And I’m like, ‘Oh well, you know, I gotta find it, like, I’m working on it, I got you.’” “But my kid today goes, ‘Hey, um, it’s kinda weird that we just stand and then you know, we say it to nothing. “So my class decided to stand, but not say the words. “I always tell my class, stand if you feel like it, don’t stand if you don’t feel like it, say the words if you want, you don’t have to say the words,” says Pitzen. Pitzen then explains in the now-viral Twitter video that one of her students - who all have the choice to stand for the pledge or not - asked her what they would be swearing allegiance to if not the American flag. Newsweek reports how Kristen Pitzen - who teaches at the Newport-Mesa Unified School district in Orange County - had initially removed the American flag from her classroom during the coronavirus pandemic due to the fact it made her “feel uncomfortable.”

The teacher has now been removed for her actions, and the district has confirmed that the matter is currently under investigation. A teacher in California garnered national attention after she recorded herself instructing her students to pledge allegiance to the LGTBQIA flag instead of the United States’.