Supreme Court: OK to fire teacher for 'religious symbols'
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Mount Vernon City Schools properly fired middle school science teacher John Freshwater because his refusal to eliminate religious symbols from the classroom — excluding his Bible — was insubordination.
While the school district unconstitutionally overstepped its bounds in ordering Freshwater to remove his personal Bible from his desk, it properly told him not to “engage in any activity that promotes or denigrates a particular religion or religious beliefs while on board property, during any school activity” or when he was teaching, the court declared today....