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Those wacky, tolerant religious people

post #1 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:09pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
LAND 'O LAKES, Fla. -- A substitute teacher in Pasco County has lost his job after being accused of wizardry.
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Teacher Jim Piculas does a magic trick where a toothpick disappears and then reappears.

Piculas recently did the 30-second trick in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes.

Piculas said he then got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he'd been accused of wizardry.

"I get a call the middle of the day from head of 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.

Piculas said he did not know of any other accusations that would have led to the action.

The teacher said he is concerned that the incident may prevent him from getting future jobs.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbc.../80506006/1086
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post #2 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:15pm
There has to be more to this. There just has to be. He was a middle school teacher. We're not even talking preschoolers who may see a magic trick and run home to tell mommy and daddy about the evil wizard at school. Of course, I'd even give the majority of preschoolers more credit than that.
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post #3 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:18pm
Dumb question: What kind of age are kids in middle school? Is this like the span from 6-10?

Regardless the age, I can´t think of any circumstance that a magic trick with a tooth pick can validate the banning of a teacher period. If a parent complaint one should rather ban the parent from parenting than the teacher from teaching.
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post #4 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:19pm
Chalk up another for that fun family game: Germany or Florida?
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post #5 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:19pm
Oh for fuck's sake.
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post #6 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jan Travolta View Post
Dumb question: What kind of age are kids in middle school? Is this like the span from 6-10?
Middle school is the two years before high school, so more like 11-14.
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post #7 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:20pm
When I went to church as a kid, I had a Sunday school teacher who would occasionally do Mr. Wizard tricks for us before heading into the Bible lesson.

I think too many kids and parents are living with their heads shoved up Harry Potter's ass. This isn't even a question of religion, its a question of stupidity.
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post #8 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeShaynePI View Post
Chalk up another for that fun family game: Germany or Florida?
huh?
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post #9 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:21pm
But magic is evil. Didn't you ever learn anything from Sunday school?
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post #10 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:22pm
And it's Florida, too, which makes it doubly weird. Yeah, I know large swaths of central Florida are rednecky, but I didn't think L.O.L. was that bad.

Unless his second trick was making his wiener disappear into a student's rectum, this is really disturbing.
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post #11 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:24pm
Say toothpick is code for penis and accused of wizardry equals..well, you get the picture. Yeah, that would make more sense.

edit-Minsky!!
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post #12 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amphibatron View Post
There has to be more to this. There just has to be. He was a middle school teacher. We're not even talking preschoolers who may see a magic trick and run home to tell mommy and daddy about the evil wizard at school. Of course, I'd even give the majority of preschoolers more credit than that.
That's what I'm thinking. And notice the teacher is the only source for the article. No mention of any attempt to contact the school for comment?
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post #13 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jan Travolta View Post
huh?
It's a game that Adam Carolla would play in which all fucked up stories came from either Germany or Florida. The game would be you would talk about the story and then have the other person guess whether it came from Germany or Florida.
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post #14 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:26pm
Is wizardry an actual offense? I'd like to see the ruling on some forty something lonely dudes wearing robes and screaming 'Lightning bolt!'. I mean, isn't their life a prison enough?
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post #15 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
It's a game that Adam Carolla would play in which all fucked up stories came from either Germany or Florida. The game would be you would talk about the story and then have the other person guess whether it came from Germany or Florida.
Ah I see, thanks. Now give me a minute to sort stories and I will win that game easily.
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post #16 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:28pm
"What do we do with witches?"
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post #17 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:31pm
A little more info here.

Quote:
The school district puts a somewhat different spin on the disappearing-toothpick incident.

Assistant Superintendent Renalia DuBose said the word "wizardry" never came up on the school district's end.

"That was his rendition of what happened," she said.

DuBose also said "there was a lot more involved" than a simple magic-trick demonstration.

She said the principal interviewed students after the regular teacher complained about Piculas' performance in the classroom. The principal then requested that Piculas not return to the school and said he "absolutely should not be subbing," DuBose said.

"The toothpick demonstration was minor compared to the other problems," she said.

In a letter the district sent to Piculas, performing a magic trick at Rushe Middle is just one of the reasons the district gives for dumping him from the substitute-teacher list. The others are that Piculas did not follow the lesson plans, he allowed students on computers even though another teacher said not to and he told the fifth-period student peer that she was in charge.
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post #18 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:32pm
More details here.

edit- beaten again!


