In the United States and many other countries, saluting the flag is something that is done daily. Children do so, by memorizing the Pledge of Allegiance and reciting it word for word.
At times, there may be those who decide that pledging allegiance to a flag is not to their liking. That is a personal decision, but when somebody takes it too far, it can really cause you to wonder.
One teacher who regularly posts on social media, Kristin Pitzen decided that she was going to force her stand on her students. She felt ‘uncomfortable’ by the American flag hanging in her room, so she removed it.
Although she removed the American flag, she did still allow the LGBTQ Pride Flag to hang in the back of the classroom. She then posted a TikTok video, in which she joked about telling the student that he should be pledging allegiance to the Pride flag rather than the American flag.
When it came time to say the Pledge of Allegiance, she would let the students know that they could ‘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.’
The problem was, they didn’t have a flag so even though many of the students chose not to say anything, it was confusing to them.
That is when the teacher pointed out that there was still a flag available in the room that they could pledge their allegiance to. It was the Pride flag.
As you can imagine, this didn’t sit well with many of the student’s parents. Even some of the students had a difficult time with it.
The video was taken down because of the severity of the negative backlash that was coming her way. Even the acting director of national intelligence for the Trump administration tweeted: “What kind of parent would allow their child to be taught by this wacko?”
A spokesman for the school district, Annette Franco, also had something to say on the subject. She said: “Showing respect for our nation’s flag is an important value that we instill in our students and an expectation of our employees. The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.”
Kristin was removed as a teacher and an investigation is ongoing.