watson was president of the Mount Vernon Board of Education he fought the subpoena that ordered him to appear to testify at the hearing for the teacher he had voted to consider firing. All legal avenues to avoid appearing closed once the hearing outlasted his term in office.

Topics covered during Watson’s testimony at Wednesday’s and Thursday’s John Freshwater hearing ranged from his own experience with the Tesla coil to his understanding of what constitutes a religious display.


(Watson in 2008 at a meeting of the school board.)

Tesla coil

The June 20, 2008 resolution by the school board stated that Freshwater “branded” a cross onto the arm of a student. Watson testified that he did some personal investigation into whether the Tesla coil was capable of burning human skin.

Watson, in April of 2008, observed a demonstration by teacher Elle Button of the Tesla coil igniting a small piece of paper. Button held the paper in front of a metal cabinet and allowed the spark from the Tesla coil to pass through the paper.

After the demonstration, Watson asked Button to use the coil on himself. She refused. Watson said that Button also told him that she was going to leave if he was going to apply the spark to himself.

Freshwater’s attorney, R. Kelly Hamilton, asked Watson, “So, after you saw [the paper] burst into flames, you still wanted it applied to you?”

Watson replied, “Doesn’t sound like the brightest thing, but, yes.”

Watson said that about a day later a mark did appear on his arm where he had run the spark across. On a pain scale of “0” to “5,” Watson said the spark felt like a “3.”

The demonstration was in middle school principal Bill White’s office. White, who has an electronic implant, was six feet away from the demonstration. Watson said that Button did tell him about the danger of a person such as White coming in contact with the device.

After the experiment, which Watson said was not scientific, he decided that it had been a wasted effort and would not resolve the allegation one way or the other.

Freshwater denies that anyone was burned in the classroom demonstration.

Conversations with Stephen Dennis

The Dennis family brought most of the complaints against Freshwater that resulted in the teacher’s suspension without pay.

Watson said that he met Stephen Dennis a few years ago in connection with some work at First Knox National Bank. Watson, now retired from the bank, said that the bank would sometimes do business with Dennis’ brokerage.

In March of 2008, Dennis came to the bank to talk about some concerns that he had with the school, Watson said.

Those concerns, Watson said, included “his son being burned,” religious information in the classroom, Freshwater’s role with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, questions that Dennis said his son was asked by Freshwater in school, and an extra credit assignment that Dennis said Freshwater gave his son.

Watson said that the first time Dennis contacted him, he told Dennis to talk with superintendent Steve Short. Dennis ended up having over six conversations with Watson. Watson said that he did not know why Dennis kept coming back.

Watson said that it seemed that within a week or two of talking with Dennis, there was talk of a lawsuit by Dennis. Dennis did inform him that he had hired an attorney, Watson said.

Religious display

Watson defined a religious display as being a “grouping of religiously based articles such that when you perceive it you have an opinion that religion is being represented.”

There is no black or white line as to what constitute a religious display but the more religious items there are the closer it comes to being a problem, Watson said. It is possible, he said, for just one item to be an issue.

Watson said that in the written school policy on religion in the curriculum a Bible in and of itself is not an issue. His personal view is that allowing a teacher to have a Bible on his work desk is bad policy.

The school board was OK with a Bible sitting on someone’s desk, Watson said.

The “George Bush/Colin Powell” poster, which Freshwater had posted in the classroom, would not be an issue in and of itself, Watson said.

Freshwater also had posted in his classroom, for security reasons, several book covers over an interior window. These covers, which Freshwater said he obtained from the school offices, included a copy of the Ten Commandments and a quote about good thinking.

(An expert witness, Michael Molnar, previously testified that the book covers are not inherently religious because there are other quotes on the covers in addition to the Ten Commandments.)

Hamilton asked Watson if the school offices keep items that are legal or illegal. Watson replied that “generally we would keep legal items” in the offices.

Freshwater removed the book covers when requested, in writing, to do so by school administration.

Hamilton showed Watson a photo of another teacher’s classroom that included a poster of how to memorize the Ten Commandments, a poem, lyrics from a Christian song and verses from the Psalms. Watson said that he would question those items and that they could be a problem.

Additional statements by Watson:

• Isn’t able to remember the details to answer all of the questions because these events took place two years ago.

• Doesn’t recall saying what a news story attributes to him of a family requesting that Freshwater’s Bible be removed. The family that made the complaint about the religious display was the Dennis family but they never specifically said they had a problem with the Bible on the desk. At the time he was hopeful that the parents and Freshwater could “find common ground.”

• Never talked with Dr. Lynda Weston about the complaints she says she received about Freshwater. (Weston is the former Director of Teaching and Learning for the Mount Vernon City Schools.)

• Serves on the board of the First Congregational United Church of Christ. Same church that Weston attends.

• Was in contact with the ACLU sometime in April of 2008. Contacted them because he “was intrigued on what their position would be.” The ACLU told him that it was OK for students to have Bibles on their desks at school as long as it wasn’t during an educational time but that a teacher having a Bible sitting on his desk was an extremely gray area and it would be better to keep the teacher’s Bible out of sight. His opinion would have been the same even if he had not contacted the ACLU.

• Did see Jim Beroth at SIPS coffee shop and is aware that Beroth’s daughter says she saw someone talking with him. Although he does not remember the conversation happening the day he saw Beroth, he did talk with someone about bringing in Patricia Princehouse as an expert witness.

• The school’s written policy of how complaints are to be handled was not completely followed through regarding the complaints against Freshwater.

Did tell Jeff Cline at a school board meeting that if he had a complaint about a book that he should follow the policy and file a written complaint. The board polices should be followed.

• Someone is showing insubordination when he is in direct opposition to what his supervisors have directed to be done. In response to Hamilton asking a hypothetical question about a supervisor telling an employee to jump out a window: “There are clearly some qualifiers involved.”

• Does not know of any past teachers in the school district that have been suspended without pay.

• The H.R. On Call report was satisfactory to the school board. Considers the report to be fair. To his knowledge the report is accurate.

• Did not participate in any of the HROC interviews during the investigation. Did not receive a draft copy of the report before it was released.

• As to why one of the HROC investigators referred to him by his first name, Ian, during their interview with Freshwater, which Watson was not at: “Many people call me by my first name.”

• Did not keep a “black binder” about Freshwater at the bank.

• Does not recall when he learned that Freshwater was not a member of the union.

• Suspects that it is Short who ultimately has the responsibility to insure that the contract is followed.

• Teachers are allowed to use materials from the library.

The school board’s attorney, David Millstone, did not ask Watson any questions.