Judge approves settlement in civil lawsuit

NEWARK — Licking County Probate Judge Robert Hoover on Nov. 23 approved a settlement agreement with regard to the civil lawsuit filed on behalf of Zachary Dennis against suspended Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater.

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 11:03 amand is filed under story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • Anonymous

    u2022tu201cthe man burned and scarred children. c’mon he should be held accountable both civilly AND criminally.u201d I am a Christian but do not agree with what he has done. Where are the criminal charges? rnu2022trnI have read the entire court transcript of the trial (over 1,000 pages) and it has been proven from the clear testimony of eye witnesses that Freshwater did not burn anyone. The u201cburnu201d supposedly occurred in front of the entire classroom of students. Well 10 students who were there in the u201cfront rowu201d testified that no burning took place. This whole lie has been repeated everywhere with abandon yet few have the ethics to check the facts. Read the transcript. If you are a Christian you should not be repeating this slanderous lie.rn

    • Anonymous

      So I quess everyone lied in court and Freshwater shouldn’t have agreed to a settlement according to you. This so called lie in your eyes and in others eyes of like minded persons like Freshwater, believe their religous beliefs should be forced down the throats of those who do not believe in your religion, and that only your religion is the only “correct word of God”. Such views are dangerous to society and to the right to believe in your own view of religion and religious practice. Open your eyes and look around and you’ll see that not everyone is of like mind, and they have the right to practice their own religion without their children being indoctinated in a government funded school. That is what Freshwater should have realized before he did what he did, and he was rightfully punished for it.

  • Anonymous

    Does anyone know why Freshwater wasn’t criminally charged and prosecuted? When did he commit these acts of violence and abuse? Has the statute of limitations lapsed? If not, do any of the families wish to pursue criminal charges?

  • Anonymous

    This is the civil suit. The termination case has yet to be decided.

  • Anonymous

    This is the civil suit. The termination case is yet to be decided.

  • Anonymous

    ppl will do anything to get free money…..suck #$%@%$#

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MSCME37KPWW7MIN5I5YQFIB3NI Mr. Phun

      Yeah, just keep repeating that lie over and over again to yourself, because repetition makes things so, right? It wasn’t originally about money, not until Freshwater started lying, then compounded the lies with more lies. All the Dennis family wanted was an apology, an assurance that JF wouldn’t be burning crosses onto the flesh of other 7th graders, and the halting of in-class preaching. Oh, and the severe harassment the family absorbed from the wonderful Christians in your community might have something to do with pushing the federal lawsuits. Freshwater and Hamilton literally turned this into a federal case.

      • Anonymous

        if you what preaching taken out of the schools then they got to take christmas out of the school too….

    • Anonymous

      the man burned and scarred children. c’mon he should be held accountable both civilly AND criminally. I am a Christian but do not agree with what he has done. Where are the criminal charges?

  • Anonymous

    Hooray! No, he didn’t get what he deserved, he deserves much worse than what he got. I hope other public teachers get the message that fairy tales shouldn’t be taught in science class.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry-VanHouten/100001324756628 Terry VanHouten

      There will be a day when you realize that this “fairy tale” is reality and that your blindness has cost you and those who refuse to see this truth for eternity. This is not an attack against you or anyone else, it is a plea for you to understand the deception that you have been taken in by. Man is not an animal – we were created in the image of our maker with intellect and will – we do not live and exist by instincts but by the God-given abilities that set us apart from all other creatures. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of a Creator, thereby allowing man to determine his own morality and standards the “theory” of evolution has been accepted by our society. Based on recent events in our community and around the world how do you think those standards are working out?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1330094839 Miriam StJean

    am glad this is almost OVERnnlet this be a lesson to all Mount Vernon teachers who believe they can subvert the system and try to indoctrinate our children with their own religious beliefs………………nnnn

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1330094839 Miriam StJean

    am so glad this is almost OVER…………..nnlet this be a lesson to any teachers in the system who believe they can subtrovert the system and pass on their own religious beliefs to our childrennnNever, ever, again………..

  • Anonymous

    Scrooge5185 if your refering to the letter Jefferson sent to the Danbury Baptist as being misinterpeted by the courts for the past 200 years of so, I think you should reread the letter as well as the sentence that includes the “walls of separation”. Then explain to me how you feel the courts have misinterpeted this letter.rnrnFreshwater got exactly what he deserved, now it’s only a matter if they will actually recieve any of the reward he agreed to. Hopefully, it is covered by insurance. Freshwater knew what he was doing was not aproved by the board and had beened warned. He decided his religious beliefs were above the policies of the school administration and the laws of the land, and foolishly thought he could fight it and win. He predictivly lost a losing battle, and will no longer be the martyr to the religious right he’d hoped he’d be.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jesse.overly Jesse James Overly

    Burned Crosses??? come on….let’s put a little drama on the post why don’t we!rnReligion views or no religion views does not actually hit the point of this case, what if a history teacher were to call the Germans and Japanese idiots for thinking they could defeat the world and there happen to be student of that nationality in the class, do we appologize to them if we offended them and explain it was the Germans of 1940′s not today or do we sue the county to make some easy money?

    • Anonymous

      In was in fact the German’s and Japanese intent to takeover the world, and they had a written pact with each other on that very issue. This has absolutely no bearing on pushing your own personal religious beliefs on students and expressing your opinion, which is also looked down on in a class room situation. Religious beliefs are far more closer to the heart than a person’s opinion. Opinions are expressed every day by people, and they are viewed as simply that, which may change from one day to the next, but not a person’s belief. That is left to the parents in our society to teach our children, and not to the schools or government.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HQSN5GFDSV5RO4JRH2KBJU5P6Y Mindie

    I was in that man’s class he was one of the best teacher’s in the world it sad what you are doing to him go work to get money

    • Anonymous

      He still chose to burn children.

    • Anonymous

      Mindieu2019s comment appropriately demonstrates the abysmally poor teaching skills of John Freshwateru2026

  • Anonymous

    Freshwater burned crosses on children. He is getting off easy with this settlement. I don’t understand why he was not criminally charged??

    • Anonymous

      Agreed, they definitely should have charged him.

  • Anonymous

    Another distortion of Jefferson’s original letter.