Kristi Maris, lower left, her co-worker is blurred out
A veteran teacher was fired by a private Christian school in Texas for attending a drag show in her own time and posting about in on social media. A co-worker who joined her at the show, hosted at Hamburger Mary’s, a popular drag venue and bar in downtown Houston, was also fired.
Leaders of the First Baptist Academy in Baytown ruled that Kristi Maris, a teacher at the school for 19 years, had breached a condition of employment requiring her to “act in a godly and moral fashion at work, on Facebook and in my community”.
Maris told ABC13 of Houston she agreed to the condition, but did not realize it prevented her attending a drag show, or sharing photographs or videos of it. In a Facebook post, she said the entertainment was “a blast”.
“They’re entertainers. I would’ve never thought in a million years that this would happen. Never. We were in disbelief. We still are. We were heartbroken. We had relationships with parents and the kids, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye to a lot of the kids,” she said.
Maris was a physical education teacher. She is so dedicated to her job, that she had gone back to school several years ago for an extra certification. She’s also a devoted Christian.
“For almost 20 years, I’ve taught children to love each other. I’ve talked to them and told them, ‘You have to get along. God loves us all equally.’ And that’s the way we should be,” Maris said. “We should love everybody, and that’s what we’ve been teaching, but they’re expecting us not to do that.”
Maris’ Facebook:
Hey everybody just wanting to let everyone know what has been going on in my life! As of today I was fired from my Job of 20 years for attending a sing along show at Hamburger Mary’s. Before ever getting the news of my termination it had spread like wildfire in the church and school. They told me because I went to this show and posted a picture I wasn’t walking in a Godly manner, so that being said please remove yourself from my page if this offends you, if you think this is UnGodly, makes me a pedaphile, or causes you to feel uncomfortable. Take your screenshots of my post and send them around in your group chats but when you do at least at me to the chat!
