Teacher fired for attending drag show

BAYTOWN, Texas (KTRK) - A Texas teacher has been fired after going to a drag show in Houston.

The Christian school where she worked for nearly two decades says she violated their school policy, but the teacher said that she does not think the policy is very “Christian.”

Kristi Maris calls her first drag show a “blast,” and she proudly posted photos and videos on Facebook after attending. Soon after, she got an unexpected phone call.

“I feel like we were treated like criminals,” she said.

After 19 years at First Baptist Academy in Baytown, Texas, Maris was fired. She said a coworker was also fired.

According to the school’s senior pastor, it is all because of one line in the school operating policies manual that says, “I will act in a godly and moral fashion at work, on Facebook and in my community.”

Maris had agreed to the clause but didn’t realize she was breaking it by going to a drag show.

“They’re entertainers. No, 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 so dedicated to her job that she had gone back to school several years ago for an extra certification.

She is also a devout Christian and said that she hopes her kids learn “to love everybody equally.”

“Say that was my son, I would love him. It wouldn’t matter to me as long as he’s happy. I want everybody else to do that, too,“ Maris said.

While Maris is done with teaching for now, she said that she is not done having a blast.

“Yeah, I’ll do it again. It was too much fun, and it was good music!” she said.

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