Minnesota’s top teacher who knelt during Monday night’s college football championship game said it felt right “to have a very respectful protest.”
Kelly Holstine, who won Minnesota’s 2019 “Teacher of the Year” award, knelt in protest while being honored along with other teachers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
Among those standing were President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump.
“I just decided that it felt like the right thing to do, to have a very respectful protest,” Holstine told The Hill on Wednesday.
Honored as State Teachers of the Year at NCAA Champ FB Game. Given platform to stand up for marginalized and oppressed people. Like many before, I respectfully kneeled during Nat’l Anthem because, “No one is free until we are all free” (MLK). #imwithkap #blacklivesmatter #LGBTQ pic.twitter.com/DimP3pBtBn
— Kelly D. Holstine (she/her) (@kellydholstine) January 14, 2020
Holstine said she was motivated to kneel during the anthem for communities that are supposedly oppressed under the Trump administration.
“I think the current environment that is being created and has been created in his tenure definitely adds to my feelings of wanting to support individuals who are not being supported,” she said, adding: “I really feel like our country is not serving the needs of all its inhabitants … so many humans right now that are not being given the respect and the rights that they deserve.” – READ MORE