It's Not Like They Were Encouraged to Watch American Pie

A Catholic middle school teacher up near Sacto is terminated for telling students they can earn extra credit by watching the R-rated TPOTC with their parents.

Officially, the school would not comment on why Hathorn was fired from the North Highlands school, saying his termination was a personnel matter. However, Principal Marilyn Fleming said assigning students to watch R-rated movies at the kindergarten through eighth-grade school was against school policy.

Hathorn, 50, who has taught at the school for five years, said the movie "is 100 percent true to the Gospel" and he has seen it with his son, a seventh-grader.

"For some children it is too much," he said. "But for others, in this age with all the violence we see, the violence is not too much."