Expressing personal opinions on social media is bringing about devastating consequences for a lot of people. Christine Bailey, the assistant coach on the girls varsity basketball team at Granite City High School in Illinois, has been fired due to the comments she posted on Facebook.
It all started when Bailey commented on a Facebook post by Mariah Harrison, a graduate of the school. Harrison posted on Granite City Yard Sale group about selling Black Lives Matters t-shirts that she made. Bailey commented on the post, asking if it was “for real.” After some more replies exchanged back and forth, Bailey said that Harrison’s post was “hate-baiting” as the people involved in the BLM movement are “terrorists” and “criminals.”
Soon after, Harrison and a few of her friends and family tried seeing the school board during a Tuesday meeting. After being denied entrance into the meeting due to COVID-19 restrictions, a slightly larger group comprising 20 people assembled on Wednesday and started protesting outside the school. While many protesters never knew Harrison in person, they still joined the protest after they saw a Facebook post made by her where screenshots of the comments posted by Bailey were shared.
The protesters gathered around the school building and yelled to the school board saying “Black Lives Matter” and demanded that Bailey be fired. The superintendent Stephanie Cann then announced that Bailey was fired for making comments that were “unprofessional and racially-charged.”
Peggy Hubbard, the former Illinois Republican candidate for senate spoke in favor of Bailey and urged people that they must get in touch with the school district officials, and Cann in particular, to let them know that it wasn’t fair to fire Bailey over the personal opinions she shared online.
“I don’t care if they have it in their so-called bylaws that you cannot speak out. Where is it written that your constitutional rights should be surrendered if you take a job with an employer? That’s a communism view,” said Hubbard, in a ten-minute video.
Hubbard also strongly expressed that people should never be fired for their political views.
Former senate candidate Peggy Hubbard’s defense of Bailey:
https://www.facebook.com/PeggyHubbardIL/videos/787327238680435
