BAYTOWN, TEXAS – Two Texas teachers have been fired after attending a drag show in downtown Houston earlier this month.
Kristi Maris and an unnamed coworker were both let go after attending a drag show on July 13 at Hamburger Mary’s, according to multiple reports.
Maris, who has been a teacher at First Baptist Academy for 19 years, told KTRK that after she posted photos and videos of her visit to the popular venue, she and her coworker were fired.
“I feel like we were treated like criminals,” Maris said. “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.”
According to KTRK, the school’s senior pastor said the teachers were fired because of a line in the school’s operating policies manual that states “I will act in a godly and moral fashion at work, on Facebook and in my community.”
Maris said she had no idea she was breaking that clause in the manual by attending a drag show.
“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 told KTRK.
“We should love everybody, and that’s what we’ve been teaching, but they’re expecting us not to do that,” she continued.
Maris said that she is done with teaching at the moment but noted that she would attend a drag show again.
“It was too much fun, and it was good music,” Maris said.
KSAT has reached out to First Baptist Academy for comment.