I want to hope that there are better reasons that this for the (in a practical sense) dismissal of a substitute teacher in Tampa Bay.

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears.

But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land ‘O Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own.

“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.

When Piculas went in, he learned his little magic trick cast a spell and went much farther than he’d hoped.

“I said, ‘Well Pat, can you explain this to me?’ ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’ [he said]. Wizardry?” he asked.

In a day of mind-boggling stories--prison priests sexing up the inmates and Hillary promising to break up the evil oil cartels, for instance--this is far from the worst or most important story of the day, but I’d be hard-pressed to find another that stumped me quite so effectively.

Wizardry. And, apparently, someone was serious about that accusation over a simple magic (for the slower amongst us, it isn’t real magic) trick involving a toothpick. That isn’t the bad part, though, is it? I mean, some people think the Harry Potter books might shuffle their kids’ souls off right to hell.

What business does the school district have indulging that kind of idiocy, though?

I’m all for involved parents having a say in school curriculum. As with most things, though, there has to be a balance, and in this case the balance should be protecting the teacher.

The only potentially game saver here is this:

Tampa Bay’s 10 talked to the assistant superintendent with the Pasco County School District who said it wasn’t just the wizardry and that Picular had other performance issues, including “not following lesson plans” and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.”

It has to be viewed, though, in light of the fact that the supervisor apparently took the “wizardry” charge seriously enough to mention it to the teacher. Whatever cause might exist to want this man out of a classroom, being an amateur Dumbledore shouldn’t really be in the mix.

Read the story.

Hat tip to Andy who recently decamped to less bloggy climes.