Teacher Fired For “Wizardry” In… Wait For It… Florida

4:16 pm EST May 6th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Can we declare our independence from Florida? Just in interest of propping up the national IQ.

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears.

But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land ‘O Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own.

“I get a call the middle of the day from the supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue. You can’t take any more assignments. You need to come in right away,’” he said.

When Piculas went in, he learned his little magic trick cast a spell that went much farther than he’d hoped.

“I said, ‘Well Pat, can you explain this to me?’ ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’ [he said]. Wizardry?” he asked.

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14 Responses to “Teacher Fired For “Wizardry” In… Wait For It… Florida”

  1. TroyJMorris says:
    May 6, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    He’s a sorcerer!

  2. soullite says:
    May 6, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    Florida really is a joke at this point, isn’t it?

  3. Duros62 says:
    May 6, 2008 at 5:06 pm

    Burn the witch!

  4. Duros62 says:
    May 6, 2008 at 5:09 pm

    Tampa Bay’s 10 talked to the assistant superintendent with the Pasco County School District who said it wasn’t just the wizardry and that Picular had other performance issues, including “not following lesson plans” and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.

    What, wizardry isn’t enough?

    Dear Spain,
    Please take Florida back. We broke it.

  5. jerry says:
    May 6, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    There’s a vast wizard cover up I tell you, and I am glad this school principal will not stand for it!

  6. Randy Brown says:
    May 6, 2008 at 6:08 pm

    And I’ll bet you at least 95% of the students at that school own the Harry Potter series, and can recite long stretches of the books from memory. THEY can tell from wizards.

    Who’s the superintendant, anyway? Vernon Dursley?

    –RB (48-year-old Potter fan)

  7. Quaker in a Basement says:
    May 6, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    Oh great. First it was a tyrant king porn dragon and now this.

  8. Andrew says:
    May 7, 2008 at 11:37 am

    Well, he turned me into a newt. I got better, though.

  9. The Reality-Based Dave says:
    May 7, 2008 at 3:43 pm

    I wonder if this principal was fired for annointing desks with prayer oil? Where? Silly question. Florida!
    http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/22/Hernando/FCAT_blessing_raises_.shtml

  10. Former Pasco Tchr says:
    May 8, 2008 at 10:46 am

    New Port Richey
    This is not about sorcery. He was fired in the middle of the day. There was no way for Teacher Personnel to know that he did not follow a lesson plan that day. How would they know? This is all about a US Office of Education investigation last year where they told Teacher Personnel they could not continue to discriminate against male applicants for teaching positions. Florida law however does give the district the legal authority to fire a teacher for any reason or no reason. Unions are illegal in Florida. I was fired for a bogus reason as well right in the middle of the day. First they said it was “sexual harrasement” then when I proved that it could not be then they said….well, you used the school computer to read your e mail.They feel all men are potential child molesters and if they don’t have many men teachers on the elementary or middle school area then they lower the chances of problems. A high school teacher after school hung himself at his healthclub locker room this year as a function of being “investigated” for communicating with a teen girl. The teacher never had physical contact with her.
    WELCOME TO FLORIDA
    PLS TURN YOUR WATCH BACK 50 YEARS
    JEB BUSH still governor

  11. Duros62 says:
    May 8, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    They feel all men are potential child molesters and if they don’t have many men teachers on the elementary or middle school area then they lower the chances of problems.

    You know, that’s kind of odd, since it seems there’s been a spike in “Hot for Teacher” action going on lately. How many female teachers have been caught in, um, inter mural activities?

    I’m not suggesting that male teachers don’t abuse students. I guess that just doesn’t make the cut at CNN.

  12. Morgaine Swann says:
    May 9, 2008 at 3:53 am

    Everybody is laughing about this, but it is a serious issue. Whether you believe Wizardry is real or not, the idea that it would be associated with a simple sleight-of-hand trick or that it would be considered a valid issue of concern is a big deal. Witch hunts ruin lives. There is an actual school of wizardry run by a reputable Pagan elder. Pagans lose careers, have their homes bombed, their businesses destroyed, are sometimes physically attacked or harassed by ignorant fanatical Christians or Christian kids who think they’re an easy mark. This Justice Dept. is notorious for not prosecuting hate crimes against Pagans.

    One would hope that a school official would be embarrassed to make such a charge in this day and age. One would also hope they’d know that even in the extremely unlikely case that the teacher were a practicing Wizard that they can’t discriminate against him based on religion. There are a lot of poorly educated or extremely bigoted people in positions of power throughout this country and people need protection from this level of hate and ignorance.

  13. daniel rotter says:
    May 10, 2008 at 4:37 am

    This sounds like something more out of Spain 1408 than America 2008.

  14. Sean D. Martin says:
    May 10, 2008 at 6:41 am

    “One would hope that a school official would be embarrassed to make such a charge in this day and age.”

    They are embarrassed. That’s why they’re making up other, supposedly more “legitimate”, reasons for firing him.