Teacher’s First Amendment lesson quashed

A history teacher in North Carolina is bound to get into some hot water for teaching kids about history, specifically the First Amendment of the Constitution which gives the right to burn, cut, or step on the American flag.

So that’s what Lee Francis did at his high school on Monday, WRAL reports.

“I put the flag on the ground and I took two steps with my right foot and I said, ‘This is an example of free speech,'” Francis said. “Two students got up and left immediately with no word, no disruption at all…I assumed something had happened. One student came to where I was and took the flag from me.”

He’s been suspended from his position.

The superintendent of the district said there are other ways to teach the First Amendment.

“The idea to label me as anti-American or someone who hates the flag is very disingenuous when you look at the context of the lesson,” the teacher tells the Fayetteville Observer. “It saddens me that this is the direction of where the conversation is going.”