Marisol Arroyo-Castro had kept a small reminder of her Catholic faith near her desk for more than a decade — until school staff told her to hide it or lose her long-held position teaching children.
A Christian teacher in Connecticut has sued school district leaders after she was removed from her public middle school classroom in December for refusing to take down a crucifix she had long kept near her desk.
The lawsuit, filed in February in U.S. district court, alleges that leaders of the Consolidated School District of New Britain have misused the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause—which prohibits government-endorsed religion — as a pretext to restrict Marisol Arroyo-Castro’s rights to free speech and religious expression.
On March 14, First Liberty and the law firm WilmerHale filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in federal court and a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Castro’s behalf.
“No teacher should be punished for hanging a small cross next to her desk in the classroom,” said Keisha Russell, senior counsel at First Liberty. “And, despite multiple warnings before and during litigation that they were violating a recent Supreme Court case, the school district continues to retaliate against Marisol for standing up for her rights.”
Castro, a grandmother of five, has dedicated 32 years to teaching in Connecticut’s public schools and routinely receives exemplary evaluations as a teacher “who holds her students to high expectations.” For the past decade, while working at the DiLoreto Elementary and Middle Schools within the New Britain School District, she has kept a crucifix on her desk alongside personal items like student artwork and a church calendar.
As a devout Catholic, the crucifix reminded her to pray and helped her stay calm while teaching.
However, in early December 2024, Castro was summoned to a meeting with her supervisor, Andrew Mazzei, the vice principal of DiLoreto Elementary & Middle School, and given an ultimatum: remove the crucifix by 8 a.m. the following Monday or face insubordination charges. A follow-up email from Mazzei stated that public schools prohibit permanent displays of religious symbols based on the First Amendment.
The directive left Castro in distress. She felt that removing the crucifix would compromise her faith but also worried about the consequences for her retirement after decades of service. A few days later, she attended another meeting with Dario Soto, the principal at DiLoreto, the vice principal, the chief of staff, and a union representative.
During the discussion, Soto referred to the cross as “just an idol,” which Castro found deeply offensive. The chief of staff suggested she place it in a drawer, but Castro felt it would hide her faith. The union representative proposed a compromise: moving the crucifix somewhere students couldn’t see it.
When the group visited her classroom, they instructed her to place the crucifix under her desk. She complied but felt sorrowful, believing she was suppressing an essential part of her identity. After reflecting and praying, she decided she could not, in good conscience, keep it hidden and returned it to its original spot the next day.
As a result, Castro received a reprimand for insubordination. The principal then visited her classroom and urged her to take down the crucifix as an act of “properly living out her faith,” citing the biblical phrase “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”
When she refused, the school district suspended her without pay for two days.
The administration hoped this punishment would persuade her to relocate the crucifix to what they called her “private space” under her desk. Instead, she was placed on administrative leave while the grievance process unfolded.
Other teachers display personal items near their desks, including family photos, pop culture memorabilia, sports team banners, inspirational quotes, Santa Claus and Baby Yoda figurines, and even a Bible verse mug.
In January, attorneys from First Liberty Institute and WilmerHale sent a letter to New Britain School District officials, demanding that Castro be reinstated. The school district released a statement refusing to change its course of action.
“Recent claims regarding the Consolidated School District of New Britain’s actions toward a staff member are both inaccurate and misleading,” Superintendent Tony Casper wrote. “To clarify, the matter involves the teacher’s decision to prominently display a religious symbol—a crucifix—on the front wall of her public-school classroom, which violates both federal and state laws requiring public schools to remain neutral in religious matters.”
When the district refused to reinstate Castro, a federal lawsuit was filed on her behalf. The following month, the district released internal documents about Castro to the media without her consent, violating Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act.
In response, her legal team sent another letter demanding compliance with state law and an end to the unauthorized disclosure of her records.
By March, Castro had been reassigned to a non-teaching role against her wishes. Her attorneys then filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in federal court and a Title VII complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging religious discrimination and retaliation.
“Marisol has been suspended, reassigned, and smeared in the media,” said Russell. “We have no choice but to ask the federal court and the EEOC to stop the district’s unconstitutional behavior.”
In a legal memorandum supporting the injunction, First Liberty Institute and WilmerHale attorneys cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which affirmed that school officials cannot misinterpret the Establishment Clause to restrict employees’ free speech and religious rights. The Court ruled that the Constitution calls for “mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”
It is clear that the leaders at New Britain School District need to spend a little more time hitting the books.
It’s been almost three years since the U.S. Supreme Court held in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District that “the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal” and that “the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression.”
And yes, schools and government-run entities are to remain neutral, but New Britain School District is decidedly not neutral. Like so many K-12 districts, officials are all on board with pushing and publicly evangelizing secular humanism, including Pride month and radical gender ideology; diversity, equity, and inclusion; abortion; and other left-wing political causes. New Britain High School even hosted just this week the Islamic Association of Central Connecticut’s annual “Taste of Ramadan” event as “part of their youth programs for Muslims and non-Muslims seeking to provide information about Islam.”
Had district and school leaders kept up with their homework, they might have also noticed that government officials in nearby Massachusetts were slapped down three years ago by a unanimous Supreme Court in Shurtleff v. City of Boston for allowing every manner of ideological, religious, and foreign flags to be flown on City Hall’s third-party flagpole — except the Christian flag.
So in attempting to force Castro to remove her Catholic crucifix, New Britain officials were actually the ones who knocked the district’s ideological and religious neutrality off-kilter by pushing it firmly to the secular left.
Increasingly, there is a distorted belief that the tenet of “separation of church and state” means that Christians have no right to express their faith in the public square or public institutions. But that’s not true. Castro has just as much right to display her personal crucifix as any other teacher would have to display a Wonder Woman figure or a small rainbow flag in the classroom.
Castro’s situation is a clear example of how believers must navigate the tension between personal conviction and public policy. Her decision to keep a crucifix on her desk was not an act of defiance or an attempt to proselytize but a reflection of her deeply held faith — a faith that sustains her as she teaches and serves her students.
Scripture reminds us in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Castro sought to live out this calling, not by proselytizing or pushing her beliefs on others only by using the crucifix as a personal reminder of her faith. And yet she was reprimanded, suspended, and reassigned for expressing her beliefs. Her case is not just about a religious symbol — it is about the freedom to live one’s faith openly without fear of punishment.
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1:16, declared, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”
Like Paul, Castro has chosen to stand firm despite the cost, exemplifying the importance of courage for believers. And her example should be an illustration of how Christians must stand up for their First Amendment rights and boldly stand firm in their faith, even when faced with opposition. And it should also be a potent reminder to all Americans that religious freedom must be defended.
PHOTO: (Left) Catholic teacher Marisol Arroyo-Castro; and (Right) her classroom desk where she displayed a personal crucifix for more than a decade CREDIT: Courtesy of First Liberty Institute
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