It seems to me that an honest employer would have, once learning the word's actual meaning, not dissembled. It appears to me that the boss thought his employee was serving linguistic haute cuisine to those he wanted to be fed pabulum. But he is no doubt safe, since he is probably a bishop in the Utah church. Now what would he say about his bishopric?
Trawling, or maybe trolling, around the internet for sites, or possibly sights, on this story, or perhaps storey, I noticed something very interesting about the comments. They fall into two groups. Half are supportive of the teacher, often in a humourous way and the other half suggest that he is a trouble making liar, closet homosexual and probable child molester. What I found interesting is that, the occasional very isolated comment aside, any given site will only have one of these sets represented. I also found it interesting that the supporters of the sacked teacher tend to express themselves with humour and good manners while those against him most often resort to bile and hatred - and badly written bile and hatred at that.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.