A teacher is being investigated by her school after revealing in a TikTok that she jokingly encouraged students to pledge allegiance to the Pride flag.
Kristen Pitzen, a teacher from Orange County and otherwise known as “@MrsGillingsworth” on TikTok, has since deleted her TikTok and Twitter accounts due to the ongoing controversy.
In the video, she began by explaining how her students do the Pledge of Allegiance every day and why there isn’t an American flag currently in her classroom.
“During third period 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, 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,” Pitzen explained and added she took it down during the pandemic because it made her “uncomfortable” and she hasn’t been able to locate where she left it.
“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?’”
As she laughs, Pitzen proceeds to pan the camera to a Pride flag displayed on the wall.
Since posting her video, a Twitter account called @libsoftiktok where they mock and draw attention to liberal TikTokers as well as videos and news articles which they described as “insane & hypocritical.”
The account shared Pitzen’s video with the caption: “Teacher mocks the American Flag and suggests to students they can say the Pledge of Allegiance to the pride flag”
It’s safe to say it has since received a lot of attention, with over 5,000 likes and 3,000 quote tweets from people sharing their views of the clip.
The account also posted some of the replies to the video – including one who joked: “Now that’s a flag I’d pledge to!”
Of course, conservative Twitter was outraged by the video and have called on Pitzen to be fired from her position.
Even Richard Grenell, the former Acting Director of the United States National Intelligence under former President Trump, got involved and criticised Pitzen.
Though there were some people that were defending her in the comments and accused those calling her to be fired of “cancel culture.”
Newport-Mesa Unified School District, the school where Mrs Gillingsworth works, have since posted a statement on Twitter in response to the matter and have said they take this matter with “extreme seriousness” and are “investigating and addressing it”.
It appears people who had a problem with Mrs Gillingsworth’s video have contacted her school directly after the @libsoftiktok Twitter account reposted the school’s statement, along with a supposed email from the school’s principal.