Student forced to remove Ash Wednesday cross

UPDATE: A Utah teacher is on administrative leave after she made a 9-year-old Catholic student wash off the Ash Wednesday cross from his forehead.

Davis School District spokesman Chris Williams said Thursday fourth-grade teacher Moana Patterson won’t be teaching as the district investigates.

Karen Fisher says the teacher told her grandson William McLeod that the cross was inappropriate and forced him to wash it off in front of his classmates, leaving him crying and embarrassed.

Patterson is employed at a Bountiful, Utah, school just north of Salt Lake City. She didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.

Williams says the teacher gave the student a handwritten apology.

More than two-thirds of Utah residents are Mormon and about 10 percent are Catholic.

Williams says he doesn’t know the teacher’s religious affiliation.

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ORIGINAL:

A fourth-grade student says he wasn’t allowed to wear an important religious symbol to school.

Like millions of Catholics and other Christians around the world, William McLeod received an ash cross on his forehead to commemorate Ash Wednesday.

When he arrived at school, he noticed he was the only student in his class wearing the ash cross.

“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.

But moments later, William says he was confronted by his teacher.

William tried to explain the symbol’s significance, but he says the teacher forced him to wash it off.

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

After finding out about the incident the school’s principal called the boy’s family

“I was pretty upset,” said Karen Fisher, William’s grandmother.

Fisher also received a call from the teacher who instructed William to remove the cross.

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

The Davis School District is apologizing for the mishap, saying it wasn’t acceptable and that students of all faiths should feel welcomed.

“Why that even came up, I have no idea,” said Chris Williams a spokesperson for the district. “When a student comes into school with ashes on their forehead, it’s not something we say ‘Please take off.'”

The district is taking this incident seriously and conducting and investigation. The teacher could face disciplinary action.

William received a handwritten apology and some candy from his teacher. He and his family hope others won’t have the same experience.

“I hope it helps somebody and I hope it never happens again,” Fisher said. “I don’t think it will.”