A former Kennesaw State University cheerleader was awarded a $145,000 settlement two years after she faced repercussions for taking a knee during the national anthem at a college football game, court documents show.

The former cheerleader, Tommia Dean, who is still a student at the Georgia university, received $93,000, and the remaining $52,000 was disbursed to her two lawyers, Bruce P. Brown and Randolph A. Mayer, for legal fees and expenses, according to the documents. News of the settlement, which was paid in October, was published on Wednesday by The Marietta Daily Journal.

Ms. Dean, along with four other cheerleaders, took a knee during the national anthem at a football game on Sept. 30, 2017, the lawsuit said. According to the complaint, they were then prohibited from appearing on the field during the national anthem at two subsequent home football games.

Ms. Dean filed the lawsuit in September 2018 against Samuel S. Olens, the school’s president at the time of the protest and a former Georgia attorney general; two men in the Kennesaw State athletic department; Sheriff Neil Warren of Cobb County, Ga.; and Earl Ehrhart, a former Republican state legislator. The suit accused the defendants of violating her First Amendment rights, and accused Sheriff Warren and Mr. Ehrhart specifically of conspiring to cause the violation of her civil rights by pressuring the university’s president to take action.

Ms. Dean, who claimed in the lawsuit that she had suffered an increase in migraine headaches and emotional distress over the loss of her constitutional rights, sought unspecified damages.



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