Rebuke removed from file of fired Ohio teacher

COLUMBUS (AP) — The state has taken back its rebuke of an Ohio science teacher accused of using an electrical laboratory instrument to burn the image of a cross on students’ arms.

The Columbus Dispatch reports an Ohio Department of Education letter admonishing John Freshwater has been removed from his disciplinary file amid a legal challenge. The Virginia-based civil liberties group the Rutherford Institute says Freshwater should have been allowed to defend himself before the letter was issued.

The department had written that Freshwater showed “poor judgment” in the use of the instrument at Mount Vernon Middle School in central Ohio.

The newspaoer reports Freshwater calls the removal of the letter a victory.

He also was accused of preaching Christian beliefs in class. He’s appealing his firing by the Mount Vernon school board.