CALIFORNIA – The Newport-Mesa School District is investigating a teacher after she posted a video explaining how she encouraged students to ‘pledge allegiance’ to a gay pride flag after she removed the American flag from her classroom.
“Okay, so during third period, we have announcements and they do the pledge of allegiance,” the teacher, Kristin Pitzen says in the video. “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 explains how she removed the American flag from her classroom, saying, “I took [the US flag] down during COVID because it made me uncomfortable.”
“In the meantime, I tell this kid, ‘We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to. And he like, looks around and goes, ‘Oh, that one?’”
“On Friday evening, one of our teachers created a personal social media post that caused alarm and concern related to saluting the American flag,” the district said in a statement. “Showing respect for our nation’s flag is an important value our District instills in our students and is an expectation of our employees. We take this matter seriously and are investigating and addressing it.”
