MOUNT VERNON — Expert medical testimony was introduced during Thursday’s session of the contract termination hearing of suspended Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater. Dr. David Levy, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, was called as a witness by David Millstone, the attorney for the Mount Vernon Board of Education.
After establishing Levy’s credentials and experience, Millstone asked him if he had any familiarity with burn injuries and electrical burns. Levy said he did. Millstone then had Levy review a description of the electrical device referred to in the hearing as a Tesla coil, and Levy said it was a high-voltage instrument. He went on to explain the difference between electrical and incendiary burns, and said the Tesla coil has a high potential for causing significant damage. The high voltage travels along vessels and nerves and carries a risk of subdermal burning.
After looking at copies of the photographs of the burn allegedly caused to a student by Freshwater, Levy said the injury looked like a burn to him, specifically an electrical burn. He said if high voltage is involved, one also needs to be concerned about underlying injury.
“What you see could be just the tip of the iceberg, ” he explained. Levy also said the “daisy chain” experiment, (where students linked hands and an electrical charge was applied to the first in line) posed a risk to all the students because of the current going through everyone’s body.
Freshwater’s attorney Kelly Hamilton asked whether Levy had any evidence of unseen damage in this particular case. Levy said he did not. Hamilton then asked Levy to describe the factors related to the severity of that type of injury. Levy said it would depend a number of things. One is the resistance of the tissue. Levy said the skin on a person’s forearm would typically be less resistant than the skin on that person’s palm. Another factor mentioned by Levy was the ratio of contact with the skin, as well as the amount of voltage involved.
Hamilton asked, “Would this injury be caused after a couple of seconds?”
Levy replied, “There would be burns, yes.” He said blistering could occur after not more than five seconds of contact.
Hamilton asked whether the picture could be faked, or the injury actually be something like a magic marker mark, and Levy said, “I see a burn.”
“Could hockey equipment exasperate the injury?
“That’s possible but not likely.”
“Would the pattern of the wound be different if someone was not holding down the arm?”
“Yes.”
Levy said he has seen 10 to 12 similar burns in his career, but none in the shape of a cross before. He said he would expect the injury to heal in three or four weeks, with no scarring.
“Your testimony depends in part on the veracity of the pictures, doesn’t it?” asked Hamilton.
“Yes.”
“Can you tell the age of the person from the picture?”
“No.”
On redirect, Millstone asked whether the radio frequencies generated by the Tesla coil would be conducted through the arteries and whether that would increase the conductivity. Levy replied yes to both.
The morning session began with additional cross examination of middle school principal Bill White, who testified Wednesday. Hamilton asked White about the duties of the monitor placed in Freshwater’s classroom at the end of last school year, questioned him as to how one unfamiliar with Christianity would know the chapter and verse citation system of the Bible and whether Freshwater’s activities outside the classroom interfered with his contractual duties inside the classroom.
Hamilton asked if White suspected any falsehoods being alleged against Freshwater and White said, “No.”
Hamilton also asked whether White thought Freshwater was given his constitutional rights in the classroom and White replied yes.
The next witness, high school principal Kathy Kasler, testified that she had received a number of on-going complaints from her science staff about Freshwater. She said the teachers claimed he was teaching things not in the eighth-grade standards and told students that certain generally-accepted science concepts were wrong and the students should not believe them. Kasler said she discussed those annual concerns with whomever was middle school principal at the time as well as director of teaching and learning, Lynda Weston. She said she also requested that her own daughter not be placed in Freshwater’s class.
Hamilton asked the source of Kasler’s information, and she listed student surveys and conversations with Bonnie Schutte and other high school science teachers. Hamilton also inquired if there were any Bibles on high school teachers’ desks and Kasler said she didn’t look for any. Hamilton asked about the evaluations of high school science teachers and other high school matters, then whether Kasler talked with any school board members about her concerns about Freshwater. Kasler repeated that she followed established protocol in relaying the concerns to the middle school principal and did not put anything in writing. “[Freshwater] is not my staff,” she said.
Schutte was the day’s final witness. Millstone asked her to describe the concerns she had regarding former Freshwater students. Schutte said that from information on student questionnaires and comments made in class she believed Freshwater was teaching areas beyond the scope of the eighth-grade curriculum. Particular items focused on evolution, the periodic table and the Big Bang theory. Schutte said student comments included: science is theory and guesswork; evolution is not a proven fact; everything comes from an organism or life form and the date scientists put on things is not always accurate.
Schutte’s problem with Freshwater having students memorize the periodic table, she said, was that it is not in the eight-grade indicators and it interfered with her teaching ninth-grade chemistry.
“It is like memorizing the dictionary and the teacher saying wasn’t that fun? Now let’s write,” she said. Schutte said the Big Bang Theory also is not an eighth-grade concept, nor is geological dating.
In teaching her science indicators, Schutte said she has had students tell her “that’s not what Mr. Freshwater said” and “that’s not true. Mr. Freshwater said that’s not true.” She testified that when students who had attended Freshwater’s class entered her class, she had to spend an “inordinate amount of time to reteach certain concepts before moving on to my (ninth-grade) indicators,” in order to prepare students for the science portion of the Ohio Graduation Test.
Hamilton began his cross examination of Schutte by objecting to all the student surveys as hearsay evidence. He had Schutte again review a number of the student surveys comment by comment, and asked whether the comments could reflect the students’ own opinions, their parents views, or community beliefs rather than what Freshwater actually taught in class. Schutte said that was possible but not likely, based on the comments students made in class.
When Hamilton asked whether a teacher could introduce topics not in the curriculum, Schutte said in her opinion only after the state-mandated indicators were taught, and if the topic was part of the board-approved course of study.
Testimony resumed this morning; additional days could be scheduled if needed.
