Substitute Teacher Fired for Telling Kids Santa Isn’t Real

For a lovable, jolly old man who brings gifts to children, Santa sure is a contentious figure. Some parents choose to tell their kids that Santa is a real person who flies around in a sleigh and makes toys and eats way, way too many cookies, while other parents tell their kids that Santa is a myth, a lie, or a bit of harmless fantasy but not actually a real person. Sometimes, these people butt heads. Some parents who do go in for the Santa myth are very invested in maintaining the fantasy and the “magic” as long as possible, but as kids get older, that gets increasingly difficult. Kids talk. Older siblings and cousins show off. Kids find out. You can dig your heels in to try to stop the world from spinning, but at a certain point, kids find out.

They don’t normally find out, however, when a teacher goes up to the front of their classroom and just says out of the blue that Santa isn’t real and that their parents are lying to them, because that would be pretty crazy behavior from a teacher. Of course, every time we think something is too crazy to actually happen, it happens.

According to WFXT, a substitute teacher at Colonial Park Elementary school in Boston went to the front of a room full of second-graders last week and told them that Santa wasn’t real. Parents say that this teacher went up to the front of a room full of second-graders the week before Christmas and said, ”˜Santa Claus is just a character. There’s no such thing as Santa Claus, and it’s your parents who buy all the presents for you.’” Parents are pissed.

“My son said that she was really mean, and that he doesn’t understand why she would say that, and that she’s on the naughty list,” one mother said.

The teacher might be on the “naughty” list, but she’s also on the school’s, “do not hire this weird Santa Truther substitute” list, as administrators say the sub will not be working there again in the future.

“I was appalled to learn a substitute would purposely talk to students about the existence of Santa Claus,” the school wrote.

The substitute reportedly came from a staffing agency in Boston, and parents are now questioning the school’s sourcing of substitute teachers.

“Who are they letting through, and what do they know about these people that they’re putting with our children for the day? I just want to know why – what could possibly have been going through her mind to come out with a statement like that?”

I’m not a big “Santa is real!” parent, but that behavior is really weird and Grinchy. Was she just like, “You know what would be a fun activity for this afternoon? Make a room full of second-graders cry.”