High School Colin Kaepernicks: You Can Take a Knee During National Anthem

Public high schools are sending conflicting messages to their football players and cheerleaders about possible punishment for refusing to stand during the pre-game national anthem. One Louisiana school district threatened to suspend protesting players from the team, while a New Jersey high school said the students have the First Amendment right to protest.

Which is correct?

“The U.S. Supreme Court made clear over 70 years ago that students could not be compelled to salute the flag. Likewise, under the First Amendment, public school students cannot be compelled to stand for the national anthem,” Jean-Paul Jassy, who teaches First Amendment law at the University of Southern California, told TheWrap.

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A public school that punishes a student for a silent protest could face a lawsuit for violating the student’s First Amendment rights, Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe told TheWrap.

“Any student punished by a public school or other governmental entity for taking a knee could challenge the punishment successfully in court, probably with the assistance, pro bono, of the local chapter of the ACLU,” Tribe said.

Silent protests by football players and cheerleader during the national anthem have started to spread to high schools after National Football League players followed the lead of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. He and 49ers starter Eric Reid were the first to kneel during the anthem last year to protest racial inequality and police brutality against African Americans.

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Public high schools are government agencies, so they are restricted on how much they can punish students for exercising their the First Amendment right to free speech.

The American Civil Liberties Union has already cautioned one public school district against disciplining its football students for engaging in Kaepernick-like protests. On Sept. 28, the Louisiana ACLU issued a public warning to the Bossier Parish School District and one of its high schools in suburban Shreveport, Louisiana to drop its plan to suspend football players from the team if they refuse to stand for the national anthem.

Marjorie R. Esman, executive director of the Louisiana ACLU, told TheWrap that public school districts must abide by a 1943 Supreme Court decision, West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette. In that decision, the court declared that the First Amendment gives public school students the right “to refuse to engage in rote acts of patriotism that violate their beliefs, whatever the reason,” she said.

Also Read: Future Colin Kaepernicks, Beware: You Can Get Fired for Political Speech

Political protests on public school grounds are protected by the First Amendment so long as they are peaceful and do “not create a substantial disruption to the school or violate the rights of other students,” University of Minnesota journalism professor Jane Kirtley told TheWrap. For example, the Supreme Court said that a public school could not punish students for wearing black arm bands to silently protest the Vietnam War, Kirtley said.

The Louisiana school district that threatened to punish football players for protesting said it could do so because playing a sport “is a privilege, not a right.”

Louisiana ACLU executive director Esman diagrees. “Extracurricular activities cannot be offered with the condition that the student sacrifice a fundamental constitutional right in order to take part,” she said.

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Frank LoMonte, former executive director of the Student Law Press Center and now Director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at University of Florida, told TheWrap that the Supreme Court would reject the argument by the Louisiana district. “Surely your First Amendment rights have to be greater on the sidelines of a football field than inside a classroom,” he said.

The ACLU would approve of the positive reaction to protests by the Monroe High School in New Brunswick, New Jersey “We have to follow what is in the (school district’s) policy,” Monroe High School athletics director Greg Beyer said, “and pretty much the policy is if a kid doesn’t want to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, that’s his constitutional right, so we have to handle it (taking a knee during the playing of the anthem) the same exact way.”

In contrast, private and religious schools are not bound by the First Amendment because they are not government agencies. That means there is little legal recourse for the two football players who were kicked off their church-run football team in Texas for taking a knee and raising a fist during the anthem on Sept. 29.

'A Conflict-Free Life'?: OJ Simpson's Journey From Football Star to Prisoner to Free Man (Photos)

Thanks to Nevada's parole board, OJ Simpson will be a free man in October.

