Teens sat for the pledge of allegiance. In return their grades suffer

At California’s Lower Lake High School two students in particular have made the decision not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. These two students have been doing this since the beginning of the school year and hadn’t received any backlash until Friday Sep. 9, 2016. The teacher lowered the students’ participation scores from a 5 to a 3 just because they made the decision to sit during the Pledge of Allegiance.

These two students are not doing this for no reason but in fact for their own personal reasons. One of the students, Leilani Thomas, who is Native American says the American Flag represents the horrific suffering of her ancestors. The teacher responded, “ Those people, they’re not alive anymore.Your ancestors.” She also stated that, “the flag represents the military and that they risked their lives for us”. While Thomas responded, “My people risked our lives for our land, for our freedom. For our rights”. In the end the teacher said the student was being disrespectful and didn’t have the option to sit down during the pledge.

After this incident, the students went to their head principal and the solution was moving the students to another class."We are dealing with the teacher on this," says the school district superintendent, noting "students don't lose their First Amendment rights when they walk in the door."

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My Opinion

Reading this article I was very disappointed in the way that the teacher treated these two students. Everyone does not have the same beliefs as one another, so for the teacher to tell the student that, “Those people, they’re not alive anymore.Your ancestors.” She had no right to tell this student her personal opinion of the students culture or beliefs.