Teacher Sends Kids Home In Tears: 'There's No Such Thing As Santa Claus'

This substitute lost her job after she spoiled the Santa myth right before Christmas.

Hide your kids, hide your wife, because the Grinch is apparently substitute teaching now. A second grade class in Massachusetts was devastated this week when their substitute teacher told them there’s no Santa Claus.

According to parents who spoke with Fox25, the substitute was engaging in story time with 26 second graders at Colonial Park Elementary when she decided to drop a Santa truth bomb, totally unprovoked. She allegedly said, “You know, Santa Claus is just a character. There’s no such thing as Santa Claus, and it’s your parents who buy all the presents for you.”

Parents contacted school officials and the local news after their kids came home crying because some asshole had just crushed all of their hopes and dreams. In a email to angry parents, the principal said she was “appalled to learn a substitute would purposely talk to students about the existence of Santa Claus,” and she will “ensure this particular substitute does not return to Colonial Park School.” Unfortunately, the damage is already done and Christmas just won’t be the same this year for many of these families.

It’d be one thing if this teacher had accidentally slipped up, or even if someone asked and she gave them an honest answer, but for her to just blurt it out for no apparent reason is insensitive at best. Honestly, it sounds like a deleted scene out of the movie Bad Santa. As one mom told Fox25, “What could have possibly gone through her mind to think what she said was okay?”

Second graders are seven to eight years old, on average. They’re on their way out of the Santa phase, at least within the next couple of years, but that’s usually a discussion that’s left to mom and dad. Even among non-believers and people who don’t perpetuate the Santa myth with their kids, there’s an understanding that it’s between the child and the parent, and you let others enjoy their own beliefs. This teacher violated that social contract, and she did it right before what was probably one of the last — if not the last — Christmases these kids would be so innocent and enchanted with the magic of the season.

There’s still a lot of holiday fun for these little ones to look forward to, but it’s unfortunate that this experience will now be a part of their Christmas memories. Hopefully their parents can spin it in a positive way and try to preserve the joy of the season. As for the teacher, well, we wish her a giant lump of coal in her stocking and whatever it takes to make her tiny little Grinch heart grow three sizes.