AndrewBlakeSeattle, WA – Two young female elementary school students took a knee in protest while singing the national anthem at a major league baseball game on Sunday.
Tacoma News Tribune sportswriter Ryan Clark posted a photo of the two elementary school students taking a knee on Twitter. The game Sunday was between the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians.
A choir from Seattle’s Mount View Elementary School performed “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
A spokesman for Seattle’s Highline Public Schools told Huffington Post that the anti-police protest was an “individual act by the students.”
“Obviously, the school district respects the First Amendment rights of our students,” Spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers told Huffington Post.
Major League Baseball has been spared most of the protests that have damaged the popularity of the National Football League.
Last year, Oakland A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell was the only baseball player to take a knee. Maxwell kneeled for the national anthem in September.
Maxwell was arrested in October and was indicted on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct in Scottsdale, according to KNTV-TV.
Maxwell is considering a plea deal to avoid trial. He is accused of pointing a gun at a female food delivery driver who was bringing food to his residence on Oct. 28.
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the protests in the pre-season of 2016.
Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers after the 2016 season and sat out the 2017 NFL season when no teams signed him.
Kaepernick’s teammate Eric Reid was a vocal supporter of the anthem protests. Reid didn’t sign with the 49ers and also became a free agent.
Reid told ESPN that he doesn’t plan to protest the anthem any further. He also posted on Twitter that he thinks he was still unsigned by any team because of his protests, according to Sports Illustrated.