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When Arkansas State University football team tragically lost two teammates, the athletes decided to mourn their loss by adding a small vinyl cross and the lost teammates’ initials to their helmets. However, Jonesboro, Arkansas, attorney Louis Nisenbaum complained that the student-initiated memorial was akin to Congress establishing a religion, and ASU Counsel Lucinda McDaniel told the players to cut the bottom of the cross off, so that it resembles a “plus sign.”

After fighting for students’ rights for many years, nothing should surprise me, but I am appalled that someone would harass these young people as they mourn the deaths of their teammates. I am saddened that the university did not stand up for their rights. These young people have done nothing wrong! They have as much right to communicate their ideas--or in this case, their grief--as the attorney who somehow feels offended by the small vinyl crosses they are wearing on their helmets.

In a letter to Arkansas State University Chancellor Tim Hudson, Liberty Counsel said, “The university should immediately rescind the unconstitutional directive suppressing private student expression in the form of crosses on individual players' helmets.” Liberty Counsel promised to represent the school and players free of charge: “If the University abides by the Constitution, and is later called into question, Liberty Counsel would be pleased to present a united defense of both the University for respecting individual rights, and the players' individual First Amendment rights.”

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