The location was Land O’ Lakes, Florida 2008, not Salem, Massachusetts 1692, but a substitute teacher was fired for witchcraft. Jim Piculas, the teacher in question, performed a 30-second magic trick in front of a middle school class where he made a toothpick disappear. Later that day he got a call from the substitute teacher coordinator who told him he could not take any more assignments. “Why?” he asked. For being suspected of “wizardry.”
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Can't these people tell the difference between a 'parlour trick' and 'witchcraft'? The Bible belt of America really needs to be quarantined. It is a zone where lunacy rules untrammeled.
People who believe in witchcraft are not safe to be anywhere near children - or the rest of the sane world.
And yet, people are still going off with "USA #1".
Yes, you are number one alright, in stupidity!
Just the fact that this is even a valid reason for a layoff just shows what a third world country USA still is socially. It would have been illegal in all civilized countries.
There's so much evil witchcraft and black magic in the world today. How did that sorcerer posing as a teacher make a whole toothpick disappear? I mean, come on, a whole toothpick. It's chilling in its demonic implications.
I remember once, a friend of mine, at the time I didn't know he was an evil sorcerer, fanned a pack of cards in front of me and said, "Pick any card, memorize it, and place it back anywhere in the pack without showing me or telling me what the card is". I did as he asked, thinking, "What's he been smoking?" He shuffled the cards and proceeded to turn each card in the deck over until he came to the four of clubs, "That's the card you picked", he said. It was.
A cold chill ran up my spine and a feeling of creeping horror overwhelmed me as I realized he was an evil sorcerer who dealt in witchcraft and black magic. I was dumbstruck and paralyzed with fear and terror by the unholy magic that he had just enacted and even now I feel a revulsion just thinking of the sheer crawling insanity of his unearthly machinations.
Maybe it was a magic trick like the disappearing pencil in The Dark Knight? That would get a dude fired, no problem. Other than that...no. Just, please, no.
The location was Land O’ Lakes, Florida 2008, not Salem, Massachusetts 1692, but a substitute teacher was fired for witchcraft
Given the fundie climate of Florida these days I'm actually suprised it hasn't happened sooner.
Jim Piculas, the teacher in question, performed a 30-second magic trick in front of a middle school class where he made a toothpick disappear. Later that day he got a call from the substitute teacher coordinator who told him he could not take any more assignments. “Why?” he asked. For being suspected of “wizardry.”
I'm sure this violates all sorts of laws, especially given that it seems to be a publlic school. Hopefully this story will end with a legal bitchslap and unemployment for whichever idiot that was responsible.
A toothpick? Pffffftt!
I can disappear car keys and reading glasses without even half trying, so well that even I and my evil twin* together can't find them.
* He's the one I suspect of the wizardry, goddamned necromancer.
So he does a magic trick for students' enjoyment and gets fired? For once I agree with fundies, this country is going downhill. Fundies are leading the way. Jim's firing sounds like something he should take to court. And that as others stated, it violates many laws
Oh my god...I just realized....I did a magic trick in front of a bunch of people today, and one was a religious girl!
I am so dead. ('twas a good trick though)
What? So David Copperfield, Siegfried & Roy, Uri Geller, Houdini, Joe Labero (very charismatic Swedish illusionist) and Penn & Teller are Wizards? I thought they were illusionists.
For Thor's sake, I have done magic tricks! Who hasn't? I got a magic box on my eighth birthday.
Sensationalist media alert!
I can tell you for a fact that the guy wasn't fired for wizardry. One single parent made that comment, and he was the one who appeared in the Colbert Report ... er ... report. Not exactly the kind of guy that can influence an entire school board.
He was fired because he's a lousy teacher.
Florida may have a reputation for being behind the curve, but come on. We're not all inbred hicks.
While he may have been a crappy teacher-in fact, I saw the Colbert Report and think that he was-the fact of the matter was that one guy still said this.
That's WTF material right there.
@ Pete. Thanks. As a Floridian, I was hoping there was something to the story other than what it seemed. I was thinking it was Poe, pure and simple. I looked it up and found articles on it. It wasnt Poe. Maybe the article sensationalized the event as you said. I have FAITH in that BELIEF, proof notwithstanding. We Floridians are not that bad....I hope.......
This was simply a case of someone trying to get attention through sensationalism.
From TampaBay.com:
"In fact, assistant superintendent Renalia DuBose told the St. Petersburg Times, it wasn't the magic trick at all. Rather, the district had written reports from the principal and a teacher at Rushe Middle School detailing Piculas' use of profane language, his inability to control the class and his decision to put a student in charge something the student's parent complained about.
But those details got drowned out as the tale bounced from blog to blog. It was the wizardry angle, with all its Harry Potter imagery, that grabbed the spotlight."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/article511648.ece
Sleight-of-hand is to witchcraft what an Etch-A-Sketch is to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
I'd leave Florida for my health, but the state needs all the sane people it can get.
@Leliel: You generally don't need a teaching certificate to be a substitute teacher--on most one-day jobs, to be frank, you are essentially serving as a glorified babysitter, since most teachers leave "busy work" instead of an actual lesson plan.
@ Space Lizard
The Wiccans I know seem not to like their craft to be called witchcraft. They prefer Wicca instead.
But I was really thinking of those who are so mentally twisted that they would be happy to see a witch/Wiccan burn.
And to reinforce: a parlour trick is neither witchcraft or Wicca, unless you are still living in the early middle ages.
Wiccans don't have a craft.
Wicca is, if anything, even dumber than Christianity.
You can't cast spells. You can't control the weather. You can't do jack. Grow the fuck up.
#1150734
Fuck Wicca
Wiccans don't have a craft.
Wicca is, if anything, even dumber than Christianity.
You can't cast spells. You can't control the weather. You can't do jack. Grow the fuck up.
#1150734 wins an internet.
Did he explain how the trick was done? I would have gone back and explained how the trick was done. Alternately, I would have hired Piculas on as a permanent staff member, as the previous teachers were obviously complete idiots.
Seriously? I mean seriously? I know there are some people who believe that "witchcraft," whatever that is, really does exist, but a slight-of-hand magic trick is the same as practicing witchcraft?
I bet the substitute teacher coordinator would shit him/herself if you did that old "pull my thumb off and move it back & forth" gag.
Whoever did that, well, let me show you a magic trick. It involves you, a pencil, and a table.
Well, he did violate the rules regarding using magic in front of Muggles. I think the 'substitute teacher coordinator' actually worked for the Ministry of Magic.
Now, in reality - WTF? I hate my home state soooo much. Yet, I still live here. Going to have to volunteer some extra time volunteering for Rep. Grayson as penance.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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