Bakersfield, CA- Many of the people in the town of Bakersfield are up in arms after a popular teacher in their community has been fired after having her class recite The Pledge of Allegiance. Cynthia Andrews (42), has been a teacher for the past 15 years at Eastwind Elementary. This particular year she was tasked with teaching 3rd graders. For what she thought was a fun and educational assignment, she asked her class to do their best to memorize and recite The Pledge of Allegiance. This was to be a day long assignment.
The children took to the assignment like flies to honey. Many of the students commented how patriotic it made them feel learning the pledge. Ms. Andrews was pleased by the how hard the students were working on memorization. At the end of the day each student was asked to recite the pledge in front of the whole class.
Several of students were able to perfectly recite the pledge. Most had trouble. A remarkable scene of togetherness and unity started to happen. The students who had trouble reciting the pledge started to get help and encouragement from the other students. The whole class was working as a unit and Ms. Andrews couldn’t have been more pleased.
Fast forward to the following day and Ms. Andrews was sitting in front of the school principal and several irate parents. It seems that many parents of the children in her class were not pleased about the prior day’s assignment. One parent literally screamed about the need for “Separation of church and state” after their child was ‘forced’ to recite an antiquated pledge which included a reference to, and an acknowledgment of God.
Cynthia Andrews was immediately placed on administrative leave and once school officials found ‘just cause’, she was fired. Many of the more religious and God fearing citizens of Bakersfield have rallied behind Cynthia Andrews. There are even plans of holding their children out of school until Ms. Andrews is reinstated. “Ms. Andrews is a patriot and loves her country. She loves teaching children and has not a bad bone in her body. It is a crime she is out of a job.”, a parent in support of her reinstatement said.
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