They're a staple at every high school football game.
Cheerleaders are supposed to show support, spirit, and encouragement during school functions, but one Texas squad says they were penalized for doing just that. Now they're the ones getting support in their fight for freedom of speech
Mike Johnson from Liberty Institute said that "what they were doing with the banners is modeling good spotsmanship, instead of using derogatory messages they thought it would be appreciated and applauded by officials and yet ironically they were punished for doing that."
Mike Johnson represents the Kountze, Texas cheerleaders who were banned from using christian scriptures on their banners. This happened after the Freedom from Religion Foundation threatened to sue the school district for allegedly violating the separation of church and state.
He said that "just because a student chose to engage in religious speech doesn't make it unconstitutional, it's really a tragic misinterpretation of the first admendment and thankfully so far the courts have affirmed that."
Since then, Johnson's organization, Liberty Institute, got a temporary injunction against the school district, citing freedom of speech, allowing the girls to continue writing their faith-based messages.
The squad now has thousands of supporters cheering them on in this battle.
Many texas cheerleaders have joined in the fight outside of court and are showing their support on the field.