The Grinch is getting a head start this holiday season.
This week, a pastor spread some Christmas despair when he stood outside Sleepy Hollow Elementary School in Amarillo, Texas, telling the children and parents that Old Saint Nick is not authentic. He dressed in a Grinch costume and walked up and down the sidewalk in front of the school with a sign that read, “Santa is Fake. Jesus is Real.”
Identified as David Harold Grisham, the pastor angered parents, who felt the messaging was unnecessary. At least two parents were seen confronting him, with one of them snatching his sign and ripping it. Still, he declared, “You shouldn’t lie to children” to the parents.
Soon, the police were called, and they confronted Grisham, who was still on the sidewalk. The school’s principal said Grisham’s presence was “unwanted and uninvited,” yet when the police arrived, they could not do anything to Grisham since he was on a public sidewalk, therefore not breaking any laws. Grisham shared his experience in a lengthy Facebook post.
“I got assaulted by a parent, and they tore my sign, and the police did their very best to distract me from my mission and blocked me from exercising my First Amendment rights as much as they could. They as much as admitted so. Very unprofessional,” he wrote.
In a follow-up post, Grisham said he would be taking his Grinch gig on the road and asked for donations to fund his “Santa Is Fake” campaign this holiday season.
