John Freshwater, a middle school science teacher from Ohio, was terminated Jan. 10 from his position two years after the Board of Education of the Mount Vernon (Ohio) City School District first began its investigation. Freshwater was accused of failing to teach the school’s science curriculum while preaching young-earth creationism to his students.   Freshwater was brought before the Board of Education after nearly a decade of objections, including repeated complaints by a Mount Vernon High School teacher. The teacher claimed students had to be retaught biology and evolution after taking Freshwater’s class to pass the Ohio Exit Exam. He probably could have continued neglecting his classes for years to come if he hadn’t gone over the line with one student.   While demonstrating the ability of an electrostatic generator to ionize gases, Freshwater invited students to feel the effect of the handheld high voltage device. According to student Zachary Dennis, Freshwater held his arm against a table and quickly passed the generator over it, leaving a large cross shaped mark on Dennis’ forearm.   The painful mark, which persisted for three weeks, compelled the Board of Education to finally take disciplinary action against Freshwater. Freshwater appealed his termination and has been in and out of courtrooms for two years before finally being fired once and for all last month.   There’s a reason evolution is in the public school science curriculum and why every major university teaches evolution to its students. A comprehensive understanding of biology is impossible without understanding the unifying theory of evolution, and the evidence for evolution is so great, not teaching it would be scientifically unsound.   A recent study from Pennsylvania State University found roughly 13 percent of public high school biology teachers openly endorse creationism in the classroom. However, about 60 percent teach it as an unsettled issue. The numbers get even worse in the Bible Belt, where nearly 40 percent of public biology teachers rely on creationism to explain speciation and the diversity of life.   Louisiana is leading the charge on evolution in public schools — but in the wrong direction. In 2008, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), which allows teachers to “use supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique and review scientific theories in an objective manner.”   The law seems reasonable at first glance — until we realize it was co-authored by David DeWolf of the Discovery Institute (a pro-intelligent design think tank), who at the very least has a conflict of interest, because the Discovery Institute writes some of the “supplemental textbooks” allowed under the law.   Contrary to their stated goal, these supplements misrepresent basic tenents of evolutionary theory rather than teaching any of the real issues debated by biologists at the top of the field. There is debate among scientists about how best to apply evolutionary theory to certain anomalies, but the hackneyed examples given by the Discovery Institute have been explained and debunked so many times, framing them as legitimate concerns in a “textbook” intended for students is academic fraud.   If the goal of the LSEA is to allow children to improve their critical thinking skills in middle and high school by exposing them to scientific debate, why not teach students about dark matter and other problems with the theory of gravitation? Why do we bother teaching                       Newtonian physics when students could learn so much more by exploring the controversies of quantum physics?   Pre-university science education is intended to expose students to information supported by so much evidence most scientists treat it as fact. Most high school teachers do not have the time or expertise to teach students these issues, and most high school students lack the background to accurately frame the debate.   If our education system can’t teach science properly; or even fire a wacko like Freshwater in less than two years, maybe it’s time for a change.   Andrew Shockey is a 20-year-old biological engineering sophomore from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Ashockey.     ____ contact Andrew Shockey at [email protected]