A former Kennesaw State University cheerleader, who knelt during the national anthem last year, is suing her university for violating her first amendment rights.
During a football game last season, Tommia Dean and four other cheerleaders took a knee during the national anthem against the police crackdown on minorities prompting the university to put them in field tunnel for next few games.
“For me … after seeing the many killings and the many attacks against minorities by police… I didn’t think that it was right for minorities to have to walk around and be terrified every single day,” Dean told The View. “It’s a burden to have to walk around and be scared all the time.”
For causing emotional anguish, Dean filed the lawsuit against the university president Sam Olens, Sheriff Neil Warren and state representative Earl Ehrhat. She said the situation led to increased migraine headaches.
“By prohibiting the cheerleaders, including Plaintiff Dean, from taking the field and kneeling during the national anthem, Defendant Olens, Whitlock and Griffin in conspiracy under the pretext of improving the fan experience and acting under color of state law, violated Plaintiff Dean’s clearly established constitutional rights of which a reasonable person and government official would have known,” Dean’s attorneys wrote in the suit.
Dean has also alleged officials of keeping her off the field due to their racial bias.
The university has not yet issued any official statement.
