MONTVILLE, N.J. (WGHP) – A substitute teacher, who told first-grade students Santa Claus isn’t real, is out of the job after public outrage, USA TODAYreports.
The New Jersey school district apologized after the incident last Thursday and Montville Schools Superintendent Rene Rovtar said the teacher “is no longer working in the school district” in a statement.
CBS News reported that Cedar Hill School Principal Michael Raj sent parents a letter saying that he has spoken to the teacher about her poor judgment.
Lisa Simek, a parent at the school, recently posted about the incident to social media. She said the teacher was trying to ruin the holiday spirit for the students by telling them Santa isn’t real and parents “just buy presents and put them under their tree.”
“She told them reindeer can’t fly and elves are not real and elf on the shelf is just a pretend doll that your parents move around,” she wrote on Facebook.
“She did not even stop there: the tooth fairy is not real because mom or dad just sneak into your room in the middle of the night and put money under your pillow, same goes for the Easter bunny. She told them magic does not exist. There is no such thing as magic anything.”
Simek also said a high school English teacher and her journalism class have volunteered to write the children “individual, personalized, whimsical letters from the North Pole.”
“Moral of the story: Just be kind,” Simek wrote. “When in doubt, Always choose being kind, and you will always be in the right.”
