KTLA reached out to Pitzen for comment but had yet to hear back Tuesday afternoon.
Pitzen then points to a LBGTQ pride flag hanging in her classroom as she laughs. Pitzen says she told them she’d find it, but, “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?’” You don’t have to say the words.” But one student told her, “It’s kind of weird that we just stand and we say it to nothing.” She says she tells her class, “Stand if you feel like it, don’t stand if you feel like it, say the words if you want. “I packed it away but I don’t know where, and I haven’t found it yet,” she says. In the one-minute video, since deleted from TikTok, Pitzen says she removed the American flag from her classroom during the pandemic because it made her uncomfortable. The district added that Pitzen is not teaching students while officials continue to investigate. “Showing respect for our nation’s flag is an important value that we instill in our students and an expectation of our employees.” “We assure you that we take matters like this seriously,” the district said in a statement. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District said it became aware of the video teacher Kristen Pitzen shared from her classroom at Back Bay High School on Friday and has since launched an investigation. A Costa Mesa, California, teacher has been removed from the classroom after posting a widely shared TikTok video about taking down the American flag and telling students they could pledge allegiance to a gay pride flag hanging in the room instead.