A veteran public school teacher who says she was escorted out of her school with a crucifix in a box after refusing to remove the religious symbol from her classroom is taking her First Amendment fight to a federal appeals court, with oral arguments scheduled for Dec. 7.
Marisol Arroyo-Castro, who has taught for more than 30 years, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that she was stunned when a school administrator informed her that displaying the crucifix was illegal and warned that refusing to remove it would amount to insubordination.
“I said, ‘I can’t,'” Arroyo-Castro said, remembering the moment she was told she could return to her classroom only if she left the crucifix behind.
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The confrontation sparked a legal battle over religious expression in public schools, with Arroyo-Castro’s attorneys arguing that her personal display was protected by the First Amendment and the school district maintaining a position that prevailed in federal district court.
The dispute began in December 2024, after administrators at DiLoreto Elementary & Middle School in New Britain, Connecticut, ordered Arroyo-Castro to remove a crucifix she had displayed near her desk for roughly a decade.
Arroyo-Castro, who was teaching middle-school social studies, said the crucifix had been a quiet source of comfort throughout her career, something she would look at while grading papers or completing reports.
“I pretty much kept it to myself,” she said. “It keeps me calm and [it’s] just part of me.”
But when administrators pressed her to move it, she said she broke down in tears.
“I just started to cry and cry and cry,” she recalled. “They just backed away little by little until they left the room, and they left me there crying.”
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On Dec. 11, 2024, she received a formal reprimand for insubordination, and the following day, school officials removed the crucifix and suspended her for two days without pay. She was placed on paid administrative leave on Dec. 16, 2024, and reassigned to a non-teaching role in March 2025.
Arroyo-Castro filed a 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 she was unlikely to prevail because the classroom display constituted government speech. Her attorneys appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where the dispute over her request
