A former Kennesaw State cheerleader suing the university for allegedly violating her rights after she and other cheerleaders knelt during the national anthem last season appeared Wednesday on "The View."
Tommia Dean was one of the four protesting cheerleaders who wasn't invited to rejoin the squad after kneeling during the anthem in protest of police brutality and racial discrimination.
Their kneeling put the cheerleaders in the national debate over athletes and others protesting during the anthem.
Dean told the hosts of the show why she kneeled.
“After seeing the many killings and the many attacks against minorities by police officers, I thought it was crazy to have that many, and I didn’t think that it was right for minorities to have to walk around and be terrified every day,” she said. “And to see a police officer and not know how should I act, what I should do, because it’s a burden to have to walk around and be scared all the time. So I just didn’t think it was right at all.”
READ | Kennesaw State cheerleaders take a knee; some in Cobb take offense
Dean's lawsuit claims the decision to keep cheerleaders off the field means her civil rights were violated by the university and two elected officials, Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren and former longtime state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs. The suit says the two men tried to stop the protests because she and the other cheerleaders are black. Both elected officials are white.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered text messages from Warren and Ehrhart pressuring KSU's then-president Sam Olens to keep the cheerleaders off the field. They contradicted the official story told by Olens in which he said the decision was made by the athletic department and had nothing to do with the protests.
The university flipped and later allowed the cheerleaders on the field during the anthem later in the season.
“I never want to come across as disrespectful to the military, that is not what this protest is about. It is simply about standing up for police brutality against minorities. That is simply it,” Dean told the hosts.
In a special report released in November, the state's Board of Regents, which governs Georgia's public colleges and universities, found that KSU didn't follow its legal guidance saying cheerleaders and other students can't be stopped from kneeling during the anthem.
In December, news came that Olens had decided to step down as KSU's president about a year after taking the position.
"Eventually, if you respect each other, you will understand each other,” Dean said on the show.
Here are some of the reactions to the show online:
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