Zealot or Nut?

I'm just going to totally bypass the separation of church and state issues in the article.

From the AP:

Ohio board votes to ax teacher accused of branding


COLUMBUS, Ohio - The school board of a small central Ohio community votedunanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.
...
Freshwater used a science tool known as a high-frequency generator to burn images of a cross on students' arms in December, the report said.

Its really easy to write the guy off as some sort of religious whackjob unless you pay particular attention to this line:

Freshwater told investigators he simply was trying to demonstrate the device on several students and described the images as an "X," not a cross.

In other words it never actually occurred to him that burning stuff into his students skin was a bad thing. My verdict? Just a nut. Although odds are in his mind he's in the clear due to the golden rule.
Its always disturbing to see the loophole in that teaching spring to life.