Student athletes and civil rights: Prof. McNeal discusses at LSU symposium

Professor Laura McNeal presented a talk on the constitutional right of student athletes to engage in protest during patriotic rituals last week.

The talk, "From Hoodies and Skittles to Kneeling Through the National Anthem: The Colin Kaepernick Effect and the Implications for K-12 Sports," was part of a Jan. 27, 2017, symposium hosted by Louisiana State University's Paul M. Hebert Law Center.

"I argue that student athletes have the constitutional right under the First Amendment to engage in protest during patriotic rituals, such as the national anthem, and that any form of discipline or attempts to infringe on such rights is unconstitutional," McNeal says. "I propose the adoption of a new constitutional standard for K-12 schooling environments to better safeguard students' freedom of expression rights."

McNeal's scholarly interests examine issues of access and equity in employment and education law, with a particular emphasis on issues of access and equity for individuals from traditionally marginalized populations. Since 2012, she has worked with the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, where she conducts national empirical legal studies that explore the intersection of law, education reform and school disciplinary policies (school-to-prison pipeline).