NORMAL, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A former football coach at Illinois State University is taking legal action claiming he was fired over a Black Lives Matter issue.
A lawsuit against Illinois State University Head Football Coach Brock Spack and the school's former athletic director Larry Lyons comes over a year after the dismissal of assistant coach Kurt Beathard.
In the newly filed lawsuit, Beathard claims his first amendment rights were violated when he replaced a Black Lives Matter poster that was somehow placed on his office door with one then read "All Lives Matter to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ".
He was dismissed from the team in September of 2020. The Chicago Tribune reported that Spack pointed to football reasons for the termination, but the suit claims Beathard lost his job because "he did not toe the party line regarding Black Lives Matter".
ISU football players chose to boycott practice after Beathard removed the poster. His attorney Doug Churdar said his views should have been respected at a public university.
“It’s come to this. If you put the government’s message on your door, you keep your job,” Churdar wrote in a news release, according to the Tribune. “If you replace it with your own message, you’re fired. That’s exactly what happened.
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