Longtime Texas Christian school teacher fired after attending drag show

A longtime teacher at a private Christian school in Texas was abruptly fired after attending a drag show in Houston with a co-worker earlier this month.

Kari Maris, a physical education instructor at First Baptist Academy in Baytown for nearly 20 years, attended a sing-along show at Hamburger Mary’s on July 13 with a coworker.

Maris posted a photo of the pair with the drag queens on Facebook that said they had a “blast,” she told KHOU.

Soon after, Maris and the other teacher — who did not wish to be identified — were contacted by their school and told they would have to appear before the school board for acting “ungodly.”

Maris was shocked and told the outlet she had no clue that going to a drag show privately could be considered “bad.”

”It’s no different than going to the theater,” Maris said.

She pleaded her case before the board but said she “couldn’t get through with them at all.”

Maris and her co-worker were both terminated. There is no appeal process, she said.

Maris said in a Facebook post this week that “before ever getting the news of my termination it had spread like wildfire in the church and the school.

“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,”she wrote in the post that included a photo of her with the drag queens.

The post garnered more than 1,300 interactions, 450 shares and hundreds of comments.

The Post has reached out to First Baptist Academy for comment.

According to the school’s website, the school states its goal “is to build a strong foundation in each student through promoting excellence in education and instilling Biblical ideology. We achieve this through higher level curriculum, smaller classrooms, Biblical teaching, a Christian atmosphere and building self-esteem.”