Two sixth-graders performing national anthem take a knee at Mariners’ game

In the tradition started by former NFL-quarterback Colin Kaepernick, two girls kneeled at Sunday’s Mariners’ game to protest social inequality as they performed the national anthem.

The two sixth-graders from Mount View Elementary School were set to perform with their choir at Safeco Field and took a knee without their teachers’ knowledge.

According to KING 5, the girls received both praise and critique from the public.

One of the girls who kneeled is Helena Gamet, 12, justified her decision on social media, which was posted by her mother, Angel Caesar.

“I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful I took a knee for the black lives matter movement,” Helena says in her mother’s post. “And for the dead people that don’t get a platform anymore because they’re dead.”

Angel Caesar said the girls’ teachers said they were upset that the girls used their platform to protest.

The decision to take knee was personal for Helena, who is half-Mexican and half-Native American, Caesar said.

Caesar told KING 5 that her daughter was upset by the recent shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, and that Helena and her community still feel the trauma from the 2010 shooting of Native American woodcarver John T. Williams in Seattle.

In 2016, the Mariners suspended pitcher Steve Clevenger after he posted anti-Black Lives Matter Tweets.

Agatha Pacheco

Agatha Pacheco is a Seattle based journalist. She's written for the Seattle Weekly and The Seattle Times. Her passion for telling stories began at a young age and has followed her through her academic career. She is set to graduate with a journalism major from the University of Washington in Spring of 2018.