in no other industry

In no other industry is a man allowed to etch a cross into a child's arm and keep his job. Only now, six months later and a lawsuit filed, did the district seek to fire 8th grade science teacher John Freshwater.

This story is ripe with missteps. The principal dealt with 11 years of complaints. The district failed to respond to high school science teachers chronicling how his students needed to be re-taught the curriculum every year. A former superintendent tried to re-assign him but couldn't because Freshwater was "only certified in science." To top it all off, in December he burned a cross into a student's arm that lasted 3-4 weeks. Yet, the district waited until May to hire a private consultant to document Freshwater's misconduct in order to fire him. That report, while damning, should have been unnecessary.

There are a lot of news stories making this about Freshwater's teaching of creationism in his 8th grade science curriculum. That's not what's relevant here. What is relevant is that, after the cross incident, it took the district six months, a lawsuit, and a report from a private contractor to finally muster the evidence to fire the teacher who burned a cross into a student's arm. I can't repeat that enough.