After taking a knee, young boys saw their football coach suspended then their whole season canceled

[TexasTowelie]

All over the country, young people continue to take a knee during the Star Spangled Banner to protest police brutality and racial injustice in America. For them, perhaps because the world has not yet squeezed out all of their hope and optimism, or maybe because they know they have far more time left on this earth than 70-year-old Donald Trump, they each feel like taking a knee is a risk worth taking. Beautifully, they still believe this country can change. Hell, that's what we taught them — the United States has had high highs and low lows, but after real struggles, it can change.

Disturbingly, perhaps no young athletes in America have paid the price for this demonstration like the young 11 and 12-year-old boys of the Beaumont Bulls football team in Beaumont, Texas. Situated between Houston to the west and Lafayette, Louisiana to the east, Beaumont is one of the many Texas towns which lives and breathes football. Many families in Beaumont have now been playing the game for generations. It's what you do.

So, when the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided during the NFL preseason to not stand for national anthem, it didn't take long for the echoes to be heard in Beaumont. Students, coaches, and parents there not only follow the league closely, but feel like the plight of injustice in America is their own. Police brutality, wrongful arrests and racial violence plague black folk in Texas and Louisiana. Within days of Kaepernick staging his protest, the coaching staff of the Beaumont Bulls, led by head coach Rah-Rah Barber, privately discussed the possibility them taking a knee before their next game, before ultimately deciding against it. The coaches didn't want to impose anything on the players. To their surprise, though, the young boys came to them and told them they wanted to take a knee. The shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police just two months prior had not only shaken Kaepernick and the Beaumont Bulls coaching staff, they deeply bothered the young students as well.

So, on Sept. 10, after getting permission from league officials, the staff and students of the Beaumont Bulls football team took a knee before their game. They won 27-0 and garnered national attention for their demonstration. Within 24 hours, the kids and their families began receiving death threats and racist taunts both online and off. The executive board of the team and the league issued strong statements of support backing the boys, but within a few days it all began eroding.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-young-football-team-season-canceled-knee-article-1.2833792

[SamKnause]

1. K&R

[GP6971]

2. This really, really sucks

I'm familiar with the area, albeit many years ago.

Politics ruining young kids lives.

[napi21]

3. Just more proof that the righties in Tx. don't care about principles or people. All they care about

is getting their own way.

[sunnystarr]

4. K&R

[Maraya1969]

5. The board members need floods of emails and phone calls. These might be them

These are the members of the "Board of Management" of Beaumont . I can't find their personal email addresses but maybe someone can.

This has to be changed.

http://www.bmtisd.com/pages/BeaumontISD/Departments/School_Board___BOE/Beaumont_ISD_Board_of_Managers

[TexasTowelie]

6. I don't know how responsive the board of managers at Beaumont ISD can be.

They are under a lot pressure from the Texas Education Agency for academic and financial issues. There were several employees that embezzled and mismanaged contracts over the past few years. The superintendent for the district is essentially a caretaker figurehead with his hands tied so he can't stir up anything that is controversial.

[Maraya1969]

7. So are they just going to accept this? I think that would be such a step in the

wrong direction.

Who can we write to? Is there any way to help?

[TexasTowelie]

8. I wish that I knew the answers to your questions,

but I wanted to explain the situation that is happening in that school district in light of other realities that are occurring there. The school district is on the verge of falling under managing control of the state agency where they would lose all local control. It isn't much different as to what occurred in the Detroit Public Schools. While it is an injustice as to what is occurring regarding the football team, the primary mission of any school district is to provide education to the students and extracurricular activities such as football are a distraction from that mission. Therefore, by canceling the football program for the year the school board also eliminates (or at least postpones) having to deal with the social justice issues.

[47of74]

9. It's been my experience that many

school administrators are a particularly low form of life.

[TexasTowelie]

10. I tend to agree.

When they draw salaries of $250,000 and $300,000 per year in a job that involves public service it reaches the point that they are more concerned about lining their pockets rather than caring for the students. Yes, the jobs are political and most school administrators only last a few years in any one location so the jobs are also transitory, but if the focus is on earning a good income then they should pursue jobs in the private sector rather than as school administrators.

[greymattermom]

11. Just cancel football

Those parents care about it more than the kids anyway

[Javaman]

12. just curious, isn't "taking a knee" covered under freedom of speech? nt