A Doherty High School football player is saying he has been suspended for a game after taking to a knee – or kneeling – during the national anthem during a game on Friday.
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Asked if he was told he was suspended because he knelt for the anthem, Oppong said, “Yes, I was”.
Though it’s illegal to punish students for engaging in protected speech, the high school reportedly retaliated against player Mike Oppong – a junior defensive back on the high school’s football team – for his protest of racial injustice across the nation.
The school said he was never suspended, writing in a statement: “That information is incorrect”.
He tweeted September 6 that he was inspired by a similar protest by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during a preseason game to call attention to what he termed the oppression of blacks and other minorities.
The silent protest was in support of a “dialogue on race and equality”, according to the school, similar to the demonstrations in the National Football League this past weekend.
Athletes around the country are enacting protests during the national anthem in response to different issues, like police brutality. He exercised his Constitutional Rights without disturbing the school assembly and he is not being disciplined in any way by his actions.
Oppong’s initial social media post about the suspension drew a huge outcry and was retweeted more than 1,500 times.
“I did it because I felt black people around me are facing a lot of injustice and inequality and this is something of my age could actually do so I made a decision to kneel during the national anthem”, he said. “We are mistreated and disrespected everywhere we go on a daily basis because of our skin color and I’m sick of it”.
Oppong tweeted on Sunday that he was being suspended for one game. “So he called the coach and said, ‘I wasn’t really going down to tie my shoe, I was doing it as a protest, ‘” Binienda told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.
But thanks to outrage on Twitter and beyond, that suspension has now been lifted.
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Like Colin Kaepernick, Oppong plans to continue his protest throughout the season.
