Washington Lawyer - August/September 2018 - 19

"If you have rules in your handbook, if you have articulated a punishment,
then that should be the punishment you use if you are going to use punishment at all," says Gross.

or similar forms of political protest" at athletic events and requiring students
and coaches to "stand and remove" hats and helmets during the national
anthem.

In the end, the school relented, allowing suspended seniors to walk at graduation. Moore says her five-day suspension was reduced to three days. Hazelwood
director of communications Kimberly McKenzie did not return a request for
comment for this story.

The case began when a Native American football player, known only as V.A.,
took a knee during the national anthem to protest racial inequality.

"For me, it was worth it," Moore says. "I know now that we have the option
to not be apathetic. We have ways of advocating for our own issues."
Moore says the protests "helped students become aware of what effect
[they] can have on the community."

THE RIGHT TO KNEEL
Another area of protest involves students, often athletes, who want to express
dissent during the singing of the national anthem, often before sporting events,
or during the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
In the past, students have used the Pledge of Allegiance, often recited in
the mornings in public schools, to express their dissatisfaction with U.S.
government policies. More recently, athletes have chosen to kneel during
the singing of the national anthem to voice concern about racial inequality
in the country.
In a case out of California, a high school football player recently sued the San
Pasqual Valley Unified School District over rules prohibiting "kneeling, sitting

V.A. turned down an interview request for this piece, but Katherine Traverso,
co-counsel for V.A., says that "it was clear that for anyone who played sports
there would be a large consequence, such as suspension," should they violate
the rules.
In December, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
temporarily struck down the rules regarding the national anthem. Granting
V.A.'s preliminary injunction, the court found that the rules violated V.A.'s right
to political expression.
"The law is very clear that you can't discipline students or threaten to do so
for non-disruptive protests, and that includes kneeling during the national
anthem, so we were a little surprised that the district would set forth such
a policy, says Traverso, an associate at Bush Gottlieb in Glendale, California.
A representative from the school district did not return requests for an interview or answers to questions.
"Just because something makes us uncomfortable doesn't mean that it
can be silenced," Traverso says.
Anna Stolley Persky is a regular contributor to Washington Lawyer.

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Washington Lawyer - August/September 2018

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