Two teachers were recently fired from a private Christian school in Baytown after attending a drag show and posting about it on Facebook.
School leadership said the teachers violated their pledge to “act in a godly and moral fashion” in their public life, ABC 13 reported.
Kristi Maris, a 19-year physical education teacher at First Baptist Academy, went with a coworker and her daughters to a drag show at Hamburger Mary’s in downtown Houston on July 13 and subsequently shared photos and videos of the experience on her personal Facebook page.
“This was a blast!!!!” she captioned the post.
Shortly thereafter, she and her coworker were fired from First Baptist Academy.
The school’s senior pastor reportedly cited a clause in the school operating policies manual in explaining why Maris was terminated.
“I will act in a godly and moral fashion at work, on Facebook, and in my community,” the manual reads.
Maris previously agreed to follow this policy but said she did not think her actions violated this clause.
“They’re entertainers. I would’ve never thought in a million years that this would happen. Never. We are in disbelief. We still are. We are heartbroken,” she said, per ABC 13. “We had relationships with parents and the kids, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye to a lot of the kids.”
Maris posted to Facebook again on July 24, describing the termination from her perspective.
“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,” she wrote.
“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 [sic], or causes you to feel uncomfortable.”
Maris maintained that her actions posed no contradictions to her Christian faith.
“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,'” she told ABC 13. “That’s the way we should be. We should love everybody, and that’s what we’ve been teaching, but they’re not expecting us to do that.”
“I’ll do it again,” she continued. “It was too much fun, and it was good music!”
The Dallas Express reached out to First Baptist Academy for comment but received no response by press time.
Local activist Kelly Neidert, whose organization Protect Texas Kids documents and protests “kid-friendly” drag shows, told The Dallas Express, “The school has every right to fire her.”
“It’s inappropriate for a Christian teacher to attend a drag show, which are known for being extremely sexual, and then publicly post about how ‘fun’ it was,” she explained. “This sets a terrible example for her students.”
Hamburger Mary’s became the subject of heated protests last year for hosting a drag show advertised toward children. Before that, one of the drag performers from the location was found to be a registered sex offender who was convicted of assaulting an 8-year-old boy in 2008.
“Kid-friendly” drag shows have become the subject of great controversy nationwide and in Texas specifically.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, an upcoming LGBTQ Pride event in Austin is set to feature a “Drag Queen Story Time” for children.
Last month, Six Flags Over Texas hosted a drag show that allegedly had children in attendance, prompting protests outside the amusement park, which The Dallas Express covered. Around the same time, the mayor of Arlington voiced support for “all ages” drag events.
Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a bill intended to prevent children from attending “sexually oriented” performances, including drag shows. However, Senate Bill 12 does not take effect until September 1.
