After NFL Player Action, School Athletes, Officials Address Protests

HAS Crosby High Schoolwhere he serves as head football coach and athletic director, Riordan spoke to student-athletes this week about the San Francisco 49ers quarterback. Colin Kaepernickto kneel during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality.

None of the players mentioned plans to kneel, but Riordan issued a preemptive warning: Stand for the anthem or be sent to the locker room.

Riordan and the district reversed the decision days later after some team members complained. Students from across the political spectrum discussed everything from respecting veterans to the Black Lives Matter movement during a lengthy meeting.

They decided to kneel during the toss and stand for the anthem.

But across the Houston area, student-athletes and school administrators are grappling with how to handle such protests and refusals to participate in both the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem.

At Pearland ISD, fifth grader Skyla Madria said, a coach reprimanded her and “took me to the principal” for kneeling during the Pledge of Allegiance during a morning assembly. The Beaumont Bulls youth football team made national headlines this week after players and coaches took a knee to “The star-Spangled Banner.” In 2014, a Needville student was suspended in school after refusing to recite the pledge.

A 1943 U.S. Supreme Court ruling gives students the right to refuse to stand or repeat the pledge and the national anthem, although schools across the country have punished or banned such behavior since this decision.

Texas law requires students to recite the U.S. and Texas Pledges each day, but students may opt out of either with written permission from a parent.

But some school administrators don’t know how to handle students who refuse to participate. A Houston-area attorney said Friday that three districts contacted him within 72 hours seeking advice on the issue.

Joe Drydenprofessor of education law at Texas Wesleyan and Texas A&M Universities, said federal law makes clear that students have the right to refuse to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms. But requiring students to stand during football games and other extracurricular activities is more of a gray area.

“Participation in extracurricular activities is not a right,” Dryden said. “Unless a coach discriminates against a player because of their race, gender, disability, national origin or something similar, then they can file a lawsuit under federal law. But if he’s simply denied playing time because he doesn’t dress properly or with another type of behavior, like standing up for the anthem, a child won’t have much chance of forcing the ‘coach to play it.’

Dryden also questions Texas law requiring students to obtain written parental permission before withdrawing from engagement.

“My reading (of the 1943 Supreme Court decision) is that a student could refuse to commit, but that doesn’t say anything about parental permission or consent,” Dryden said. “I don’t think (the Texas law) would stand up in court. I think the child has the freedom to say, ‘I don’t want to take the pledge.'”

Several Houston-area school districts require students to obtain written permission to opt out of the pledge and the national anthem or have no policies on the matter.

When 10-year-old Skyla knelt during a morning assembly in Alexandre College At Pearland ISD, she told KHOU TV, a coach told her to stand up and then took her to see the principal. The administrator called Skyla’s mother, Elizabeth Owens.

During a press conference, Owens defended his daughter’s actions.

“I told him, ‘You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re standing up for what you believe in,'” Owens said. “I support her 100 percent.”

After district administrators learned of the incident, they told Owens that Skyla could skip the engagement with his written permission. (The district later denied that the student had been reprimanded or sent to the principal’s office, and said in a statement that the coach was “just plain nice to the child.”)

Andrea Authureducational consultant and former educator in Fort Bend, Katy and Cypress-Fairbanks School districts, said there was a chance the incident could have been avoided with better communication.

“Districts need to take advantage of this opportunity to have a teachable moment,” Arthur said. “Talk to your children and ask them why you are doing this and why do you think it is important. Bring up our Constitution, our Bill of Rights or our civil rights. Help the child make an informed decision. This does not doesn’t need to be punitive, it needs to be educational.

“It’s only going to get worse.”

Arthur added that this is not the first time students have created controversy by protesting. She cited the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, both of which saw teenagers and college students disrupt campuses.

“The one thing we should have learned from the past is that if you ignore it and don’t talk about it, it will only get worse,” Arthur said. “Our job as educators is not to impose our thoughts and opinions on children. We are not in a role where we should abuse our position as educators to force children to think like us. But we need to encourage children to think – they need to understand all sides and aspects.

That’s what happened at Crosby High School after Riordan issued his ultimatum. Keith MooreCrosby ISD superintendent, said the coach got back together with his players to discuss the new rule.

It wasn’t an easy conversation, especially because the school’s defensive coach Darrell Thompson lost his brother in the Dallas police shooting.

Some students said they sympathized with Kaepernick’s cause. Others felt like they were on their knees to hear the disrespectful anthem of veterans and police officers.

“They talked about it endlessly and why, even though some thought it was good and others thought it was disrespectful, which is great to have 60 to 70 kids in a room discussing something as controversial in a peaceful way,” Moore said.

The team wanted to show they were united by kneeling or not kneeling, Moore said.

They eventually decided to kneel during the toss to begin the game as a sign of mutual support in their beliefs and opinions.

“I still don’t think a person kneeling during the national anthem is a great way to protest. I think there’s a better way to do it, which is my personal opinion, but everyone has the right to do so if he wants to,” Moore said. “At first I just saw it as a lack of respect for the flag. But eventually I came around to the idea that if you deny their constitutional right to free speech, you’re not that patriotic that you claim.”

This article has been edited from its original print version to attribute statements to a Pearland ISD student and to include a statement from the school district.