Kiersten Hening: Ex-soccer player who was benched for refusing to kneel allowed to sue school's coach

Kiersten Hening: Ex-soccer player who was benched for refusing to kneel allowed to sue school's coach
Kiersten Hening's action, which claims that Adair (R) punished her for holding certain political views, will thus be allowed to proceed to trial (Virginia Tech Athletics, Hokie Sports)

BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA: A federal judge has decided that a former Virginia Tech women's soccer player can legally sue the team's coach for benching her after she declined to kneel in a social justice protest. Judge Thomas Cullen for the Western District of Virginia found on December 2 that Kiersten Hening's First Amendment rights may have been infringed by Coach Charles "Chugger" Adair for declining to participate in the demonstration at the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

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The judge said that Hening's action, which claims that Adair punished her for holding certain political views, will thus be allowed to proceed to trial. In a federal lawsuit filed last month, Hening said that Adair did not agree with her political views and she ended up paying a huge price for that — apart from being kicked off the team, she was also subjected to repeated verbal abuse, she says.