Former Illinois State University Football Coach Fired For Removing BLM Sign Files Lawsuit
A former assistant football coach at Illinois State University has filed a lawsuit against the school’s head football coach and its former athletic director for violating his First Amendment rights.
Kurt Beathard says that he was fired after he removed a Black Lives Matter poster from his door and replaced it with one that said “All Lives Matter to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, the BLM sign was placed on his door while he was on leave during late spring and most of the summer of 2020 following the death of his wife from breast cancer.
Though Beathard left the sign up for less than two weeks, the lawsuit claims head coach Brock Spack and then-athletic director Larry Lyons terminated Beathard because “he did not toe the party line regarding Black Lives Matter.”
Beathard’s suit argues that he had the right to freely express his views under the First Amendment as an employee of a public university.
