Lee Francis was teaching a lesson on a Supreme Court case on flag desecration being protected under the First Amendment.
A history teacher at a North Carolina high school was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday for stepping on the US flag during a lesson on the First Amendment.
Lee Francis was teaching a junior-level American History class at Massey Hill Classical High School about Texas v. Johnson, in which the US Supreme Court upheld that the desecration of the Stars and Stripes was protected by the First Amendment, the Fayetteville Observer reported.
Both Francis and school officials confirmed to BuzzFeed News that he was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the incident that took place on Monday.
Pete Horne, the assistant to the superintendent of Cumberland County Schools, told BuzzFeed News that the district began investigating Francis after receiving "an enormous amount of complaints" about his actions. Horne said the investigation would likely conclude on Wednesday.
A photo of Francis stepping on the flag spread on social media, after a parent — whose child was not present in the history class — took to Facebook to accuse Francis of "stomping" all over the flag and "disrespecting" it.
In a now-deleted Facebook post that had more than 10,000 shares, Sara Taylor wrote that Francis asked his students for a lighter and a scissor to desecrate the flag. When he didn't get either, he "took the flag and stomped all over it," Taylor wrote. "He is saying this was teaching First Amendment rights."
Taylor said a few students left the classroom along with the flag and one student requested that it be properly taken care of.
"The flag might not mean anything to that teacher, but it means a lot to us and it means a lot to the family's [sic] who had their service member come home to them in a casket with that flag draped over it," Taylor wrote.
She said that the principal of the school "stood up" for Francis.
After Taylor's post was widely shared, many people took to social media to protest Francis's actions, with some calling for him to be fired.
"I hope someone beat that teacher senseless," wrote one.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2d9GGvR
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