Deputies refuse security for high school where players knelt during anthem

After a picture showed most of the Bonnabel High School football team taking a knee during the national anthem at last week’s game, Louisiana deputies are refusing to work the school’s security detail because of their protest.

“I was a bit taken aback at first. Keep in mind, I know what is happening nationally with some of the protests that’s happening across the country,” Jefferson Parish Public Schools Superintendent Isaac Joseph said of the initial protest at the game before adding, “They do have a right, and legally we do not have any right to punish or offer any sanctions against the team or team members.”

But several Jefferson Parish deputies took offense to the protest and are refusing to volunteer to work security detail at the school.

“My understanding is, we’ve had some officers that said they will not work the Bonnabel High football games,” Sheriff Newell Normand said. “I understand why, in light of Colin Kaepernick’s comments, specifically when he says, ‘Cops are getting paid leave for killing people.’ That’s not right, that’s not right by anyone’s standards. The fact of the matter is we risk our lives each and every day for the safety and security of our constituency throughout this country.”

“That is a voluntary detail, so I suspect I will have some officers refuse to work the Bonnabel High School games,” Normand added. “The same way that the Bonnabel players have every right to kneel during the national anthem, my officers have every right not to volunteer to work the Bonnabel high school football game.”

He went on to say that the school would still be protected and that other deputies were signing up to volunteer, but that he would not force deputies to volunteer.

“That fuels the disappointment in my officers when they see this happen, and I can fully understand their disappointment and frustration,” Normand said. “When they’re on the clock and they’re working for me, they’ve got to do what they’ve got to do, because that’s what they’re hired to do. That’s not what this is — this is a voluntary detail where they volunteer to work this extra detail separate and apart from what they’re hired to do.”

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