Your Black World Reports.
Anita Wooten-Francis, a 52-year old Assistant Special Education Teacher claims she was fired and ridiculed by the principal at her school because she liked to pray. Wooten-Francis says that she worshiped in her class when the students were not in the room and read her bible during her lunch break. She also led other teachers in a prayer group and would play gospel music.
According to Ms. Wooten-Francis, her spiritual choices were not a concern until Principal George Andrews arrived at Canarsie School in 2004. In spite of the fact that Ms. Wooten-Francis claims that she never tried to influence the kids with her Christianity, she was still harassed and eventually fired.
“He said, ‘You can’t be praying in my school,’ ” said Wooten-Francis. “He said I was the ringleader in praying.”
She also claims that the principal made fun of her beliefs.
According to papers filed in a Brooklyn federal court, Wooten-Francis says that “he was aware that she and other Christians were praying to have the demons removed from his spirit, but that it was not working.”
Wooten-Francis also stated in her lawsuit that the school was undergoing significant deterioration during their time under the new principal. She claims that they were using money from school bake sales, not for charity, but for parties and lunches. The filing states that after Wooten-Francis complained about the abuses, she was fired on charges that she grabbed a kindergartner, which she says never occurred.
“Sometimes I will drop my Bible because my hands go numb and I have no feeling. How in the world am I going to grab a child?” she said, citing nerve damage in her hands from a medical condition.
“And if you look at the reports, it’s not even stated that the kids said themselves that I hit the kid,” she said to the New York Post.
An anonymous teacher describes Ms. Wooten-Francis as a “fantastic lady” who “gave her life to the kids” and “wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
She says she has no plans to let go of her faith.
“I’m a Christian,” she said. “I believe Jesus Christ is my lord and savior . . . I know that I’m trusting God, and the truth will come out.”
