As support soars for professional athletes protesting racial injustice by taking a knee or raising a fist during the national anthem, a Louisiana public school district is being lambasted for threatening to punish students who protest at its sports games.

“Schools should respect students who embrace their constitutional rights and stand up to injustice—not punish them.”
—Marjorie Esman, ACLU of LouisianaIn a statement released Wednesday, Bossier Parish school board superintendent Scott Smith confirmed that administrators of the 34 schools in his district had been encouraged to require members of teams and organizations to “stand in solidarity when the national anthem is played at sporting events.”

Smith’s statement, which emphasized that school principals and coaching staffs “have sole discretion in determining consequences” for student protesters, was followed by a viral letter that the principal of one of the district’s seven high schools sent to student athletes and parents on Thursday.

Journalist and activist Shaun King initally tweeted a photo of the letter, and drew a connection between the high school’s move and President Donald Trump’s crude calls for NFL owners to fire anyone who protests on the field.

“Parkway High School requires student athletes to stand in a respectful manner throughout the national anthem during any sporting event in which their team is participating,” wrote Parkway High School principal Waylon Bates. “Failure to comply will result in loss of playing time and/or participation as directed by the head coach and principal. Continued failure to comply will result in removal from the team.”

Denouncing the threat as “patently unconstitutional” and “antithetical to our values as Americans,” Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, said “schools should respect students who embrace their constitutional rights and stand up to injustice—not punish them.”