Hillary Clinton tweeted out her support for an 11-year-old girl on Wednesday who got in trouble for kneeling during the pledge of allegiance.
“It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you’re 11! Keep up the good work, Mariana,” Clinton said.
It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you’re 11! Keep up the good work Mariana. https://t.co/vnGheuWyJ0
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 15, 2018
According to a NowThis video on Twitter from Monday, Maria Taylor, 11, was reprimanded for kneeling by her teacher. She then went to a school board meeting to defend herself and to advocate for new policies.
“My teacher, she came up to me and told me that, well — basically, she implied I was disrespecting the country,” Taylor said in front of the board. “She brought up her family overseas.”
She also brought up Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), which was a landmark legal case that defined the constitutional rights of students in public schools.
“That’s what black athletes kneeling was all about. That’s not against our anthem or our flag,” Clinton said back in 2016. “Actually, kneeling is a reverent position. It was to demonstrate in a peaceful way against racism and injustice in our criminal system.”