Teacher Sacked For Telling Primary Schoolkids "Santa Doesn't Exist"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article5326005.ece

Should never have given Richard Dawkins that supply teaching job.

Maybe it was a religious nutjob

Aww, this is what I love about Santa -- it's a conspiracy to mislead children so entrenched in our society that not lying to them can be an official, fire-able offense.

Maybe Santa will giver her her job back.

break free from your shackles, 6 year olds!

lol before doing a little research, I was wondering why the UK had entire agencies dedicated to placing people in classrooms so they can organize the paper and crayons

A spokesman for Rochdale and Oldham Supply Agency told The Times that the teacher was still registered with them and would be working in other schools in future.

Wait, so no one has been sacked at all. What a non story.

bah humbug

Tryce, I hate to tell you but there's no Father Gothmas.

"Teacher Receives Moderately Stern Talking-to..."

and that goes to Trayce as well

x-post

Miserable git.
(the teacher that is).

fwiw Santa has nothing to do with religion

Hahah :)

The comments are the usual blather too, esp all the "I wonder what religion she is" and "we're a christian country!"... as if Santa has anything to do with christianity?

Stick Santa on a cross, that'll show em.

Damn xpost shakey beat me to it.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/126/17927067.jpg doesn't exist!

I think the comments re a christian country are those supporting the sacking of her. ie santa isnt a christian thing etc

hmm the story now says "axed" instead of sacked. The Times people read ilx!

Insane comments...

This really is political correctness gone mad. How can you get sacked for telling the truth? It's not like the supply teacher is working in government!

British society is in a pretty pathetic state right now.

Tim, Edinburgh,

I really had hoped people had stopped saying "PC gone mad" AS IT IS COMPLETELY FUCKING MEANINGLESS.

the daily mail comments are pretty much the opposite of the times ones, though they both manage to pull the PC-gone-mad card

Inevitably somebody has to play the "politically correct" card. How predictable. Great Britain is still fundementally a Christian country and it should be respected as such. Remember the outrage caused in Sudan recently when a teacher suggested a pupil call their teddy bear "Mohammed"?

Tim, Oxford, England

I'm rather disappointed to learn that teacher wasn't sacked. She sounds like a horrid troll. Where to sign for petition to sack?

Santa does exist anyway...
http://www.santaclauslive.com/

(he's not in the office at the moment though)

ahh yes, the daily mail version
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1093535/Primary-school-teacher-told-children-Santa-does-exist-fired.html

so i guess in three to five years these kids will be even more confused

lol the daily mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1093791/School-choir-forced-pull-Christmas-concert-carols-religious.html

I've never read such confused comments. It's like both sets of readers need to be OUTRAGED by something but they're not sure what it is.

(ok,maybe 'never' is too strong a word)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1093860/Vicar-bans-O-Little-Town-Of-Bethlehem--doesnt-reflect-current-Middle-East-crisis.html

Haven;t we got a thread for tabloid inspired "winterval" mock outrage?

this can be it!

I really had hoped people had stopped saying "PC gone mad" AS IT IS COMPLETELY FUCKING MEANINGLESS.

yeah but when people write it I hear mark from peep show spluttering the phrase and that puts their comments in the proper context

my god your country goes bonkers in DEC

Yah!
Christmas banned in Oxford by council-owned charity

(refutation of above)

my god your country goes bonkers in DEC

― Ca-hoot na na na oh oh (HI DERE), Thursday, December 11, 2008 8:59 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

Oh, we're not the only ones...

A postal service ban on saying 'Merry Christmas'

i havent even looked at the sun's website yet

More madness on this thread.

Why no war on christmas this year?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/discussions/forums/show/News-2.page

http://www.thesun.co.uk/discussions/posts/list/Chav_Christmas_disrespectful~63~_-143064.page

http://mymerrychristmas.com/2006/images/greenchistmas.jpg

^^^grandpa played this every year at the family Xmas party

A SCHOOL has asked kids to learn a “chav” nativity play — where Jesus turns water into lager instead of wine.
Mary and Joseph break into a garage instead of finding shelter in a stable.

She is told she will get extra benefits for having Jesus — and the Wise Men are asked for gifts of Adidas and Burberry.

When a character says Mary is a virgin, another replies: “Wossat then? A train?” The script was thought to have been found on the internet.

Michelle Taylor, 35, has a relative at Oakwood School for 11to-16 year olds with emotional and behavioural difficulties in Bexley, Kent. She said: “I couldn’t believe it. You encourage children to speak properly, then they get this at school.”

