A primary school teacher in Oristano, Sardinia, has been suspended for 20 days on reduced pay for teaching her students to construct a rosary for Christmas and for praying a Hail Mary and Our Father with them.
The Oristano school office’s decision of suspension was taken after two mothers protested. While other parents defend her, she said she will appeal the decision.
On 22nd December last year, Marisa Francescangeli showed her students how to construct a rosary with beads for the occasion of Christmas and told them “to wish the children a Merry Christmas by reciting two prayers with them,” she told L’Unione Sarda. In reaction to this, two mothers complained to the school principal. After the complaint, a meeting between the parents and the teacher was held. Marisa Francescangeli recalls: “I even apologised for the gesture, remembering, however, that at the beginning of the year, I had asked all the parents for permission to recite some prayers with the children. No one had been opposed.”
Despite this, on March 2nd, Ms Francescangeli was given a suspension notice for twenty days.
