TikTok Teacher “No Longer in Classroom” After Making Pupils Pledge Allegiance to Pride Flag

A California teacher is under investigation by her school district after she boasted, in videos posted to the social media platform TikTok, about making her students pledge allegiance to the racial Pride flag instead of the national flag of the USA.

Throughout August, english teacher Kristin Pitzen of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District posted a series of now-deleted videos to her TikTok account ‘@mrsgillingsworth’, in which she joked about the removal of the American flag from her classroom after she felt “uncomfortable” by its presence.

“I always tell my class to stand if they feel like [partaking in the pledge of allegiance], don't stand if you feel like it,” said Pitzen in one video. “My class decided to stand but not say the words, which is totally fine - except for the fact that my room does not have a flag. I took it down during COVID because it made me uncomfortable, and I packed it away and I don’t know where, and I haven’t found it yet.”

Pitzen proceeded to describe how she “told this kid” that there was “flag in the class that [they] could pledge their allegiance to” before turning the camera towards a Pride flag suspended from a classroom wall. In another video posted in June, Pitzen was pictured wearing rainbow-adorned earrings and dungarees before showcasing a number of Pride and other gender-identification flags she had styled her classroom with. 

“I got these flags from Target. They didn’t have all of them but I got everything that they had, as well as the inclusive Pride flag. I pledge allegiance to the queers. Send your queer friends here.” 

Pitzen faced a wide backlash for her videos, which were widely circulated by the leftist-criticalTwitter account Libs of TikTok. One Twitter user, referencing the recent events in Afghanistan, wrote: “Nothing against the pride flag, but we lost 13 service men and women a few days ago for that [US] flag (in Afghanistan)… respect it!,” while Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence, tweeted: “What kind of parent would allow their child to be taught by this wacko?”

Responding to the criticism, which included the placement of American flags by protesters in opposition to Pitzen’s sentiments outside the school’s gates, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District said in a statement that Pitzen was “no longer in the classroom” while under investigation for her actions. 

“A personal post by a teacher about the American flag is causing alarm/concern. Respecting our flag is a value we instill in students and is an expectation of our staff. We take this matter with extreme seriousness and are investigating and addressing it.”