These schools will punish athletes who protest the anthem. Is that against the law?

The furious debate over athletes kneeling in protest during the national anthem has jumped from the spectacle of the arena to the bleachers of the high school football field.

One Louisiana school district waded right into the fray after Bossier Parish school superintendent Scott Smith issued a statement saying that athletes are required to stand during the national anthem, and that individual schools would have the district’s full support if they chose to punish students who defied the requirement.

“In Bossier Parish, we believe when a student chooses to join and participate in a team, the players and coaches should stand when our National Anthem is played in a show of respect,” he wrote. “It is a choice to participate in extracurricular activities, not a right, and we at Bossier Schools feel strongly that our organizations should stand in unity to honor our nation’s military and veterans.”

The principal of Parkway High School in Bossier sent a letter to students and parents clarifying that students choosing not to stand for the anthem would lose playing time and eventually be kicked off the team if they continued.

“Parkway High School is committed to creating a positive environment for sporting events that is free of disruption to the athletic contest or game,” he wrote.

The problem is that punishing students from silently protesting could be a direct violation of the Constitution, and the American Civil Liberties Union has threatened to sue the school district for infringing on the students’ First Amendment rights.

“Bossier Parish is threatening to punish students for peacefully protesting racial injustice and taking a principled for freedom and equality,” said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “This is antithetical to our values as Americans and a threat to students’ constitutional rights.”

In 1943, the Supreme Court held that it is unconstitutional to force students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. The ACLU argues that the same ideal applies to cases of schools threatening to punish kneeling students today.

“Nearly 75 years ago, the Supreme Court rightly held that state schools have no business forcing students to stand for patriotic rituals. The court also reminded public school administrators that part of their job is to train students for participation in our free society. This principle holds no less true today, and no less true on the playing field than it does in the classroom,” said the ACLU.

A Florida school district admitted earlier in September that there was “no legal mechanism” to discipline a student for kneeling during the anthem unless it was sufficiently disruptive.

The controversy was kicked off after President Donald Trump admonished NFL owners and demanded they fire players who knelt during the national anthem. Colin Kaepernick, a former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, was made a national icon for kneeling during the anthem in 2016 to protest social injustice.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 7:02 AM with the headline "These schools will punish athletes who protest the anthem. Is that against the law?."