High School teenager Leilani Thomas began opting to sit out during the school Pledge of Allegiance when she was in second grade. That was almost 10 years ago. She began sitting out as a peaceful protest in honor of her Native American heritage.
But for the first time a teacher at Lower Lake High School took issue with it and docked her participation grade for not standing.
“She told me I was being disrespectful and I was pretty mad,” Leilani said. “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.”
That is bananas. The teacher, who has not been named, seemed to have been motivated by the recent string of peaceful protests surrounding the NFL and Colin Kaepernick. The good news is that the school quickly changed the grade and moved Ms. Thomas into another class.
Thomas and another teen who refused to stand during the pledge have been reassigned to another teacher’s class.
What has happened to the teacher is not known. Hopefully they’ve been given the homework assignment of re-reading some of our Constitution—maybe just the first few amendments?