A standoff may be in the works between a public school teacher in Ohio and his bosses, who ordered him to hide his personal Bible from students.
John Freshwater has taught science at Mount Vernon Middle School for 20 years and last year was named "Teacher of the Year." For the past 18 years, Freshwater has kept his personal Bible on his desk in order to provide strength and encouragement. Administrators recently ordered Freshwater to remove the Bible, citing a violation of separation of church and state. But Freshwater's spokesman, Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministries, says the First Amendment gives Freshwater the right to keep his Bible on his personal desk. "The issue is his own personal faith, and whether or not ... a teacher become[s] a second-class citizen," argues Daubenmire. "Does a teacher forfeit all of his constitutional rights, all of his God-given rights, when he becomes a school teacher?" Daubenmire, who was a public school football coach for many years, was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for conducting prayers with his players before games. As he did in those skirmishes, the former coach says Freshwater will stand his ground. "We're at the point right now were the ball's in ... the court of the school district, to see what they want to do," Daubenmire explains. "If they try to [take] legal action against Mr. Freshwater for his failure to remove his Bible, I can tell you this: the battle will be on. And I think the law is very murky there -- the whole idea of separation of church and state is a fraud anyway [and] we want to try to expose it as a fraud." The school has taken no formal action against Freshwater, but students showed their support of Freshwater by holding a "bring your Bible to class" day.
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