Five Kennesaw State University cheerleaders take a knee during the national anthem prior to a college football game against North Greenville, in Kennesaw, Ga. The group of cheerleaders from the college in Georgia say they’ll take a knee in the stadium tunnel when the national anthem is played at Saturday’s homecoming game since their university moved them off the field after an earlier demonstration. (Cory Hancock/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
KENNESAW, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia lawmaker says Scrappy the Owl, the mascot at the university where five cheerleaders have been kneeling during the national anthem, had no business leading students in a march through campus to support the cheerleaders.
The five Kennesaw State University cheerleaders vow to kneel in the stadium tunnel when the anthem is played at Saturday’s homecoming football game. They were moved off-field after an earlier protest.
Republican state Rep. Earl Ehrhart chairs the House subcommittee in charge of funding Georgia’s public universities.
He tells The Marietta Daily Journal that Scrappy’s participation in Monday’s rally supporting the so-called Kennesaw Five was inappropriate.
The lawmaker says that unless any group can solicit the owl’s services for protests, the taxpayer-funded mascot shouldn’t have been used.
Video from WXIA-TV shows the mascot voicing his support.