A student at Massabesic High School in Waterboro, Maine, says she was removed from a Zoom class on Thursday over a Trump flag that was displayed on the wall behind her.
Massabesic High School student Mollie Woodbury says that she was kicked out of her math class’s Zoom session due to a flag in support of President Donald Trump that was hanging on the wall behind where she does her school work, according to a report by WKYC.
The student claims that her math teacher had asked her to remove the Trump flag. Woodbury said that she told her teacher that the flag was in her bedroom and was not offensive and refused to remove it from the wall.
Woodbury then received a notification informing her that she had been removed from the virtual class by the meeting host.
I kinda feel like my right to have my own opinion was taken away by her,” said Woodbury of her teacher.
Mollie Woodbury is a junior at Massabesic High School. She says she was kicked off her Zoom class earlier this week because she had a President Trump flag hanging in the background #NEWSCENTERmaine pic.twitter.com/J2685ysoP3
— Jackie Mundry (@j_mundry) October 4, 2020
“She’s losing her right to learn, it was just uncalled for,” reacted Woodbury’s mother, Amanda Morrison, who added that she is proud of her daughter for recently getting interested in politics due to a civics and government class at school.
“I love that she’s intrigued in politics because that’s not something that everybody gets into,” said Morrison.
District Superintendent Larry Malone told NEWS CENTER Maine that “RSU 57 supports the rights of both students and staff to express their views on matters of public concern.”
“There are; however, times when the District must make content neutral time, place and manner restrictions on speech to ensure the orderly operation of its schools and the educational process,” he added. “Whereas educators are pretty familiar with what is and is not appropriate in the traditional classroom, we are all still learning the rules in a virtual environment.”
“In this case, staff acted to ensure that permission of such display and others would be appropriate in the online setting,” said Malone. “This situation has been discussed and resolved at the local level.”
Woodbury said she has since been able to back into her math class, but added that her teacher did not acknowledge her at all.
“I just don’t really want her to like hate me or have anything against me because of this,” she said.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.
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