From USC football star to playing in the NFL, from appearing in a Hertz commercial to starring in "The Naked Gun," and from being a murder suspect to getting acquitted, TheWrap takes a look at O.J. Simpson's bizarre life.
Orenthal James Simpson was born on July 9, 1947 in San Francisco, California.
Simpson played for his high school's football team, the Galileo Lions. He then enrolled at City College of San Francisco in 1965 and played football both ways as a running back and defensive back.
Many colleges sought after Simpson as a transfer student, but he chose USC, where he played running back for head coach John McKay in 1967 and 1968.
"O.J. Made in America"
In 1967 at the age of 19, Simpson married Marguerite L. Whitley, and the couple had three children. One of the kids drowned in the family's swimming pool one month before her second birthday.
In 1967, Simpson was a junior at USC and in that year's Victory Bell rivalry game against UCLA, USC was down by six points in the fourth quarter. Simpson's 64-yard touchdown tied the score, and the extra point provided a 21-20 lead -- the play is now regarded as one of the greatest football games of the 20th century.
"O.J. Made in America"
As a senior, he rushed for 1,709 yards and 22 touchdowns, earning him the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Award.
"O.J. Made in America"
In 1969, Simpson was drafted by the AFL's Buffalo Bills, but he demanded what was then known as the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. Bills' owner Ralph Wilson refused, to which Simpson threatened to become a professional actor -- in the end, Wilson agreed.
In 1973, Simpson became the first player to break the 2,000 yard rushing mark during the last game of the season against the New York Jets. That year, he won the NFL MVP Award.
CBS
Simpson had the best game of his career in 1976 against the Detroit Lions, rushing for a then-record of 273 yards on 29 attempts and scored two touchdowns.
NFL Films
In 1977, Simpson met Nicole Brown. He was still married to Whitley but began dating Brown, and Simpson and Whitley divorced in March 1979.
In 1977, Simpson starred in his first commercial for Hertz, in which he ran through airports looking for the quickest way to rent a car. He would remain their spokesperson till the beginning of his murder trial.
Before the 1978 season, Simpson was traded to his hometown San Francisco 49ers, where he played for two seasons. He retired from football in 1979.
YouTube
Even before retiring from the NFL, Simpson had parts in motion pictures like "The Klansman," "The Cassandra Crossing," "Back to the Beach" and "The Naked Gun" trilogy. In 1979, he started his own film production company titled Orenthal Productions. Besides his acting, he was a commentator for "Monday Night Football" and "The NFL on NBC."
YouTube
Brown and Simpson were married in 1985. They had two children and the marriage lasted seven years before Brown filed for divorce in 1992 citing irreconcilable differences. A year later, they tried to reconcile.
In 1988, Simpson played Det. Nordberg in "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" alongside Leslie Nielsen. He reprised the role two more times.
In 1994, Brown and Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Brown's home in Brentwood. Simpson became a person of interest in the murder and after he failed to turn himself in, he became involved in a low-speed car chase in a white Ford Bronco SUV. TV stations interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA finals to broadcast live. It became one of the most widely publicized events in American history.
What became known as the Trial of the Century concluded on Oct. 3, 1995, when Simpson was found "not guilty" for the two murders. The crime remains unsolved.
Following his acquittal, Goldman's family filed a civil lawsuit against Simpson. A civil jury found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of and battery against Goldman, and battery against Brown. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.
In 2006, Simpson starred in his own improv, hidden-camera TV prank show titled "Juiced." It aired as a one-time special on PPV TV and was later released on DVD.
In Demand
Simpson was involved in legal troubles after this, but in 2008, the former football star was sentenced to nine to 33 years for armed robbery and kidnapping following a scheme to break into a room at the Palace Station hotel in Las Vegas to steal sports memorabilia.
In 2012, a Nevada judge agreed to "reopen the armed robbery and kidnapping case against O.J. Simpson to determine if the former football star was so badly represented by his lawyers that he should be freed from prison and get another trial."
Getty Images
In 2013, Simpson was granted parole on some of the armed robbery convictions in 2013, but still had to serve at least four more years due to assault with a deadly weapon charges and other weapon-related charges.
Getty Images
After Simpson promised not to violate parole and said he had led a "a conflict-free" life, the Nevada parole board granted parole Thursday to Simpson, now 70. He will go free in October, and was warned not to violate strict terms of his release.
Getty Images

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Disgraced athlete and actor begins his next chapter in October

Thanks to Nevada's parole board, OJ Simpson will be a free man in October.

From USC football star to playing in the NFL, from appearing in a Hertz commercial to starring in "The Naked Gun," and from being a murder suspect to getting acquitted, TheWrap takes a look at O.J. Simpson's bizarre life.

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'A Conflict-Free Life'?: OJ Simpson's Journey From Football Star to Prisoner to Free Man (Photos)

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