A Connecticut teacher who says school officials escorted her out with her crucifix in a box is taking her religious freedom fight to a federal appeals court. Marisol Arroyo-Castro was suspended after refusing to remove the Christian symbol from her classroom. Her attorneys are challenging the district’s actions under the First Amendment, with oral arguments scheduled for December 7th, 2026.
The dispute involves the Consolidated School District of New Britain and an educator with more than 30 years of teaching experience. Arroyo-Castro says an administrator told her that displaying the crucifix was illegal and that refusing to remove it would constitute insubordination. Her attorneys contend the display was personal religious expression protected by the Constitution.
On December 11th, 2024, Arroyo-Castro received a formal reprimand for insubordination. School officials removed the crucifix the following day and suspended her for two days without pay. She was placed on paid administrative leave on December 16th, 2024, before being reassigned to a non-teaching position in March 2025.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, which reported on the appeal, Arroyo-Castro described the restrictions imposed after her suspension. “They suspended me,” she said. “Then they told me that they were going to pay me after that, but that I couldn’t go back into the school near the children, that they didn’t want me around the students, that I’m not supposed to talk to the students or interact with them or any of the staff in the school. Things like that, like I was a pariah or something.”
Arroyo-Castro filed her federal lawsuit in January 2025, alleging violations of her First Amendment rights. A federal judge denied her request for a preliminary injunction in November 2025, finding that she was unlikely to prevail because the classroom display constituted government speech. Her attorneys appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The appeal concerns her request for preliminary relief while the legal dispute continues.
Becky Rees Dummermuth, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, said the attorneys would argue that Arroyo-Castro’s display was protected by the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses. She also argued that schools allowing teachers to display personal items near their desks should treat religious expression equally. Dummermuth pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision involving football coach Joe Kennedy’s prayers: “And the Supreme Court said in its Kennedy decision a few years ago, made really clear that a teacher’s private religious expression is allowable even if students are able to see it.”
See Arroyo-Castro describe her removal from school here.
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The district told Fox News Digital that its concerns extended beyond the crucifix, citing a third-party investigation into alleged statements and conduct involving students of different religious backgrounds. The report included interviews with four teachers, the principal, the assistant principal and Arroyo-Castro, along with students’ allegations of inappropriate religious references. Arroyo-Castro denied making those references “during a class.” The district also maintained that she and her attorneys rejected several proposed accommodations for practicing her faith.
First Liberty disputed the district’s explanation for removing her from teaching. Its response addressed what administrators had required for her return to the classroom and the constitutional concern they had cited at the time. “The school district repeatedly told Ms. Castro that she could return to the classroom if she simply took down the crucifix. When they removed her from the classroom, the only concern they mentioned was preventing an alleged Establishment Clause violation, a baseless concern that cannot survive the Supreme Court’s Kennedy decision.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.