Teacher Uses Electromagnetic Tool to Burn Students

Think kids have it too easy these days? Shooting up schools, playing violent video games, and listening to that hip hop music...maybe someone needs to teach them all a good lesson. One teacher from Columbus, Ohio is being framed a punisher by parents and a local school board for burning a cross in the arm of a student.

This is how headlines have framed the actions of John Freshwater, a science teacher at Mount Vernon Middle School. According to reports, Freshwater used a high-frequency generator to burn images of a cross on pupils late last year.

Was it malicious corporal punishment?

Depends on who you ask.  According to the British Telegraph, the issue might simply be a mad scientist concoction, one part teacher creativity, one part paranoid PTA. Freshwater claims he was using the generator to show students how an electrostatic tool works, and asserts that the marking on students was an 'X', not a cross. This was no religious-inspired crime, at least, according to the accused. (Source: telegraph.co.uk)

Although many of the kids and their parents might be inclined to forgive Freshwater for getting a bit carried away, one child's family has in fact filed a federal lawsuit against the teacher, claiming that the boy's civil rights were violated. According to the family, the cross remained on the victim's arm for between three and four weeks.

ABC News is reporting that the local school board has decided to fire Freshwater. According to this particular source, Freshwater taught creationism and displayed the Ten Commandments in class. (Source: go.com)