A Chattanooga, Tennessee, man told local media outlets that he lost his job after he sat for the national anthem last weekend.
Tyler Chancellor, who worked for kickboxing gym 9Round for about a week, was told by the owner not to come back after he sat during “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Chancellor said he was training to become a kickboxing coach.
He was sitting with his coworkers in the VIP section of Camp Jordan Arena for the event.
His boss told him that sitting reflects poorly on the gym.
“She said, ‘Because you sat down, you were a part of a 9Round event, and you sat during the national anthem. We no longer want to continue business with you,’” Chancellor told the station. “There was no sugar coating.”
Harvard Law School Professor Mark Tushnet told Fox17 that Tennessee law stipulates that employers can run businesses however they choose to.
“Employers are entitled to fire people what’s known as ‘at will.’” Tuchnet said. “That is for any reason they have, or for no reason at all.”
Around half of states can do that, he explained.
The owner of the gym, who was not named, told the station that the company backs military and first responders. He considered Chancellor’s actions to be disrespectful.
It comes as a Division III football player in Pennsylvania, Gyree Durante, took a knee for the national anthem before a game.
Durante, who played for Albright College, was subsequently kicked off the team.
Durante said that he was protesting racism in the United States.
“I believe heavily in this. So I decided to fight for it,” he explained to the station.
“We trusted him throughout the week, after time and time again he told us he would stand,” Powell said. “When you can’t have a player on a team that you can trust, he’s got to go.”
The national anthem protests were started by ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick last year, and he has since claimed he was protesting police brutality and injustice.Last month, President Donald Trump reignited the debate over the anthem protests, saying that NFL players who don’t stand should be fired.
“They could have then suspended him for two games and they could have suspended him again if he did it a third time, for the season, and you would never have had a problem,” he said.
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