Utah, USA: Uproar and apologies when public school teacher forced Catholic student to wipe Ash Wednesday cross off his forehead

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http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/0...ash-wednesday-cross-off-forehead-utah-school/

He was the only student in his class with an ash cross on his forehead.
“A lot of students asked me what it is, I said I’m Catholic. It’s the first day of Lent. It’s Ash Wednesday,” William said.
…
“The teacher walked over and said like, ‘What is that?’ And I was like it’s Ash Wednesday, and I’m Catholic. It’s the first day of Lent and was like, ‘No, it’s inappropriate. Go take it off,’” William said.
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“I was pretty upset,” Karen Fisher said, when the teacher called the boy’s grandmother. “I asked her if she read the Constitution with the First Amendment and she said, ‘No’ and ‘Ohhhh.’”
 
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Yes it is shameful but not surprising in those predominate LDS communities like Bountiful.
 
That article was so dramatic.

The teacher apologised, wrote a note to the student and gave him a small gift.
Both the principal and teacher rang his main caregiver to apologise.

My guess is the teacher had NO IDEA about what ash Wednesday was and assumed the kid was being silly. Kids do silly things all the time.

Of course in hindsight she would realise it shouldn’t have happened that way. But not exactly a new worthy story.
 
Thanks for the info. That makes a lot of sense.

Articles often leave out important context and people end up getting bent out of shape over something really minor.
 
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Well, as is often said around here, there’s such a thing as culpable ignorance. The teacher admitted to not having read the First Amendment, which is an astonishing admission for an education professional to make. Plus, wiping it off in front of the whole class? No, I don’t see this as quite so innocent a mistake. You don’t shame a kid in front of the whole class, especially in the wake of his having brought up his religion.
 
The child told the teacher what it was and what it represented. She should have stopped right there instead of pursuing the issue. I’ve lived in several LDS dominated communities and this type of behavior is prevalent in them. I would guess the issue for the teacher was that the child was telling his classmates what it meant.
 
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I can’t help but think that if something similar happened to a member of another religion or immigrant, the far left would be all over it.

To me, this is just another example of how Catholic bigotry is still acceptable in this country. The fact that the teacher would do this (even if she was simply clueless) shows how there are still anti-Catholic undercurrents in America.
 
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I’m surprised he was able to get the ashes before going to school.
 
I didn’t know they had Masses that early. Getting ready for school would probably make his wake up time even earlier.
 
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VanitasVanitatum said:
I didn’t know they had Masses that early.
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Yeap. My parish has two daily masses each morning M-F. One at 6:30 AM and another at 8:15 AM

FYI - Assuming that this happened in the town the article mentions, I quickly Googled for a Catholic Church in that town (there is only one) and they have a 7am Mass.

The elementary school in that town (assuming that’s the one) starts class at 8:50 AM. So the kid had plenty of time to attend morning Mass.

God Bless
 
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In the spirit of Lent, the teacher should be reprimanded but not fired. However, she does stand warned that doing so again will result in termination.
 
Well, actually, I think it is a newsworthy story; although I do not see LDS members particularly targeting Catholics, anyone crossing the line in suppression of legitimate religious issues needs to be corrected, and this certainly is one of the ways of correcting it. I would definitely not be shocked to find that a non-LDS teacher confronted a student elsewhere over the same issue; it just didn’t make the news. But this one making the news gets the point across to a large contingent of individuals who may think it is inappropriate.
 
ewohdrol said:
That article was so dramatic.

The teacher apologised, wrote a note to the student and gave him a small gift.
Both the principal and teacher rang his main caregiver to apologise.

My guess is the teacher had NO IDEA about what ash Wednesday was and assumed the kid was being silly. Kids do silly things all the time.

Of course in hindsight she would realise it shouldn’t have happened that way. But not exactly a new worthy story.
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It is if it fuels social media’s Rage Industrial Complex. Every week we have to find new people to crucify.
 
mdgspencer said:
The teacher walked over and said like, ‘What is that?’ And I was like it’s Ash Wednesday, and I’m Catholic. It’s the first day of Lent and was like, ‘No, it’s inappropriate. Go take it off,’” William said.
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The teacher asked the child a question. He answered. She should have dropped it right there. The only one the ashes were inappropriate to was the teacher.

I’m honestly surprised the child didn’t walk out of the room and call his grandmother the moment the teacher told him to remove the ashes. I don’t believe for one moment that she didn’t know what a Catholic was. She overstepped her boundaries.
 
Horton said:
The child told the teacher what it was and what it represented. She should have stopped right there instead of pursuing the issue. I’ve lived in several LDS dominated communities and this type of behavior is prevalent in them. I would guess the issue for the teacher was that the child was telling his classmates what it meant.
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As an evangelical Protestant in the South, I had no idea what Ash Wednesday was growing up, and if I had saw anyone with ashes on their foreheads I would not have known what it meant. Giving this teacher who lives in Mormon country the benefit of the doubt and being a teacher myself (you have NO IDEA what kinds of situations students can create inside a classroom), I can believe she made an honest mistake arising from ignorance rather than malice.

I’m not sure I would have made the kid wipe anything off their face unless it was somehow a distraction in the classroom. But, of course, this was religious and should have been respected.
 
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Personally, given the area, I think the parents should have not put the child in this situation. He should have been reminded to wipe the ashes off.

There is no obligation to wear the ashes all day, and in fact, it can be seen as contrary to the Gospel reading of the day.
 
Given the area? I think the worst message to send a child would be to wipe off the ashes before going out in public.
 
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