(FaithWire) – One school district in Utah is on clean-up duty after a teacher made a fourth-grade student wipe the cross of ashes off his forehead, which he received at church to commemorate Ash Wednesday. When William — a Catholic — arrived at school, he quickly noticed he was the only one wearing an ash cross, according to KSTU-TV, so he was answering his peers’ questions about the religious symbol.“A lot of students asked me what it is,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m Catholic. It’s the first day of Lent. It’s Ash
Wednesday.’” Soon after he got to school, William’s teacher came up to him, gave him a disinfectant wipe, and told him to scrub the cross off his forehead. The young student tried to explain the significance of the symbol, but his teacher — who called the cross “inappropriate” — didn’t listen. “She took me aside and she said, ‘You have to take it off,’” William remembered. “She gave me a disinfection wipe — whatever they are called — and she made me wipe it off.” READ MORE
