CHARLOTTE — Several Olympic High School student-athletes said they have been benched after protesting a sexual assault allegation involving a football player at the school.
According to a CMS source, the student was allowed to play in a school football game after being arrested over the summer for a sex assault that happened off campus.
Channel 9 was there last Friday as dozens of students walked out of Olympic High School in southwest Charlotte chanting “we’re not leaving” and “lock him up.”
Girls’ volleyball team member Serenity Simpson told Channel 9 she and several other members of the team were among the students protesting the decision to let the student play in a football game even while he was wearing an ankle monitor for a sexual assault charge.
Three days after the walk out, Simpson said her coach told her and other volleyball team members that some of them would be benched for participating in the protest. Rather than take the suspension, Simpson said she quit on the spot because she believes the discipline sets a double standard.
“It’s not fair at all,” she said. “We were only protesting for a safer environment, not only for us but for girls on any and every CMS campus. So, for us to be penalized for only demanding a safer environment is not fair at all.”
A parent shared an email with Channel 9 that she said came from Olympic’s athletic director. In the email, the director said the team members were suspended because they were engaged in what she called “unsafe actions” and “displayed complete insubordination of administrative and police directives.”
The alleged sexual assault involving the football player is one of two recent allegations involving Olympic High School students. A 15-year-old boy was charged in September after a girl said she was sexually assaulted on the school’s campus.
(WATCH: ‘We’re not leaving’: Students protest outside Olympic HS after alleged sex assault)
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