Family Outraged After Teacher Forced Child to Wash Off Ash Wednesday Cross

A family in Utah is outraged right now after they say their son’s elementary school teacher forced him to wash off his Ash Wednesday cross from his forehead.

Fox News reported that William McLeod received the ash marking, which is applied on the forehead by a Catholic priest to signify the start of Lent, before heading to his fourth-grade classes at Valley View Elementary School in Bountiful. When he arrived, William found that he was the only student with a 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 recounted.

William’s teacher, whose name has not been released, approached him and told him to wash the cross off his forehead. Though he tried to explain to her that the cross was part of his Christian faith, she would not listen to reason.

“She took me aside, and she said, ‘You have to take it off,’” William explained. “She gave me a disinfection wipe — whatever they are called — and she made me wipe it off.”

Karen Fisher, William’s grandmother, said she was “pretty upset” when William told her what happened. The teacher, who may still face disciplinary action, apologized to Fisher over the phone.

“I asked her if she read the Constitution with the First Amendment, and she said, ‘No,’” Fisher said.

School district apologizes

Davis School District’s spokesman Chris Williams issued a public apology, saying that an investigation is underway.

“Why that even came up, I have no idea,” he said. “When a student comes in to school with ashes on their forehead, it’s not something we say, ‘Please take off.'”

Fisher is hoping that going public with the story will ensure that this does not happen again.

“I hope it helps somebody and I hope it never happens again,” she said.

Anti-Christian incidents like this one seem to be happening more and more these days, yet they get virtually no attention from the mainstream media. The leftwing media is always on the hunt for anti-Muslim incidents, yet they have no interest in reporting on situations in which Christians are victimized.

Can you imagine what would have happened if a teacher had told a Muslim student to remove her hijab? It would be front-page news on every mainstream media outlet, and we would not hear the end of it for weeks. When Christians are targeted, however, the media is quick to turn a blind eye. It’s sad that we live in a country where the mainstream media no longer cares that Christianity is under attack.