A Utah elementary school teacher has apologized after forcing one of her students to wash off a cross drawn in ashes on his forehead in celebration of the Catholic religious day Ash Wednesday.
Fourth grader William McLeod told local station Fox 13 that when he arrived at Valley View Elementary School in Bountiful after attending church and receiving his ashes that he noticed he was the only one in class wearing the cross.
“A lot of students asked me what it is,” said McLeod. "I said, ‘I’m Catholic. It’s the first day of Lent. It's Ash Wednesday.’”
He said his teacher soon pulled him aside and asked him to remove the cross from his forehead, deeming it “inappropriate,” despite his attempts to explain the significance of the religious symbol.
“She took me aside and she said, ‘You have to take it off,’” he recalled. “She gave me a disinfection wipe — whatever they are called — and she made me wipe it off.”
McLeod added that all of his friends in class watched him have to wipe off the cross and that he was very embarrassed.
The school principal after hearing about the incident called McLeod’s grandmother, Karen Fisher, who said she was “pretty upset” about the whole ordeal.
The teacher also reportedly gave Fisher a call.
“I asked her if she read the Constitution with the First Amendment, and she said, no,” said Fisher.
The Davis School District quickly apologized for the teacher’s blatant violation of McLeod’s First Amendment rights to religious freedom and expression. A spokesman for the district said that he has “no idea” as to “why that even came up”:
“Why that even came up, I have no idea,” said spokesman Chris Williams. “When a student comes in to school with ashes on their forehead, it’s not something we say 'Please take off.'"
The teacher also apologized with a bag of candy and a handwritten note which read, “I am so sorry for what happened today.”
McLeod’s grandmother was not assured, saying, “I hope it helps somebody and I hope it never happens again. [But] I don’t think it will.”
The Davis School District has opened an investigation into the incident and the teacher could face disciplinary action, Fox 13 reports.
For more, watch the Fox 13 report below.