A former Virginia Tech soccer player has filed a lawsuit against her old coach, claiming he forced her off the team because she wouldn’t kneel.
Last September, Kiersten Hening decided against kneeling with her teammates during a kneeling demonstration to honor the Black lives lost to police brutality. The 21-year-old athlete was positioned as the midfielder/defender for the Hokies from 2018 to 2020. Last month, Hening filed a federal lawsuit claiming her coach, Charles Adair, showed negative bias toward her because of her “political” views.
Hening shared that she was often on the opposite end of issues pertaining to police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, which she reportedly considers political issues. Hening states in the lawsuit that she supports social justice and “believes black lives matter,” but she said that she “does not support BLM the organization.” She added that she disagrees with Black Lives Matter’s “tactics and core tenets of its mission statement, including defunding the police.”
Hening claims the incident happened on Sept. 12, 2020, during pregame, when there was a reading of a “unity statement.” Hening’s teammates kneeled, but she stood; later, during halftime, Hening claims she was “verbally attacked” by Adair. She claims Adair pointed his finger “directly in her face” and said she was “b–tching and moaning.” She also says that she was allegedly benched over the incident.
She claims the situation got so “intolerable that she felt compelled.” She claims her constitutional rights were violated, and she is now suing for an undisclosed amount. She wants a judge to order Adair to have her back on the team and have him undergo some form of First Amendment course.