Bexley Council said the script was used in a drama lesson for kids of 14, but the school would still stage a traditional nativity.

I cannot click on Sun forums, I can take a lot of crap, but I fear that would be a step too far.

hahahahahahaha omg that nativity play

Do it ned!

Makes you realise how great ILX is compared to other places.

(righteously angry nosebleed all over my telegraph)

It's kind of weird how there's developed a certain school of thought that the "PC brigade" basically means people who aren't innately respectful of Christianity

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/Deicide-1990-Deicide.JPG

^^^PC brigade hymnbook

I wonder if right wing nut jobs do this sort of thing in other countries or if it's just UK & USA?

The script was thought to have been found on the internet.

<a href="http://my.spill.com/profiles/blog/show?id=947994%3ABlogPost%3A355506";>so was this one</a>

christ on a crutch

What gets me too is that by 8, most kids have worked it out anyway, they're not stupid. Hell, at that age I think I was clinging tentatively to a santa belief and it was the OTHER KIDS who were mocking me for still thinking it. In the 70s! If kids in the internet age can still be fooled at 8 by santa stories then they have their work cut out for them later on I tells ya.

What's all this about Santa not being real?

What's all this about Ned not being real?

Ned is Santa? Well that explains... something.

as if Santa has anything to do with christianity?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

The tradition of Saint Nicholas Day, usually on 6 December, is a festival for children in many countries in Europe related to surviving legends of the saint, and particularly his reputation as a bringer of gifts. The American Santa Claus, as well as the Anglo-Canadian and British Father Christmas, derive from these legends. "Santa Claus" is itself derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas.

Well, a saint is a bit different from a Jesus concept, but yeah ok.

but but... Santa died for our sins, look:

http://i36.tinypic.com/2lln335.jpg

and here he is, visiting himself as a baby (whoa, sci-fi time travel paradox psych alert!)

http://i37.tinypic.com/2a6o6jq.jpg

When I was about seven I saw an ad in the Xmas issue of the Radio Times which showed parents sneaking presents under the Xmas tree while their kid was sleeping - can't remember what it was advertising but that was when I twigged and I didn't sue the Radio Times either.

SANTAGATE: TRAUMATISED CHILD SUES CALLOUS BBC would have been one of those Good Stories you're so fond of.

I discovered a pile of presents in a cupboard during a morning prowl and woke my Dad up from his post nightshift sleep to proudly tell him I'd discovered there was no Santa. I wasn't the smartest of kids. Was a wee while before I could sit down after that one.

And of course there was that Greg Lake song about Christmas where I thought for years he sang "and I saw Eamonn through his disguise" which briefly led me to believe that Santa Claus was a marketing ploy for This Is Your Life.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/also_in_the_news/default.stm

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

Dozens of parents complained after the priest let out the Santa secret

A Catholic priest has been criticised by parents in a city in northern Italy for telling their children that Father Christmas does not really exist.

Father Dino Bottino, the parish priest of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Novara, let out the secret at a children's mass earlier this month.

A local paper published complaints from dozens of parents. "You've ruined my children's Christmas," said one mother.

But an unrepentant Fr Bottino called it his duty to set the record straight.

"I told the children that Father Christmas was an invention that had nothing to do with the Christian Christmas story," he said.

"And I would repeat it again, if I had the chance," he added.

But Father Dino could not have imagined the scorn that would be heaped upon him after he told children at mass that neither Father Christmas - nor the kindly witch called the Befana who provides presents on 6 January to Italian children - really exist.

The priest said he had never intended to hurt anyone, but it was his duty to distinguish the reality of Jesus from the story of Father Christmas which was a fable just like Cinderella or Snow White.

Sometimes I think the Santa story is the recipe for many an agnostic/atheist. After being "lied to" for years by parents and oh so polite society, how many children come to doubt all of the historical events relating to the holiday season.

Myself, I never bought into it, because 1) I saw just how small our chimney flue was, and 2) I think I calculated just how many fractions of a second a putative Santa character would have at each household when we learned long division.

i've often thought the UN should hire a guy to be santa and live at the north pole just so kids won't have to get disillusioned about this

One other clue to the Santa mystery: I think I saw two of them at the shopping mall once, as a toddler.

santa was female at Hamilton Town Centre this year.

"it was his duty to distinguish the reality of Jesus from the story of Father Christmas which was a fable just like Cinderella or Snow White."

Ummm...