“I should never have to apologize for Christ.”

Nellie Parrish, Fourth-grade teacher at Wylie Independent School District, Texas.

She is absolutely right. This country guarantees freedom of religion in the First Amendment and we will fight for her right to talk about Christ in public space anytime, anywhere. And, we’re glad that she finds that much strength in her faith.

But her faith seems so all-consuming that it crossed an obvious line and she was not asked back to teach 4th grade after 20 years at the school. She attributes it to prayers in class and Christian music, which is obviously unconstitutional. The problem is, she has a bit of an argument that the people firing her are absolute hypocrites and on that, we agree.

According to the Waco ABC 25

Now, the 20-year veteran teacher is questioning why she won’t be in a classroom next year. “I had two complaints that were brought up to me from the principal, one was over prayer,” Parrish said. Parrish went on to say she received another complaint about playing Christian music in her class.

“I’ve asked repeatedly why I’m being let go,” said Parrish. “The principal will not answer me.” Parrish said the school would play Christian music in the cafeteria alongside holding a prayer before football games, adding that Joey Light, the district’s superintendent, is known to lead a prayer on the first day of school. “What has happened to us?” Parrish said.”We use to stand for our faith.”

She is absolutely right in that her district gave tacit permission for the prayers given the district and school’s behavior.

There is nothing better than southeast high school football, It is the one thing that brings the entire town together, white, black, immigrants, rich, poor, Christian, atheist. One feels the comradery and it’s good. But every high school game in the south, or at least everyone that I’ve attended, began with a clearly unconstitutional prayer. They simply don’t care. And to be honest, though it bothered me as a freedom of religion liberal, fighting the prayer would damage that town unity which is priceless. Rich white parents cheering on their town’s poor black kid and defending him when hit high? It’s not worth the divisive fight to break that unity.

The football game doesn’t help Parrish at all. It’s at night, adults are there, it’s outside of the tight control of the school, and it’s done in every small town and a lot of cities. But the Superintendent’s prayer and especially the Christian music in the cafeteria definitely will help her if she had a wrongful termination suit. If she was not warned, she could easily believe she was doing what her bosses wanted and cleared.

It is likely that states wanting to eliminate any mention of LGBTQ Americans or the horrors of some of America’s not so exceptional history, might lead some schools to clean their own house first.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman