Teacher On Leave After Making Boy Remove Ash Wednesday Cross

BOUNTIFUL, UT — Like faithful Roman Catholics around the world, Utah fourth-grader William McLeod went to morning Mass on Ash Wednesday and received the mark of the cross on his forehead in a ritual that marks the beginning of the Lenten season. When he got to school, his teacher at Valley View Elementary School in Bountiful forced him to wash it off, his family said, leaving the boy crying and embarrassed.

The Day of Ashes, as Ash Wednesday is officially known, is one of the holiest days of the year for Catholics and other Christians. The placement of ashes on a person’s forehead is an outward symbol that the person belongs to Jesus Christ, and also represents a person’s grief and mourning for their sins. Although primarily considered a holy day for Catholics, other Christian denominations, including Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists, also participate in the day marking the start of Lent.

William was the only student in his class with the mark of the cross. It sparked curiosity among his classmates, he told Fox News.

“A lot of students asked me what it is. I said, ‘I’m Catholic. It’s the first day of Lent. It's Ash Wednesday,’ ” he said.

The teacher, Moana Patterson, later approached the boy with a disinfectant wipe and told him he had to remove the ashes from his forehead. He protested and tried to explain why it was so important for him to keep the symbol of the cross on his forehead, but the teacher wouldn’t listen, the report said.

Karen Fisher, William’s grandmother, told Salt Lake City news station KSTU she was “pretty upset” and asked the boy’s teacher “if she had read the Constitution and First Amendment.”

“She said ‘no,’ ” Fisher said.

Davis School District, which has apologized and is conducting an internal investigation. Patterson has been placed on leave and could face disciplinary action.

“Why that even came up, I have no idea,” district spokesperson Chris Williams told KSTU. “When a student comes in to school with ashes on their forehead, it’s not something we say ‘Please take off.’ ”

The district contacted its educational equity director, an ordained Catholic deacon who reapplied the ash cross to William’s forehead, the district said in a statement.

The teacher apologized to the student in a handwritten note and gave him candy, according to reports.