MOUNT VERNON — Undaunted by discovering that Ohio has no recall ballot process for elected school board members, the Knox County Chapter of Minutemen United, according to members Max Erwin Sr. and Jeff Cline, is continuing its efforts to replace the Mount Vernon City Schools Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools Steve Short.
“Our next step is, this evening at 7 o’clock we’re having a rally at Riverside Park by the gazebo,” said Erwin. “We have already started a petition drive to demand the resignation of the entire school board, along with Mr. Short. If that is not successful, and if they refuse, there’s two of them up for re-election in November 2009, and we have people and finances that we will run against them. We will replace them that way, and then the following three we will replace the following year.
“One way or the other, this school board has to go ... because they made a horrible decision. Everything that they brought up on John Freshwater, except the Bible, are issues from the past that have long since been resolved. ... This entire [independent investigation] is a smoke screen. These issues were brought back up again as a smoke screen because John refused to remove his personal Bible from his desk.
“There’s no law that exists in the United States of America that says a teacher cannot have their personal Bible sitting on their desk. They have, in fact, denied John Freshwater his civil rights,” he continued. “You have a one-sided investigation against John Freshwater. I called the people who did the investigation and asked them one simple question, ‘Do you people believe in creationism or evolution?’ They wouldn’t answer me. [That’s significant] because in the report they keep getting back to evolution, back to evolution. Everything in that report is a smoke screen because John Freshwater had a Bible on his desk. If it wasn’t a smoke screen, why then, back in December, why wasn’t John fired then?
“Our cause is to bring these things back to people’s minds: That there is a true, living creator and that he had a son that died on a cross and on the third day his father raised him from the dead and he’s alive and well.”
Cline said the whole Freshwater situation got started as an attack on the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the schools.
“There’s been a few God-haters in this community,” he said, “and our efforts to help kids have made them mad. One or two parents didn’t want Dave Daubenmire speaking to the kids. ... This is all because we want to keep FCA in the schools. ... Suddenly here comes all these terrible things about one of the most beloved school teachers we’ve ever had in our school system around here. Now he’s a villain.”
“At the rally we are going to let people know that, although we do support John Freshwater, what we’re doing now is not about John Freshwater, it’s about the school board essentially saying that a teacher cannot have their Bible on the desk,” Erwin said. “Therefore, we’re going to do everything we can do to remove each and every member of the school board and Steve Short from office. If we can do that by petition and their resignations, that’s fine. If we can’t, then we’ll do it through the election process. ... I believe there’s enough people in this town who don’t want the government saying that a teacher can’t have a Bible sitting on their desk. Our goal is 5,000 signatures. ... We’re going to replace these people.”
“We’re going to do it for the kids,” said Cline. “We’re not going to sit back and watch these kids be flushed down the toilet and taught evolution.”
