A public school teacher in Massachusetts knelt in protest during the daily Pledge of Allegiance, it was learned on Wednesday.
The incident happened last Thursday morning at the Russell Street Elementary School in Littleton, where a substitute teacher dropped to bended knee during the pledge in full view of students.
Afterward, the teacher shared her political views with students as a way to explain her actions, according to NBC Boston.
The gesture of protest was so controversial that a number of parents and students expressed their displeasure to administrators.
The backlash grew to the point where the principal felt the need to put out a statement to the media chiding the substitute teacher.
The incident happened last Thursday morning at the Russell Street Elementary School in Littleton, where a substitute teacher dropped to bended knee during the pledge in full view of students
‘The Littleton Public Schools respect the rights of all individuals to participate or respectfully abstain from participating in the Pledge of Allegiance,’ Principal Scott Bazydlo said in a statement.
‘While this topic is timely and does have educational merit, it should be addressed sensitively and age-appropriately by permanent faculty and inclusive of the beliefs of all children and families.’
The principal said that though the protest was ‘well-intended…[it] should not have taken place in the fashion it did.’
The school did not say if it disciplined the substitute teacher in any way, nor would it reveal her identity.
‘I don’t particularly care for it actually,’ another parents told NBC Boston.
“I don’t know that the school should have someone there that’s expressing their opinion that way.”
The parent said the teacher was ‘disrespectful’ and said it’s ‘not the platform’ in an elementary school.
The controversy in Massachusetts is just the latest flare-up in the week-long national debate over political protests against the flag and national symbols.
Several dozen NFL players, fewer than last week, chose to sit or kneel during the national anthem at the start of games on Sunday, a day after President Donald Trump again demanded an end to a protest he sees as a sign of disrespect for the flag.
The symbolic gesture, initiated last year by then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, snowballed last week following calls by Trump for team owners to fire athletes who sat out the anthem.
Several dozen NFL players, fewer than last week, chose to sit or kneel during the national anthem at the start of games on Sunday. Kansas City Chiefs linebackers Justin Houston (left) and Ukeme Eligwe (right) sit on the bench during the anthem before Monday’s game against the Redskins in Kansas City
On Sunday, more than 40 players, many of them on the 49ers, sat or knelt on one knee during renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner in the 15 National Football League games, compared with 180 players in all 16 games a week earlier.
Some African-American players have adopted the practice of kneeling during the anthem to protest against police treatment of racial minorities.
Critics including Trump object to any protest, regardless of its merits, during a ceremony meant to honour the flag and military veterans.
Some 30 members of the 49ers knelt before a game in Arizona on Sunday, and their general manager and chief executive stood behind them, The Mercury News in the San Francisco Bay area reported.
In Seattle, several members of the Seahawks sat out the national anthem, while their opponents, the Indianapolis Colts, linked arms along the sidelines.
In other games, players on some teams went to one knee before the anthem was played and then rose as a team when the song began. Players on a handful of teams stood with raised fists during parts of the anthem or after it, according to a team-by-team rundown from sports television network ESPN.
At London’s Wembley Stadium, where the NFL’s first game was played on Sunday, three members of the Miami Dolphins knelt as singer Darius Rucker performed the US anthem.
All of the other uniformed Dolphins and their opponents, the New Orleans Saints, stood along the sidelines, many with their right hands over their hearts.
The three players who had knelt stood for the British anthem, God Save the Queen.