Initially, it sounded like she may have just been unspeakably ignorant, now it sounds like she simply disregarded what the boy said completely because she thought it “inappropriate.” And crazy eyes.
Via Fox News:
A Utah teacher who forced her student to wash off the Ash Wednesday cross last week said she thought the Catholic marking was “dirt on his forehead” and claimed she didn’t know it was a religious symbol.
Moana Patterson, a fourth-grade teacher at Valley View Elementary in Bountiful, apologized Monday for the incident last week, and explained why she had her student, 9-year-old William McLeod, wipe the ashes off his forehead, FOX13 reported. Patterson was placed on administrative leave as Davis School District officials investigate the incident.
“A student came into my classroom with what appeared to be dirt on his forehead,” Patterson said in a 49-second prepared statement at the Utah state capitol in Salt Lake City. “I gave him a wet wipe to clean it off. I had no idea it was a religious symbol.”
She added: “When I learned it was a sacred symbol for Ash Wednesday, I immediately apologized to the boy and his family.”
William told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Thursday that he attempted to explain to his teacher why he had ashes on his forehead before being forced to wipe it off — contradicting Patterson’s statement.
“I told her what it was and she said, ‘That’s not appropriate in this school, go wipe it off,’ and she pulled me to the corner and she gave me a disinfectant wipe and made me wipe it off,” William said, adding he tried to explain the religious symbol at least two more times.