Virginia College Forfeits Basketball Game After Suspending Players For Kneeling During Anthem.
………The players claim that a pro-Trump rally held near the campus shows that some protests are OK with the school. But the school pointed out that the Trump rally was held on city streets, not college grounds.
That didn’t satisfy the players: “So it’s OK for everyone to have a Trump rally with Confederate flags, but it’s not OK for us to kneel for our people who’ve fallen,” Christian said. “He didn’t have an answer for that.”
This is the mind of a child in the body of a college athlete. The Trump rally was not on the college grounds. The school had no connection with it. [College President David Olive] tried to explain that to all the children on campus.
“We are a private entity, not a governmental entity,” Olive said in his statement. “We have policies and guidelines throughout the student handbook and the academic catalog that limit certain rights you otherwise might have elsewhere, such as in your home or in a public venue. The most important to me as it pertains to this matter, however, is what I shared earlier. When someone puts on a uniform or is performing a function on behalf of Bluefield College, that person is now representing Bluefield College. Heightened expectations are now placed on that individual as to what s/he can and cannot do or say as a representative of the College.”