Student claims grade lowered for sitting during Pledge of Allegiance

A California high schooler claims her grade was dropped because she refused to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Leilani Thomas, a Native American student at Lower Lake High School, north of San Francisco, said her participation grade was docked when she decided to sit out the daily pledge.

“She told me I was being disrespectful, and I was pretty mad,” the teen told ABC 10 of the unidentified teacher. “She was being disrespectful to me also, saying I was making bad choices, and I don’t have the choice to sit during the Pledge.”

Thomas said she has been sitting down during the morning pledge for years as a silent protest to past attrocities against Native Americans.

But she says that in the wakd of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's National Anthem protest, the teacher started to take issue with the teen’s stance.

Thomas complained to school officials.  The district superintendent says that Thomas is allowed to remain seated.  She has now been moved to another teacher's classs.