A ‘Trump 2020’ banner caused a North Carolina cheerleading squad to be put on probation. North Stanly High School cheerleading squad received the same blanket probation that all student organizations would for holding up explicitly political signs.
All North Carolina schools have a blanket ban on political material at school functions.
Despite the school responding to the incident with the same procedure it has always responded to political material with, people in the small North Carolina town of Stanly weren’t too pleased. A Facebook event was created calling for local people to wave political signs in favor of the divisive reality TV star and freshman politician.
“The North Stanly High School cheerleaders have been wrongly put on probation by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association for the rest of the football season because of holding up a Trump banner before a home game on 8-30-2019” the event’s description reads.
“Please come out and help me show the school and the NCHSAA that freedom of speech is not dead. Please bring all your Trump and MAGA gear and lets [sic] throw our support behind the North Stanly High School cheerleaders.”
The school responded to the event by downplaying the specific politician on the banner and focusing on the fact that the banner was political at all. District superintendent Jeff James stated that the school’s faculty and staff were unaware of the banner and had neither okayed nor endorsed it.
“The focus of Friday night football games should be on our students – the players, cheerleaders, band members – the focus should not be on politics,” James said in a statement. “For this reason, we are hopeful the situation will resolve, and our student athletes can have a successful fall season.”
It’s unclear whether the angry response to the consistent treatment of all political material is a willful misreading of the situation or genuine lack of knowledge about how the district handles such materials.
Had the cheerleaders been holding up “Bernie 2020” signs, would the same “free speech” advocates be organizing attempts to flood a high school football game with political ads?
