LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Lower Lake High School student Leilani Thomas is steaming after her teacher lowered her grade for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

“My mom and dad brought up what it meant to us and our people,” Thomas, a Native American, told KXTV. “So I just started sitting down.”

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Since second grade Thomas has sat silently during the Pledge, something she said was never an issue until this year, when her teacher decided to deduct participation points from her grade because of the defiance.

“She told me I was being disrespectful and I was pretty mad,” Thomas 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.”

Thomas took her issue up with Konocti School District Superintendent Donna Becnel, who seemed to have a much better appreciation for the First Amendment.

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“They have the same rights when they walk into the schoolhouse than anybody else,” Becnel said.

Becnel vowed to protect Thomas’ free speech rights and moved the girl to another teacher because of the conflict. Becnel also transferred another student in Thomas’ class who refused to stand for the Pledge.

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Fox News reports the teacher who docked the students’ grades for refusing to stand for the Pledge will also face disciplinary action.

The New York Daily News noted that Thomas’ choice not to stand for the Pledge became an issue “only recently – in the wake of backlash against San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick and his decision to kneel during the National Anthem …”

Kaepernick is reportedly refusing to stand for the National Anthem to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and highlight police brutality against blacks. The defiance has convinced numerous other NFL players to follow suit, and high school football players at several schools joined the cause last week, EAGnews reports.

Student athletes at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester, Massachusetts; Maury High School in Norfolk, Virginia; Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, New Jersey; and other places either took a knee or refused to stand during the National Anthem last Friday.