Kristin Pitzen, a teacher at Newport Mesa School District in Orange County, posted a now deleted video on TikTok explaining that she removed the American flag from her classroom “because it made me uncomfortable.”
“I packed it away and I don’t know where, and I haven’t found it yet,” she whispered into the camera while giggling.
She then said that when the Pledge of Allegiance – a sign of loyalty to the country – is read in the mornings, she instructs her class to: “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.”
“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,” she said with unrestrained laughter.
After, she describes a situation when one of her students asked what he should look at while reciting the patriotic oath since there is no American flag in the classroom.