A California teacher is under investigation after she claimed in a TikTok video that she suggested a student pledge his allegiance to the LGBTQ+ flag rather than the US flag.
Kristin Pitzen, who shared the video on her account named @mrsgillingsworth, teaches English as a second language for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.
In the short video, which has since been taken down, she tells her followers that she gives her students the freedom to say the Pledge of Allegiance if they wish to - and express it in the way that they feel most comfortable.
Pitzen explained: "OK, so during third period, we do announcements and they do the Pledge of Allegiance. 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.'"
She continued: "So my class decided to stand but not say the words. Totally fine. Except for the fact that my room does not have a flag."
Pitzen then proceeded to point in the direction where the US flag used to hang in her classroom, but revealed that she removed it at some point during the Covid-19 pandemic "because it made me uncomfortable."
She then said: "I packed it away and I don't know where and I haven't found it yet."
The teacher went on to add: "But, my kid today goes, 'Hey, it's kind of weird that we just stand and we say it to nothing,' and I'm like, 'Oh well, we gotta find it. I'm working on it.'"
However, she did have a solution to the absence of the flag for the time being.
She said: "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?'" she said, as she pointed to a Pride flag hanging in her classroom.
The video has sparked outrage among some members of the community due to her supposed lack of respect for the US flag and the country as a whole.
Referencing the terror attack in Afghanistan last week in which 13 US service members died, one critic took to Twitter to write: "Nothing against the pride flag, but we lost 13 service men and women a few days ago for that flag… respect it!"
Another wrote: "What kind of parent would allow their child to be taught by this wacko? Why are parents turning their kids over to someone they don’t know? I’d like to talk to people who think this is good?!?"
A third commented: "If the American flag makes you uncomfortable then leave the country. I’m not kidding. Actually go somewhere that doesn’t fly the American flag so much. Please go nobody will miss you, you’ll be happier everyone will win."
The Newport-Mesa Unified School District has since announced in a statement shared on Twitter that the video is now the center of an investigation.
