Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Problem:(Photo: ABC10/KXTV) 
  
 Leilani Thomas has been sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance since way before she knew who Colin Kaepernick was. The Native American high school student has been protesting silently since she was in second grade. 
  
 “My mom and my dad brought up what it meant to us and our people,” Leilani said. “So I just started sitting down.” 
  
 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.” 
  
 Konocti School District Superintendent Donna Becnel is standing by Leilani and the other student who chose to sit. When asked why, Becnel said because of the first amendment. 
  
 “They have the same rights when they walk into the schoolhouse than anybody else does,” Becnel said. 
  
 The superintendent said its district policy to respect the students’ free speech. The school switched Leilani and her friend to another teacher after learning about the incident. 
  
 Leilani says she will continue to sit and is getting support from many of her classmates. 
  
 “I’m understanding it more that it means a lot and to a lot of my people also,” she said. 
  
 Copyright 2016 KXTV ||||| LOWER LAKE (KPIX 5) — A Lake County teacher is facing consequences for lowering participation grades of two students who opted out of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in school. 
  
 While the teen students had their grades suffer because of their stance, now the school district superintendent is standing behind the young women. 
  
 Leilani Thomas won’t say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Lower Lake High School American flag, or any other American flag. She is a Native American and argues the Stars and Stripes aren’t hers. 
  
 “It’s the reason, because of the history that happened here. On my land. My people’s land,” said Thomas. “I go by that and I don’t agree with it. So I’m not going to stand for the people who did this to my people.” 
  
 • ALSO READ: High School Athletes Follow Kaepernick’s Lead, Protest National Anthem 
  
 Since the first day of school, Thomas and her friend chose to exercise their rights as Americans not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in their first period class. Their teacher took exception to it. 
  
 When the girls got their grades Friday, their participation scores were docked from a five to a three because they refused to stand. Thomas recorded her teacher’s explanation in class. 
  
 “Here’s the deal. If you really, really have an argument and feel so strongly about, then I need to see it written out — your argument — in an essay form,” the teacher is heard saying. “Like, why? Why, because here’s the thing; those people, they’re not alive anymore. Your ancestors.” 
  
 Thomas and her father took that recording to school administrators. The girls have since been moved to another teacher. 
  
 In the meantime, Thomas and her friend hope their stance serves as a real life lesson on free speech. 
  
 “She says that it represents the military and that they risked their lives for us,” said Thomas. “And I always tell her, ‘Well, my people risked our lives for our land, for our freedom. For our rights.” 
  
 The Lake County school district superintendent declined to speak on camera, but told KPIX 5 she is aware of the issue. In a statement, she said, “Students don’t lose their First Amendment rights when they walk in the door. We are dealing with the teacher on this.” 
  
 At this point, it is too early to tell what the repercussions might be for the teacher and, because it is a personnel matter, the consequences may not be made public. 
  
 Thomas, her family and her entire village will be attending the next school board meeting next month to make sure that something does happen. ||||| A Native American high school student in California says a teacher lowered her and a friend's participation grades after they refused to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance. 
  
 Leilani Thomas has been choosing not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance since the second grade -- way before San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started doing the same during performances of the national anthem at games, ABC affiliate KXTV in Sacramento reported. 
  
 Thomas explained that she is Native American and that she has been sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance as a peaceful protest to the way Native Americans have been historically treated in the U.S. 
  
 "My dad and my mom brought up what [the pledge] meant to us and our people and what happened -- you know, the history," she said. “So I just started sitting down.” 
  
 Thomas added that she had never had a problem until recently, when her advisory period teacher at Lower Lake High School in Lower Lake, California, lowered her and a classmate's participation grades. 
  
 KXTV 
  
 The teacher "told me I was being disrespectful," Thomas told KXTV. "I was pretty mad because she was being disrespectful to me also, saying I was making bad choices and I don’t have the choice to sit down during the pledge." 
  
 This past week, the issue came to the attention of Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Donna Becnel, who confirmed the incident took place. 
  
 "One of the students let a principal know what happened and the principal then informed me," Becnel told ABC News today. "We've since transferred the two students to another [advisory period] class." 
  
 The superintendent said she stands behind the students and their right to free speech. 
  
 "Students here have First Amendment rights, and they do not lose that when they come to school," Becnel explained. "If any students have any concerns about their right to free speech, they can speak with a site administrator. We also have policies in place to protect their right." 
  
 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." 
  
 Becnel added that the teacher who lowered the students' participation grades had only started working for the district this school year and that the district has never had any First Amendment issues in the past. 
  
 Bencel said she could not divulge what consequences, if any, the teacher could face, explaining that personnel matters were confidential. 
  
 ABC News was not immediately successful in reaching Thomas or her parents for additional comment today. |||||
Solution:
Since the start of the school year, Leilani Thomas and a friend have chosen not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance at California's Lower Lake High School and seemingly faced no repercussions. Then came last Friday. Leilani—who is Native American and says the American flag represents the horrific suffering of her ancestors—says her teacher knocked the students' participation scores from a 5 to a 3 for their decision. "Those people, they're not alive anymore. Your ancestors," the teacher can be heard telling Leilani in a recording the teen made, per KPIX. "She says that [the flag] represents the military and that they risked their lives for us," adds Leilani, who says she's been sitting for the pledge since 2nd grade. "And I always tell her, 'Well, my people risked our lives for our land, for our freedom. For our rights.'" The teacher—whom ABC News notes only began teaching in the Lake County school district this school year—"told me I was being disrespectful," Leilani tells KXTV. Leilani says she, too, felt disrespected, having been told "I was making bad choices and I don't have the choice to sit down during the pledge." Leilani complained to a principal and she and her friend have since been moved 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." (A US soccer star is the latest of many sports figures to refuse to stand during the national anthem.)