Teacher loses job for making toothpick disappear

A Pasco County, Florida, substitute teacher's job is on the line. The charge from the school district — Wizardry.

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.

The assistant superintendent with the Pasco County School District 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."

You can see the magic trick here.