Quote:
One student in the Rushe Middle class apparently took the trick the wrong way, Piculas said. He said he was told the student became so traumatized that the student's father complained.
I can't stop imagining what this student looks like.
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post #19 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:34pm
Reality is so much less fun than fiction.
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post #20 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:35pm
Thread Starter 
"In a letter the district sent to Piculas, performing a magic trick at Rushe Middle is just one of the reasons the district gives for dumping him from the substitute-teacher list."

The fact that it is at all a reason is fucking insane.
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post #21 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:38pm
Carl Hiassen is thinking: "I couldn't have even come up with that shit."
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post #22 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf View Post
"In a letter the district sent to Piculas, performing a magic trick at Rushe Middle is just one of the reasons the district gives for dumping him from the substitute-teacher list."

The fact that it is at all a reason is fucking insane.
Agreed.
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post #23 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:44pm
Thread Starter 
So the original point stands: Laugh at the stupid religious people.
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post #24 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:47pm
Yeah, but the poor guy who lost his job over this won´t be laughing I guess.
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post #25 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:48pm
RE: Laughing at wacky religious people -

Don't mind if I do!
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post #26 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:54pm
Sometimes (ok, most of the time) I'm embarrassed I'm from Florida.
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post #27 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jan Travolta View Post
huh?
Adam Carolla has a game he's done various shows (though I mostly heard it when he was on Loveline) where people would call in and read a news story that was horrifying or stupifying or something of that like, but not name where it happened. It would be up to Adam and whoever else to guess whether it was Germany or Florida, based on the fact that the majority of horrible and idiotic things happen in one of them.
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post #28 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:56pm
Ed has beaten you, but thanks for your answer anyway.
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post #29 of 39
5/8/08 at 7:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf View Post
So the original point stands: Laugh at the stupid religious people.
Yeah, just not as hard as you might if he had actually been fired for wizardry.
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post #30 of 39
5/8/08 at 8:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf View Post
"In a letter the district sent to Piculas, performing a magic trick at Rushe Middle is just one of the reasons the district gives for dumping him from the substitute-teacher list."

The fact that it is at all a reason is fucking insane.
I think it probably wasn't the magic trick, per se, but the fact that he was doing that instead of what he was supposed to be doing - teaching. And where was religion ever mentioned?
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post #31 of 39
5/8/08 at 8:27pm
It was a 30 second trick. Did your teachers teach every second of the school day?
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post #32 of 39
5/8/08 at 8:29pm
Not to mention, he's only a substitute. They aren't expected to teach, they're only expected to keep the kids from killing each other and/or having sex in the bathroom. If this guy uses magic tricks to get that done, then good on him.
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post #33 of 39
5/8/08 at 8:29pm
Quote:
It was a 30 second trick. Did your teachers teach every second of the school day?
No, but it seems like they had a laundry list of reasons to fire the guy, and this just happened to be the one that the guy made a statement about - most likely to make the firing sound as preposterous as possible. Looks like it worked.

ETA: They didn't fire him; they're just not going to call him to sub any more. Doesn't sound unreasonable to me if they have other options.

ETA 2: Hell, I don't know why I'm defending the school. I have no idea what actually happened. I guess I just forgot this was the internets, where the full details of a story can be ascertained with 7 lines of text. Carry on.
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post #34 of 39
5/8/08 at 10:08pm
Everything I hate comes from Florida: blowing the election, the Florida Gators, old people...
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post #35 of 39
5/10/08 at 6:12am
It does set a dangerous precedent

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post #36 of 39
5/10/08 at 6:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kerry Martin View Post
I think it probably wasn't the magic trick, per se, but the fact that he was doing that instead of what he was supposed to be doing - teaching. And where was religion ever mentioned?
Do you think secular humanists were complaining to the school about wizardry?
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post #37 of 39
5/10/08 at 6:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diva View Post
Sometimes (ok, most of the time) I'm embarrassed I'm from Florida.
Shit, I was going to say Germany...
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post #38 of 39
5/10/08 at 9:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amphibatron View Post
More details here.

edit- beaten again!

Quote:
One student in the Rushe Middle class apparently took the trick the wrong way, Piculas said. He said he was told the student became so traumatized that the student's father complained.
I can't stop imagining what this student looks like.
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post #39 of 39
5/10/08 at 7:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf View Post
Do you think secular humanists were complaining to the school about wizardry?
Getting fired for being a wizard was his explanation, probably to make the school look dumb. The school's explanation was that they decided not to hire him back as a sub for a number of reasons, including doing magic tricks during class time. Read jonvoight's car's quote.
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