The Kennesaw State University cheerleader who was disciplined after taking a knee during the national anthem two years ago just won a $145,000 settlement from the state of Georgia.
According to the Marietta Daily Journal, which obtained a copy of the agreement, Tommia Dean and and a representative for Georgia’s Department of Administrative Services signed the lawsuit settlement agreement for $145,000 in October.
The department reportedly agreed to pay $93,000 to Dean and nearly $52,000 to her lawyers, The Hill reports.
Dean and four other cheerleaders at the Georgia college felt the backlash from the school after, inspired by Colin Kaepernick, they chose to take a knee in September 2017.
After the kneeling protest, the cheerleaders were not allowed on the field at the next game until after the national anthem played.
As a result of the school’s decision, the college’s president Sam Olens was forced to resign and officials at the university admitted that the Dean’s constitutional rights were not protected.
She moved forward with a lawsuit last year, claiming that her rights were violated by college and local officials.
“Before we went out on the field, we all prayed. Together, we all prayed,” Dean told WXIA-TV in Atlanta. “I felt like this was something I needed to do here, in Cobb County, as a Kennesaw State cheerleader.”
She also claimed that complaints about the protests were racially motivated, but a judge did not find this to be true.
Now a senior at the university, Dean is no longer a cheerleader. One of her attorneys, Randy Mayer, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “she’s happy that it’s mainly behind her.”
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