Leilani Thomas, a Native American student at Lower Lake High School, north of San Francisco, said her participation grade was docked when she made a decision to sit out the daily pledge. “I go by that and I don’t agree with it”.
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Leilani Thomas, a student at Lower Lake High School in Lower Lake, California, said a teacher lowered her and a friend’s participation grades after they both chose not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance recitation.
Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Donna Becnel weighed in on the matter, saying that two students, including Thomas, were transferred to another class.
If anything, it has given her more of a reason to sit, as she states, “I’m understanding it more that it means a lot, and to a lot of my people also”.
“She told me I was being disrespectful, and I was pretty mad”, the teen told ABC 10 of the unidentified teacher.
Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, sat during the national anthem as it was played before a preseason NFL game last month.
Thomas’s teacher took points off of her participation score after she sat during the pledge. “Students don’t lose their First Amendment rights when they walk in the door”, the statement said, according to KPIX. “If any students have any concerns about their right to free speech, they can speak with a site administrator”.
It bears noting that, as of this writing, Leilani’s teacher, who has not been identified, has not given her side of the story.
Thomas told KXTV that her parents had ingrained that history in her early in life.
And while Becnel said she took the “unfortunate incident” seriously, she also hoped it “does not overshadow the great work that the rest of the district’s staff and teachers have been doing”.
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As The Inquisitr reported last week, a teacher in IL was “disciplined” for trying to force a student to stand for the pledge of allegiance.
