Krystal Champ and her daughter, Izzabel, stood silently in the parking lot of Frank Lettieri Stadium as the national anthem blared from loudspeakers before the start of Friday night’s football game between Cornell and Shenango high schools.
Ms. Champ drove from Lawrence County to Coraopolis to support her son, who plays for the Shenango team, but even though she lives an hour away she was aware of the controversy surrounding the Cornell High School cheerleaders. A protest Sept. 30 in front of local veterans — which followed a trend set by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick — ignited nationwide vitriol toward the district.
As the mother and daughter paused to listen to the anthem, an African American woman walked behind the white women and said, “If I take a knee right now, would that [tick] you off?”
The comment upset Izzabel, 16, who burst into tears.
“Opinion is great, you’re entitled to your view,” Ms. Champ said after the woman moved on without kneeling, “but offensive display to others is poor character. ... Everyone has that choice of taking a knee during the anthem, not saying your Pledge [of Allegiance], but you as a human being have an obligation to be respectful.”
At the Sept. 30 game against Our Lady of Sacred Heart, with veterans from local VFW Post 402 serving as the honor guard, 12 of the 15 Cornell cheerleaders took a knee during the “Star-Spangled Banner,” a display that proved divisive inside the community and far beyond.
A video of the protest circulating on social media uses broadcast footage of district superintendent Aaron Thomas, a photo of the protest, images from World War II and tearful veterans. The video accuses the superintendent of getting the veterans to attend the game when he knew there would be a protest, a charge he has emphatically denied.
Still, Mr. Thomas and his family have received death threats and other administrators have endured hundreds of threatening phone calls. In response, the district rescheduled this weekend’s homecoming events, changed Friday night’s game time from 7 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and only allowed immediate relatives of the players to attend.
Reporters were allowed to get no closer than the stadium gates, but it was evident that fewer than 100 spectators were in the stands. Police reported no incidents.
“The past week and a half has been a very difficult and turbulent time for the Cornell School District,” a statement on the district’s website said. “We have experienced a conflict and controversy that has challenged us in ways we didn’t think were possible prior to this.
“With that being said, we are ready to move on,” the statement continued. “Members of the Cornell School District were able to meet with the veterans of the local VFW Post 402 where a great discussion occurred. The District was able to relay their apology to the veterans and discuss ways to move forward.”
Michael Blair, senior vice commander of VFW Post 402, confirmed Friday that VFW officials had met with Mr. Thomas.
“At our last post meeting, we met with the superintendent from Cornell, and we discussed the situation and his part in it. We believe that he wasn’t aware, might of heard a rumor about it, but he wasn’t aware of what was going to occur,” Mr. Blair said Friday. “He’s regretful that it happened, the way it happened, the way it’s being put out on Facebook.”
During the meeting, Mr. Blair said, there was discussion about getting VFW members to go into the community to educate young people about their freedoms, the veterans’ roles in securing those freedoms, and why they should respect the flag and the Constitution.
“Our guys are more than willing to help these kids and go and talk to them and shine some light on some of the things that they might not be aware of,” he said.
Mr. Blair, who was serving in the honor guard during the protest, said he was in “disbelief,” and was “sad” and “upset” about the protest. But he begrudgingly accepts the students’ right to do it.
“Us, as the honor guard, we were victims of a situation that wasn’t aimed directly toward us,” Mr. Blair said. “We do defend the country and these people’s rights and the Constitution, so these people are free because of veterans to be able to pursue their freedoms. If that’s how they want to pursue them, I guess we’ve got to accept it. We may not like it, but we defend it.”
Shortly after the national anthem concluded at Frank Lettieri Stadium on Friday, Cullen Harrison, a parent of a both player on Cornell’s football team and a high school cheerleader, spoke with a Coraopolis police officer providing security at the game. At the end of the friendly conversation, they hugged and parted ways.
Mr. Harrison, 36, who is black, said he was not sure whether his daughter was one of the cheerleaders who took a knee during the anthem two weeks ago, “but regardless of if she did or if she didn’t, any of the girls who did it meant no disrespect toward the veterans that were here.”
“We raise our children to live the right way and do the right things in life,” Mr. Harrison said. “Stand for what you believe in.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1352.
First Published: October 15, 2016, 4:47 a.m.
