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He continued, calling the football stadium a “restricted venue” and adding: “If those who prefer to stand on this as a free speech issue want to completely allow all statements from all students, even those which offend them, onto the field, the stadium will cease having the capacity for games and become a free speech zone for all. You cannot just restrict the stadium to left wing hate speech and gestures only.”
Less than a month prior to the first KSU cheerleader protest, Ehrhart weighed in on his Facebook page about another free speech issue, in which a school student was told he was not allowed to wear a pro-Donald Trump shirt in class.
“When a public school teacher specifically selects conservative expression as unworthy of free speech protection, we should all be shocked,” he wrote. “When she reprimands and takes action against a student for this expression, shock is not enough – we should be outraged.”
In an effort to seek comment as well as clarification about the difference between “conservative expression” and the expression of concern about racial inequality, Yahoo Sports reached out to Ehrhart’s office and received the following statement:
“I take very seriously patriotism and respect for our flag and for those who fight and died for our freedom. This should not be a conservative or liberal position. This should be an American position. I understand the constitutional right to protest the flag and our national anthem. But that doesn’t make it right, especially if protesters represent a state institution on taxpayer funded restricted venues.”
Ehrhart may have a point here in that cheerleaders can be viewed as direct representatives promoting the university’s message in a way that football players are not. “In that sense you have two slightly different categories,” Kende suggests. “Cheerleaders might be restrained in what they’re allowed to do.”
However that argument weakens if the cheerleaders at Kennesaw State were not given guidelines when they joined the team. If they were not instructed on rules, and if the decision to move them was not made prior to their protest, it certainly looks as if they were removed from the field at least in part because of the feedback from two of the more powerful people in the area.
Questions to the school about these topics were not immediately answered.
The team’s next home game is scheduled for Nov. 11 – Veterans Day.
Less than a month prior to the first KSU cheerleader protest, Ehrhart weighed in on his Facebook page about another free speech issue, in which a school student was told he was not allowed to wear a pro-Donald Trump shirt in class.
“When a public school teacher specifically selects conservative expression as unworthy of free speech protection, we should all be shocked,” he wrote. “When she reprimands and takes action against a student for this expression, shock is not enough – we should be outraged.”
In an effort to seek comment as well as clarification about the difference between “conservative expression” and the expression of concern about racial inequality, Yahoo Sports reached out to Ehrhart’s office and received the following statement:
“I take very seriously patriotism and respect for our flag and for those who fight and died for our freedom. This should not be a conservative or liberal position. This should be an American position. I understand the constitutional right to protest the flag and our national anthem. But that doesn’t make it right, especially if protesters represent a state institution on taxpayer funded restricted venues.”
Ehrhart may have a point here in that cheerleaders can be viewed as direct representatives promoting the university’s message in a way that football players are not. “In that sense you have two slightly different categories,” Kende suggests. “Cheerleaders might be restrained in what they’re allowed to do.”
However that argument weakens if the cheerleaders at Kennesaw State were not given guidelines when they joined the team. If they were not instructed on rules, and if the decision to move them was not made prior to their protest, it certainly looks as if they were removed from the field at least in part because of the feedback from two of the more powerful people in the area.
Questions to the school about these topics were not immediately answered.
The team’s next home game is scheduled for Nov. 11 – Veterans Day.