SCRAPPY the Owl, the mascot at a university where five cheerleaders have been kneeling during the US national anthem, has been criticised for leading students in a march through campus to support the protests.
The cheerleaders, from Kennesaw State University, Georgia, have vowed to kneel in the stadium tunnel when the anthem is played at Saturday’s homecoming American football game. They were moved off-field after an earlier protest.
Republican state representative Earl Ehrhart, who chairs the House subcommittee in charge of funding Georgia’s public universities, said Scrappy’s participation in a rally supporting the so-called Kennesaw Five was inappropriate.