Pitzen, meanwhile, was identified Sunday by Fox News as the educator who posted the clip. “We take matters like this seriously and are taking action to address it,” Franco wrote in an email. “We take this matter seriously and are investigating and addressing it.”ĭistrict spokeswoman Annette Franco declined to identify the teacher when reached early Monday by The Post. “Showing respect for our nation’s flag is an important value our district instills in our students and is an expectation of our employees,” district officials said. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District said in a statement Saturday that one of its teachers was under investigation for the controversial clip. Pitzen then shook her head and said she told the student that a flag was indeed in the classroom that he could “pledge allegiance to” before shifting the camera to a gay pride banner hanging on a wall. “But my kid today goes, ‘Hey, um, it’s kinda weird that we just stand and then, you know, we say it to nothing.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh well, you know, I gotta find it, like, I’m working on it, I got you.’” “I packed it away and I don’t know where, and I haven’t found it yet,” a giggling Pitzen continued. Totally fine.”īut that became an issue since the teacher’s classroom did not have a US flag, which she removed during the pandemic because it made her “feel uncomfortable,” Pitzen whispered on the clip. “So my class decided to stand, but not say the words.
“I always tell my class, stand if you feel like it, don’t stand if you feel like it, say the words if you want, you don’t have to say the words,” Pitzen said in the viral TikTok post. The teacher, identified in reports as Kristin Pitzen, said in video shared Friday on Twitter by the “Libs of TikTok” that her students have options as they recite the Pledge of Allegiance during her third-period English class.
“Individuals participating in acts of hate like this will face the most severe consequences available to us in the education code and will be reported to law enforcement.A California teacher is being investigated for saying she removed the US flag from her classroom and encouraged students to instead pledge allegiance to a gay pride banner, district officials said. “The action of this student or students is unacceptable and intolerable,” Overton wrote. The school didn’t release any additional information, but Paso Robles Principal Anthony Overton called the incident “hateful, intolerant and inexcusable” in a letter to students, parents, and faculty. Last week, the day before a planned forum on combating hate at Paso Robles, a student desecrated an LGBTQ Pride face mask. What’s more, the district’s efforts seem to have accomplished little in terms of reducing anti-LGBTQ incidents at Paso Robles. “So the school takes away the Pride flag, not the homophobia? “Someone defecated on a Pride flag,” Perez said. But if I had said that the American flag was a trigger to me, I would be treated like a terrorist.”ĭanny Perez, a senior, told the Tribune that their identity had been “politicized.” “Their defense was that the Pride flag may be a trigger for certain students. “It’s a way of subtly just getting rid of it,” Barajas continued. “We continue to believe that this is a very reasonable compromise solution that allows rainbows, but within reason,” he said.ĭeSantis Press Secretary Sparks Outrage With Pride Month Tweetīut Paso Robles High School’s Equity Club president, Eve Barajas, said the policy was “obviously just banning the Pride flag altogether unless you want those little mini ones.” Speaking to the Tribune, Dubost said he didn’t want flags to become a “politicized issue” in classrooms and called it a “real slippery slope.” While Dubost said that students deserve “protection against bullying and harassment” and that the district has a “duty…to ensure that hate speech and bullying conduct does not create an unsafe campus environment,” he announced a new policy banning flags larger than 2 feet by 2 feet in classrooms, as well as banning any flags that are “alterations of the American flag.” “The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (‘District’) has received multiple concerns about certain flag displays in teacher classrooms, including those that are large and distracting and those that alter the American flag,” District Superintendent Curt Dubost wrote to teachers. Teachers and LGBTQ students were outraged by the incident, but when the school district eventually replied in early October, it opted to effectively ban LGBTQ Pride flags from classrooms.