A Friday night football game at New London, North Carolina’s North Stanly High School was abruptly canceled yesterday, with school officials citing ‘security concerns’ in relation to punishment issued to members of the school’s cheerleading squad. As previously reported by Politics Elections’ Ian MacDonald, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association placed the entire squad on probation for the rest of the football season for the ‘crime’ of supporting the President of the United States.
The controversy arose after the cheerleaders were photographed alongside a banner reading ‘Trump 2020 Make America Great Again’ on August 30th, the school’s ‘America Night’, and culminated with plans for a pre-game rally to show support for both the cheerleaders and the sacred American right of freedom of speech. Though there was no game, there was a rally, and community members came out in droves, waving American flags and homemade signs, with many donning Make America Great Again hats.
‘We are here for those cheerleaders who have been wrongly accused of being racist, nazis, and any other name you can think of,’ Jeremy Onitreb, the rally’s co-organizer, told Charlotte’s FOX 46. ‘We have free speech in this nation and it’s ok to wave a Trump sign. You can do that. You can support your president,’ said Alina Blue, a rally attendee.
While the rally went off without a hitch, some in the crowd questioned the validity of the school board’s supposed ‘security concerns’, believing that above all, the game was canceled as part of an effort to silence the girls and their supporters. ‘There was no threat. We are no threat,’ said an unnamed attendee. ‘We are having a peaceful rally to show our support for our cheerleaders and tell them they did nothing wrong.’
A statement from Stanly County Sheriff Jeff Crisco merely added to these suspicions, as the school board seemed to have kept local law enforcement totally out of the loop. A mind-boggling move considering their claims that the safety of children was in jeopardy. ‘We received information from the school super that they have received information,’ Sheriff Crisco told FOX 46. ‘He did not elaborate about what that information was…The school board was the ones that decided to cancel the games for this evening.’
