Former Sooner Volleyball Player Suing For Exclusion From Team Over Conservative Views
A former University of Oklahoma volleyball player is suing her former coaches and school for excluding her from the team because of her political views.
Kylee McLaughlin alleges that she was labeled a racist and "frozen out" from the rest of the team because she's a Republican, per a report from The Oklahoman. It resulted in her being forced to take a redshirt year this past season, which then led her to transfer to the University of Mississippi to complete her career as a student-athlete.
Per Fox News: "In the court documents, McLaughlin said that the team was forced to watch the 2016 documentary '13th' which is about the incarceration of Black people in the United States. The lawsuit states that a team discussion in June of 2020 'took some shots' at former President Donald Trump and 'compared it with beatings of Blacks in the 1960s.'
"The following day, McLaughlin responded to social media news surrounding the discussion over the University of Texas and people advocating to replace 'The Eyes of Texas' school spirit song. She responded with laughing emojis and McLaughlin said that she didn’t think the song was racist. Texas and Oklahoma volleyball players responded to her on the social media post and Gray-Walton forced her to delete the post and apologize to Texas women’s volleyball coaches and players, the lawsuit stated.
"McLaughlin's teammates and coaches felt that she was racist and homophobic, according to the lawsuit."
According to the lawsuit, McLaughlin was given three options by the Oklahoma coaches: She could transfer, she could take a redshirt year and practice separately from the rest of the team, or she could remain on scholarship as strictly a student, but not an athlete.
"Although (McLaughlin) supports equality, social justice, and finds racism despicable, she disagreed with the WOKE culture and critical race theory advocated and practiced by two of her coaches who are the Defendants in this action," the lawsuit stated.
In the lawsuit, McLaughlin said her coaches were guilty of "intentionally inflicting emotional distress by alleging that she was a racist and homophobe," and violating her freedom of speech.