Student Sues Virginia Tech Alleging She Was Forced Off Soccer Team for Refusing to Kneel
“If the allegations are true, she could have not only a winning case but a case that could set important precedent for the freedom of speech.”
A Virginia Tech student is suing the school, claiming she was harassed and eventually forced off the soccer team for refusing to kneel before games.
The suit alleges that she was singled out and even became a target for abuse on social media.
It’s shocking that this was even an issue. Does anyone believe anyone would single out a student for refusing to pledge allegiance to the flag?
We covered the story when it broke in April.
From the New York Post:
Kiersten Hening: I was forced off college soccer team after refusing to kneel
Kiersten Hening, a former Virginia Tech women’s soccer player, is suing her former coach after she was allegedly benched and forced off the team because she didn’t want to kneel during a pregame demonstration last September.
Hening, 21, was a midfielder/defender for the Hokies from 2018 to 2020. In a federal lawsuit filed last month, Hening said her former coach, Charles Adair, wasn’t a fan of her political views. According to the documents obtained by TMZ Sports, Hening said that during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement last summer, she often disagreed with her teammates on social justice topics.
In the lawsuit, Hening said she “supports social justice and believes that black lives matter” but she said she “does not support BLM the organization.” Hening added that she disagrees with Black Lives Matter’s “tactics and core tenets of its mission statement, including defunding the police.”
George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley wrote about the lawsuit at his blog:
“Kierstien Hening Refused To Kneel”: Virginia Tech Sued By Student Who Alleges Abuse Over Her Refusal To Support BLM and Diversity Displays
The lawsuit of Virginia Tech student Kierstien Hening begins with a simple statement: “Kierstien Hening refused to kneel.” The lawsuit filed this week against Virginia Tech soccer coach Charles “Chugger” Adair (in his official capacity) alleges that when Hening refused to kneel and support Black Lives Matter, she was benched, harassed and ultimately forced off the team. If the allegations are true, she could have not only a winning case but a case that could set important precedent for the freedom of speech.
Adair implemented changes after a mandated diversity training order from the Atlantic Coast Conference. We have seen such mandated training programs in colleges and corporations — programs that can raise concerns over compelled speech and viewpoint discrimination. As a state school, Virginia Tech is subject to the limitations imposed on the government under the First Amendment.
Turley notes that two students refused to kneel, but one of them was allegedly left alone:
The complaint states that only two students objected to kneeling but their other student was on a scholarship and her parents called Adair to warn him not to harass their daughter for her political views. Instead, Hening alleges, Adair singled her out as well as speaking negatively about some people who believe “all lives matter.” She says that her refusal to kneel led to her benching and eventual removal from the team. It also allegedly resulted in a torrent of abuse verbally and on social media.
Unfortunately, students and parents must resort to legal actions in cases like this one, but if this is a way to push back successfully, so be it.
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Comments
It’s so moral and popular that they have to force the students to display support and punish those who don’t.
Students had to say they hated communism through the cold war, don’t confuse coercion for proof of unpopularity.
There was a lot to hate in communism during the Cold War… unless one basks in the aura of tens of millions murdered under it. Kneeling for a fabricated cause is something else.
Apparently Danny basks in the aura of tens of millions murdered under it.
No. They did not.
Were students required to say they hated communism? If a student refused, was the student punished, harassed, doxed, socially isolated, subject to verbal abuse, etc.? I’m pretty sure not. I grew up and went to elementary school during the height of the Cold War (I was in the second grade during the Cuban Missile Crisis) and I don’t recall anyone being punished or harassed harassed. (That may have something to do with never having been asked to say I hated communism, so I have doubts about the veracity of your claim.)
When the dust settles, I hope that she is funded for the best education Virgina Tech money can buy.
Good for her for suing for this outrageous violation of her rights.
Hope she wins. Bigly!
I’m not a lawyer, but I have to think VA Tech’s lawyers are working on a settlement right now.
Yeah, sure they are. They’ll just waste tons of money on worthless lawyers to drag the whole thing out until Kiersten Hening graduates and then the judge will declare the whole lawsuit “moot” as she’s no longer attending Virginia Tech. Guaranteed.
That seems to be the way the courts deal with this kind of lawsuit.
That depends on what she’s suing for. That’s why it’s important to demand money, and not just a few symbolic dollars but significant money. Because that will never become moot. Don’t even demand reinstatement to the team. If you’re not welcome there you’re not going to like it if they’re forced to take you back. Just demand money damages for the irreparable harm you’ve suffered.
Milhouse – that is genuine, practical legal insight, cutting through underbrush to find what’s really at stake and of value. (I’d like to believe that, far more than abstruse theorizing, is what constitutes good lawyering).
Then the defendant with money simply drags the lawsuit out for as long as necessary for the plaintiff to run out of money to continue the lawsuit and is forced to withdraw for lack of funds (those lawyers ain’t free after all). Result is the same. Plaintiff wins nothing. Defendant walks away.
“If the allegations are true, she could have not only a winning case but a case that could set important precedent for the freedom of speech.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA . . . sorry couldn’t help myself. See my previous post. The Virginia Tech lawyers will drag this lawsuit out long enough for Hening to graduate and then will move that the lawsuit is “moot” due to the fact that she is no longer attending Virginia Tech and there is nothing the court can do to cure any damages that might have occurred.
The judicial system has already acknowledged that if the defendant simply includes a request for financial damages, the lawsuit survives the termination of her association with the college.
And then the college simply hires a team of lawyers to drag out the lawsuit as long and as expensively as possible for the plaintiff until they simply run out of money and cannot continue with the case. The result? Plaintiff gets nothing and defendant simply walks away without penalty.
Republicans have no power in VA unfortunately so there is no legislative cure, hope she gets a good judge although with Virginia juries…..
Note that this lawsuit was filed in federal court. Ooooooh.
It will still be Virginia jury
https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/types-cases/civil-cases
https://forestpolicypub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/FederalJudicialCircuitsAndDistricts.jpg
Hopefully the stars align, but “Absent a settlement, the court will schedule a trial. In a wide variety of civil cases, either side is entitled under the Constitution to request a jury trial. If the parties waive their right to a jury, then a judge without a jury will hear the case.”
Which means the school could demand a jury trial.
It also isn’t ideal to rely on federal lawsuits those are in practice expensive and will have questionable results because you can never predict a jury and you might end up with a partisan judge.
Kneel before Zod.
“Does anyone believe anyone would single out a student”
Did you mean “wouldn’t single out a student”?
My guess Milhouse is right on this one, reinstatement would be living Hell, take money and get out to another though probably another Leftist Seminary school.
Apply to Hillsdale College or Liberty University. Karl Marx is not a faculty advisor there.
Turley: “Adair implemented changes after a mandated diversity training order from the Atlantic Coast Conference. We have seen such mandated training programs in colleges and corporations…”
Wokeness programs seem to be adept at inducing schools and businesses to violate the law. How did that work out for Coca Cola?