Teacher Fired After He Told 1st-Graders That Santa and the Tooth Fairy Aren't Real
First-graders at a school in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, went home crying on Dec. 6 after a substitute teacher told them Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy don’t exist.
The sub broke the news to the 5- and 6-year-olds while teaching about the concept of persuasion at PS 321.
Parents were not pleased with the teacher.
“People are mad. That’s not his decision to make,” one father told the New York Post.
“It’s three weeks before Christmas,” mother Allison Meyerham told Brooklyn News 12. “These kids are 6 years old.”
Another parent expressed previous reservations about the substitute teacher in question.
“There were warning signs. My daughter had him last year. He’s said some inappropriate things.” the parent of a second-grader said, according to the Post.
“He had weird nicknames for the kids, to remember their names.”
Liz Phillips, the principal of the school, issued a letter to the parents to inform them that the substitute wouldn’t be brought back to teach that class.
“I am extremely upset that the substitute teacher told the children that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are not real. This discussion was completely inappropriate to have in school with first graders,” Phillips wrote.
“It was a terrible lapse of judgment on his part, and it never should have happened. I guarantee you that this substitute will not be in class 1-216 again.”
According to the Post, Phillips said she intends to meet with the teacher to “investigate further” and she takes the incident “very seriously.”
Not all the parents were upset about the matter for the same reasons. Meyerham said she was upset that parents would tell their children such stories in the first place.
“Stuff like this — that their parents lie to them — is damaging to kids,” she said.
Twitter users had mixed opinions about the incident.
“A substitute teacher got fired for telling a class of 1st graders Santa Claus and the tooth fairy not real…. how you get fired for the truth?” one user wrote.
A substitute teacher got fired for telling a class of 1st graders Santa Claus and the tooth fairy not real…. how you get fired for the truth?
— ….. (@JacuzziMontana) December 9, 2019
“To the substitute teacher in Park Slope who told first graders that Santa isn’t real…I’m glad you were removed…and you should not be allowed to return to the school,” another Twitter user wrote.
Chasing News to the substitute teacher in Park Slope who told first graders that Santa isn’t real…I’m glad you were removed…and you should not be allowed to return to the school.
To the two news anchors who… https://t.co/qAeJmeE0Zf— Jess Daly (@Firewife87) December 7, 2019
The Western Journal has reached out to PS 321 for comment but has not received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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