A judge recently ruled that a former Virginia Tech women’s soccer player can continue a lawsuit against her former coach after she was allegedly benched and pressured to leave the team for declining to kneel during a pregame social justice demonstration.
Kiersten Hening, who was a midfielder/defender for the Hokies from 2018 to 2020, sued coach Charles “Chugger” Aidair in 2021 on First Amendment grounds, which federal Judge Thomas Cullen announced on Dec. 2 can proceed to trial.
Hening alleged that Adair was not a fan of her political views and that she often differed from her teammates on social justice issues during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
