Was California teacher fired for forcing students to pledge allegiance to pride flag? Claim distorts facts

A rumor that a California school district fired a teacher for forcing students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance while facing an LGBTQ+ pride flag circulated online in September 2026.

For example, on Sept. 29, a Facebook user posted a meme (archived) showing three images of a woman smiling, laughing and wearing a rainbow-striped shirt and jacket. Pride flags also appeared on the wall in the background. The meme read, “A California teacher has been fired after forcing students to pledge allegiance to the pride flag. Do you believe she deserved to be fired?”

(David J Harris Jr. via Facebook)

The same user previously shared (archived) the same rumor in late August 2026 with a different image and marked it “BREAKING.” Other people shared the same meme, or a similar one, on Instagram (archived), X (archived) and other platforms.

We found these posts contained a mixture of truth, falsehood, speculation and artificial intelligence.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa, California, did once announce (archived) it had placed a teacher — whom it did not identify — on administrative leave for posting a video in which she could be heard saying the U.S. flag made her “uncomfortable” and suggesting to one student, possibly jokingly, that he recite the Pledge of Allegiance to a pride flag displayed on the classroom wall.

However, this all took place in 2021, a fact some people omitted from their “breaking” social media posts in 2026. No evidence supported the claim that the teacher, who was reportedly named Kristen Pitzen and worked as an English teacher at Back Bay High School, “forced” any students to pledge allegiance to the pride flag. Images used in the above meme and other posts that supposedly depicted the educator were in fact AI-generated and inauthentic.

At the time of the incident, a district spokesperson said, in part, “The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.” The statement didn’t identify Pitzen by name, nor did it specify whether she departed the school after submitting a resignation or whether she was fired. People who posted the claim she was fired didn’t share evidence that the district had terminated her employment.

Via Messenger, Snopes contacted an account possibly belonging to Pitzen to ask questions. We will update this article if we receive further information.

Here are the facts

On Aug. 27, 2021, an educator — reportedly Pitzen, who was listed at the time as an English teacher for Back Bay High School in Costa Mesa — allegedly shared a video on her personal TikTok account in which she said she had packed her classroom’s U.S. flag away and appeared to indicate she didn’t intend to display it again.

In the clip, she laughed when recalling a story in which a student said her class was reciting the Pledge of Allegiance without a flag, then pointed the camera at a pride flag on her wall. She said she told him, “We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.” She laughed at several moments during the video, suggesting she may have been at least partly joking. No students or other staff were visible in the clip.

People then reposted the video and named Pitzen as its originator, with some X users organizing and calling for her firing that same day. Some users claimed her (now-defunct) TikTok handle on the account on which she shared the video and other clips was @mrsgillingsworth. We could not independently verify whether she truly owned the handle or if the videos originated from a different account.

In the video, she says the following:

Ok, so during third period, we have announcements and they do the Pledge of Allegiance. I always tell my class, “Stand if you feel like it. Don’t stand if you feel like it. Say the words if you want. [You] don’t have to say the words.” So, my class decided to stand but not say the words. Totally fine.

Except for the fact [laughing] that my room does not have a flag. It used to be there but I took it down during COVID because [whispering] it made me uncomfortable. And I packed it away and I don’t know where and I haven’t found it yet. [laughing] But my kid today goes, “Hey, it’s kind of weird that we just stand and then, you know, we say it to nothing.” And I’m like, “Oh, well, you know I’ve gotta find it. Like I’m working on it. I got you.” [laughing, shaking head]

In the meantime, I tell this kid, “We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.” And he like looks around and he goes, “Oh, that one?” [laughing, pointing to pride flag]

Following a wave of social media backlash, someone posted on the district’s Facebook page the next day — a Saturday — posting (archived) that a teacher had been placed on administrative leave after causing “alarm and concern related to saluting the American flag.” The post did not identify Pitzen by name.

(Newport-Mesa Unified School District – NMUSD via Facebook)

On the following Monday, Aug. 30, the district reportedly published a statement saying the teacher (still not identified) was “no longer in the classroom.” The statement appeared in news articles, including in the Los Angeles Times:

We are aware that one of our teachers posted a video on her personal social media that caused alarm and concern related to saluting the American flag. We assure you that we take matters like this seriously. Showing respect for our nation’s flag is an important value that we instill in our students and an expectation of our employees. The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.

Via email, district spokesperson Annette Franco confirmed the authenticity of the statement. We also asked whether the district fired the teacher mentioned in their statement — or whether the educator resigned. Without naming the teacher, Franco told us, “I can confirm that she is no longer with the District.” We also requested comment from current Back Bay High School principal Scott Mazurier, who started at the school in 2024 and was not present during the incident. We will update this article if we receive more details.

The school district’s policies include information about “patriotic exercises,” including “the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.” One part of the policy documentation says, “Individuals may choose not to participate in the flag salute for personal reasons.”

For further reading, we previously reported about a video allegedly showing a kindergarten teacher saying she had been fired for helping students discover their gender identity.

Sources