A Missouri lawmaker will introduce a bill that would revoke the scholarship of any athlete at a state university if he or she refuses to compete for a reason unrelated to health.
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The proposed bill from Rick Brattin (R, Harrisonville), which again has only been pre-filed and has no scheduled hearing yet, would go in effect August 28, 2016, just prior to the college football season.
“The issue really is, they can have the freedom of speech (when they) like or don’t like something on campus”, Bahr said, according to the newspaper. It would also lead to fines for any coach who lets his or her athletes work up enough nerve to chime in on a matter of campus concern.
What ensued was Wolfe’s resignation, more racial demonstrations on UM’s campus, and threats of violence toward the school’s black student population.
Bahr told the Missourian that he had not read the student-athlete handbook.
Brattin’s bill is one of a number proposed in response to the unrest at the university. Some Missouri football players announced Saturday night, November 7, 2015, on Twitter that they will not participate in team activities until the university president, Tim Wolfe, is removed from office.
Bahr also told the Columbia Missourian that he didn’t think the football players’ action was “an appropriate response”. “We are behind our players”. The statement from the athletes of color was tweeted out Saturday by several members of the football team, including Hansbrough. As a respondent noted, it’s not clear that the football players who threatened not to play broke any then-existing laws.
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In the past, Brattin has sponsored legislation requiring anti-evolution science classes and a controversial bill that would require notarized consent from the father of an unborn child for a woman to obtain an abortion.
