A former University of Oklahoma volleyball player is suing the school, claiming that she was “frozen out” from the team due to her political beliefs.
Kylee McLaughlin is suing the university and her former head coach Lindsey Gray-Walton and former assistant coach Kyle Walton. One of the complaints accuses the coaches of violating McLaughlin’s First Amendment rights, the Oklahoman reports.
In the federal lawsuit, McLaughlin claims that last summer, the volleyball team watched a documentary called 13th, a show that deals with the issue of mass incarceration of blacks. After the viewing, according to the suit, the team held a group discussion. McLaughlin stressed that she felt “one hundred percent that slavery was wrong” but also felt that the doc was “slanted left” and “took some shots” at former President Donald Trump.
The next day, McLaughlin responded on social media to reports that students at the University of Texas wanted the school’s song, The Eyes of Texas, replaced due to its alleged racist past. McLaughlin responded with emojis and said she did not find the song to be racist. For this, her head coach made her delete the post and apologize to the Texas women’s volleyball program.
“Although (McLaughlin) supports equality, social justice, and finds racism despicable, she disagreed with the WOKE culture and critical race theory advocated and practiced by two of her coaches who are the Defendants in this action,” the lawsuit states.
According to Fox News:
She was told that she could either transfer or continue on scholarship as a typical student, not an athlete. The other option was to take a redshirt year, keep her scholarship, and practice separately from the rest of the team, the lawsuit stated. She had to take more than 10 hours of online diversity and inclusion training for a ‘Growth Plan,’ McLaughlin said.
In the lawsuit, McLaughin said that the school and coaches violated her freedom of speech. She accused her coaches of ‘intentionally inflicting emotional distress by alleging that she was a racist and homophobe.’
McLaughlin claims that she was forced to take a redshirt year during the 2020-2021 season. A move that compelled her to transfer to Ole Miss for the final year of her college eligibility. OU has declined to comment but says it is aware of the lawsuit.