If you were asked to speak about abortion in a classroom setting, and the lesson plan gave told you to tell about it as a good, nice thing, would you do it? I know if it were me, I would not be able to do it.
Wow! Look at all the bile and venom this woman's actions have brought out, all because she told children about the MYTH of Santa Claus.
She's "scum", a "b***h", and *gasp!* a "liberal"! Some of these same folks, when confronted with the hypothetical you offered about abortion would applaud a substitute teacher for refusing to teach that abortion is okay, according to the "lesson plan" but Santa, whoa! That "b***h" should have stuck with the lesson plan because it's okay to teach children about a jolly fat guy in a red suit who "sees you when you're sleeping, knows when you're awake, knows when you've been bad or good so be good for goodness' sake" who delivers whatever they want to them, all in one night!
She really touched a sacred cow, this time, eh? She better not be teaching near Easter and tell the truth about that character or the fur is REALLY going to fly!
Your analogy is not correct. There is a lot of difference between poetry and life/death situations. You are mixing apples and oranges saying they are the same. Wrongo here!! Now the perfect analogy would be asking if you would teach that James Whitcomb Riley's poem, "Little Orphan Annie" was written to scare children into behaving correctly, or to tell a childhood fantasy about gobblins and ghosts? Both poems, "Night Before Christmas" and "Little Orphan Annie" were written to enhance childrens' fantasies, no more and no less. To make it anything else is not to be tolerated nor accepted by the general public. Hence, your rebuke is not correct.
I believe this teacher when she says it would go against her conscience to present the lesson as given. Too bad she couldn't express her reservations to her superiors first, and ask for opportunity to present a different lesson or ask to be relieved.
One does not need to be so anal about teaching the difference between imagination and reality, especially with young children. To take a well-known poem rooted in history and fantasy and attempt to seriously relate (or interpret) it for six-year-olds is to treat them as adults.
Meanwhile I'm curious as to how speaking positively about abortion to six year-olds relates to a simple reading of "The Night Before Christmas." Pangs of conscience over reading an imaginary poem to six-year-olds? Give me a break!
In a REAL classroom, you would/could never be REQUIRED to speak of abortion in glowing terms. It wouldn't be legal and it wouldn't be germane to any lesson plan I can imagine.