A junior at a Maine high school said she was booted out of her Zoom math class by her teacher because she had a Trump flag hanging behind her.
Mollie Woodbury, who attends Massabesic High School, told News Center Maine that the flag had been behind her for about a week.
"It's never really been an issue, nothing has ever been said about it until the other day," Woodbury said about the Thursday incident.
She said her teacher asked her to remove the flag, but she told her that it was in her bedroom and not offensive, so she didn’t have to. Then, she said he received a notification from the virtual platform telling her she had been removed from the meeting by the host.
"I kinda feel like my right to have my own opinion was taken away by her," Woodbury said of the teacher's reaction.
Her mother, Amanda Morrison, told the outlet she was surprised her daughter was removed from the class and concerned that she missed the rest of her class that day.
"She's losing her right to learn, it was just uncalled for," Morrison said.
Morrison said her daughter has recently taken up an interest in politics because she is enrolled in a civics and government course.
"I love that she's intrigued in politics because that's not something that everybody gets into," Morrison said.
Woodbury said she returned to the math class on Friday, but noted the teacher didn't pay any attention to her.
"I just don't really want her to like, hate me, or have anything against me because of this," she said.
The school’s superintendent Larry Malone issued a statement to News Center Maine about the incident. He stated it had been discussed and resolved.
"RSU 57 supports the rights of both students and staff to express their views on matters of public concern,” he wrote. “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. 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. This situation has been discussed and resolved at the local level."
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