FIVE cheerleaders at a university in Georgia will kneel in the tunnel while the US national anthem is played at Saturday’s homecoming game, moved off the field after an earlier protest.

The Kennesaw Five will kneel out of fans’ sight in the tunnel of the 8,300-seat Kennesaw State University Stadium, cheerleader Shlondra Young said in an interview Monday.

Young said she believes they are being “purposely hidden” from public view when the Kennesaw State Owls host Gardner-Webb University of North Carolina.

“I feel as though it was an attempt to silence us,” she said. “But even though they are moving us, we will not be silenced.”

The cheerleaders said they closely watched a national debate over NFL players kneeling during the anthem, adding they prayed before taking the knee at a college game September 30.

The decision to move the cheerleaders was made by the school’s athletic department, which meets after each game “to determine how best to enhance the game day atmosphere,” school spokeswoman Tammy DeMel said in a statement on Monday. It made no mention of the anthem protest.

“Some of the other changes have included painting the KS logo at midfield for the first time, processes to help expedite fan entry, and more loud speakers by the student section,” the statement added.

The NFL has been embroiled in controversy over players using the anthem before games to protest. Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the movement last season when he refused to stand during the anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality. Donald Trump and others have lashed out at NFL players for not standing during the anthem, with the bigotted president urging team owners to fire any protestors.

Protests have spread outside the NFL at times. Last year in Pennsylvania, several cheerleaders at a high school in the community of Coraopolis kneeled during the anthem at a football game attended by several war veterans. The backlash resulted in the school restricting attendance at the school homecoming game to parents of players. And during last year’s football season in Nebraska, six Omaha Central High School cheerleaders took a knee before a game to protest.

On the Kennesaw campus, students rallied on Monday in support of the five cheerleaders.

There has been some negative reaction, but it is outweighed by the support they’ve gained, said Young.

“We try not to focus on the negative,” said Tommia Dean, another of the five cheerleaders.

The cheerleaders said there was fear and worry ahead of their decision to kneel during the anthem at the September game. One of them, Kennedy Town, said she worried how fans would react. But in the end, she said, she overcame that with her beliefs.

“My passion is stronger than my fear,” she said.