Alabama teacher Chris Burrell was sent home from school by her principal for wearing a shirt with the words “just pray” on the front.
Burrell had picked out the shirt to support 11-year-old Aubreigh Nicholas, who last year was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, but Mobile County Public Schools Superintendent Martha Peek told Fox10 that neither students or teachers are allowed to wear clothes that promote religion or a particular belief system.
“So at the point of looking and seeing ‘pray’ on it, the principal said, can you put on a sweater or something, knowing that there are other people who object to that…we have to be cognizant of everyone’s beliefs or everyone’s thoughts in a public school,” Peek told WALA Fox 10.
“I didn’t think twice about it,” wrote Burrell in a Facebook post. “I wasn’t trying to promote religion, it was just my Monday feel good shirt.”
Although the shirt was worn in support of “Aubreigh’s Army,” a fundraiser for the 11-year-old, the principal reportedly wasn’t aware of that at the time the teacher was sent home.
“We’re totally supporting her, I think that this was just an unfortunate connection there, but still the principal would have had to exercise her judgment,” Peek told Fox 10.
WATCH: