Was it the anthem or the attitude? ACLU, school differ on why athlete is off team

A Kansas community college is disputing allegations that it removed a Muslim basketball player from a team because he did not participate in the national anthem.

Attorney Randall Grisell wrote that Rasool Samir, a student at Garden City Community College, was removed from the team due to “disrespectful and aggressive conduct” toward the coach. Grisell was responding on behalf of the college to a Nov. 9 letter from the ACLU of Kansas.

The ACLU said in that letter that Samir, 19, was kicked off the team and ejected from a Nov. 1 game for declining to participate in the national anthem. His religious convictions prohibit “acts of reverence to anything but God,” according to the letter.

The U.S. Supreme Court held in 1943 that public schools may not require students to participate in patriotic ceremonies.

Lauren Bonds, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, said she appreciated the school’s response, but that it didn’t answer why school representatives gave conflicting accounts of Samir’s departure to the media. The school initially told the Garden City Telegram that Samir had left of his own accord, then later told KWCH that Samir was dismissed because of a violation of team rules.

The incident occurred at a Nov. 1 season opener for the Garden City Community College Broncbusters. Samir remained on the court and continued shooting after a pre-game warmup ended and other players left the court for the anthem.

Afterward, Broncbuster booster Jim Howard confronted Samir and the two were separated by a campus police officer, something both the ACLU and Grisell confirmed. The ACLU said Howard shoved Samir and attempted to grab his arm, saying he was “disrespecting the flag.” Grisell said Howard’s conduct is being investigated by college law enforcement.

Howard could not be reached for comment.

Grisell wrote that Samir, a medical hardship red-shirt athlete recovering from an injury, should have joined his team in the locker room during the anthem. The coach told Samir to go back to his dorm, but he instead followed the coach and team yelling threats and profanities, Grisell wrote.

Samir was not dismissed from the school, Grisell wrote, but “made the decision that if he could not play basketball that there was no need for him to continue in any capacity at GCCC.”

ACLU’s Bonds said Samir took issue with the school’s description of his confrontation with the coach. She also said the school did not condemn Howard’s behavior until after media reports.

“Really he (Samir) was trying to get a sense of why the coach wasn’t standing up for him, why he was being punished for his religion and his exercise of his First Amendment beliefs,” Bonds said.

Kayla Swank tweeted a portion of a Garden City Telegram article on Nov. 2, saying Howard is her grandfather.

“People risk their lives every day to fight for the freedom of this country and peoples lives are taken each and every day,” she wrote. “Families lose a brother, a father, a mother, sister, brother, etc and for someone to disrespect that. I believe my grandpa had COMPLETE right to step out on that court and I completely agree with his statement that this kid should be dismissed from the program.”

Samir, who has returned to his home in Philadelphia, did not return requests on Facebook and Twitter for comment.

He told the Garden City Telegram on Twitter that he didn’t mean any disrespect to fans or the flag.

“I am truly sorry to anyone that felt disrespected and I am also sorry to the school,” the Telegram reported him saying. “I apologize for what happened.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Was it the anthem or the attitude? ACLU, school differ on why athlete is off team."