MOUNT VERNON — As the contract termination hearing for suspended Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater resumes, the Dennis family is speaking out. Originally referred to as the Doe family to protect their anonymity and to prevent negative repercussions, the family wants its side of the story to be told.

“My main points are,” Jenifer Dennis said, “from the very beginning in December when I did go to the school that I just wanted to protect my son (Zach) and I feel that the school, teachers and everybody involved should follow all the rules.”

Dennis said that although initially her son’s name was not released, there were some unpleasant consequences when Freshwater went public with his side of the story in April.

“I’m sure you saw all the signs around town,” she told the News.

According to News video file footage, one sign stated, “The student goes. We support Mr. Freshwater. The Bible stays.”

“I’m sure you can imagine what that feels like as a family, seeing those things,” said Dennis, “and there are some areas that have carried over. But we have never wanted to make that an issue, either. That’s another reason why we wanted to remain anonymous and to protect our son.”

Jenifer and her husband, Stephen, were also concerned about the reaction of Zach’s classmates if they found out he came forward.

“That’s been our concerns from the very beginning of this,” Jenifer said, “and why we wished to remain anonymous. That’s why we tried to get the protective order through the federal court, which was granted to us.

“Unfortunately, as you are aware,” she continued, “during the hearing they pretty much demanded that our name become public. If we would have opposed that, it would have taken an extremely long time to get to where the hearing would be able to continue. We thought our community should not be subject to that and that we needed to get it over with. If we can help protect other children by having our name out there, now that I can be speaking about this and let people know about our Web site, hopefully some good can come out of this bad. ... I can’t really speak for my son, but I have had parents come to me and say things to me. We’ve actually had a great deal of support. I’ve gotten e-mails, phone calls, letters in the mail, supporting us once our name was revealed, and I appreciate that.”

Jenifer said Zach is doing fine, and his arm has healed.

“Our whole issue with this is that we would like to stop this so it doesn’t happen in the future and to protect all children’s [right to anonymity]. ... As a matter of fact, we are in the process of starting a nonprofit organization where we have developed a Web site called protectingstudents.org. And it’s going to be an advocacy Web site where other people who may be in similar situations can go and get help, and we can also start establishing things to do to start helping to protect children’s [anonymity] in the future.

“My understanding is that during that science class [Freshwater] did ask if anybody would like to feel the [shock], and multiple students did say they would,” she said. “My son, I would say, didn’t expect a teacher to do something that would cause an injury — a burn. I really believe he would not have consented to that if he would have known the outcome.”

Zach is expected to testify at some point during the termination hearing, although, Jenifer said, the Dennis family is not directly involved.

“We never asked for [Freshwater] to be fired. We just asked that the school follow the rules. This hearing is really between Mr. Freshwater and the school [board]. We are not involved in any legal issues with this hearing.

“We would like to hopefully get the law changed so that children will be protected if they’re ever in this situation again,” she added.