I wont be back next year. This was my last Grand Tour. Its not a great way to go. | Forum

Colin Kaepernicks protest against social injustice is being heard loud and clear by young athletes across the country and a host of high school football players have emulated the San Francisco quarterback in recent weeks by kneeling during the national anthem before their own games. Wholesale NCAA Jerseys Free Shipping .Thats where the issue gets complicated.In football-crazy states such as New Jersey, Alabama and Massachusetts, some players have faced suspension and others have reported harassment or even threats over their stance.We are not public institutions and free speech in all of its demonstrations, including protests, is not a guaranteed right, wrote Mary Boyle, superintendent of the Catholic Schools Diocese of Camden, New Jersey. She told her administrators and coaches that players who failed to demonstrate appropriate respect by choosing not to stand for the national anthem could face game and team suspensions.Michael Walsh, diocese spokesman, called the letter a precautionary notice in light of what had been occurring at the professional level. He said diocesan schools have always had a policy to show respect and honor for God and country.Kaepernick has faced heavy criticism, but has continued to suit up each week -- without the support of the 49ers and NFL, but also without the threat of punishment. High school administrators and coaches are left to juggle the right of free speech with keeping order among their young charges.David L. Hudson Jr., author of Let The Students Speak: A History of the Fight for Freedom of Expression in American Schools, said silent or passive protests like kneeling are not disruptive and therefore allowed under court rulings dating back decades.The highest court in the land ruled long ago, and its been upheld time after time, that students do not leave their free speech rights at the schoolhouse gate, said Bob Farrace, director of public affairs for the National Association of Secondary School Principals. He noted that the Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that public school students in Iowa could wear black armbands to silently protest the Vietnam War. But they wouldnt necessarily be allowed to picket in a school hallway.There are limits on students free speech, Farrace said.Michael Walker, director of the Office of Black Male Student Achievement in the Minneapolis Public Schools, said his class had discussed the NFL protest, using it as a starting point to research the verses of the national anthem. He didnt know in advance that six or seven of local football players planned to take a knee during the anthem last Friday night. He re-tweeted a picture of the protest and said he has gotten no negative feedback.We want to make sure that our students have the space and safety to share their thoughts, their beliefs, their perspectives on different things that are happening within their community, within our society and so this is no different, he said. We let them make decisions on their own with the information that they have. But what we also discussed with them ... (were the) consequences for your actions. You have to understand that there is always two sides. There will be some people who will support you. There will be some people who will not support you in your stance and how are you ready to handle the repercussions of that?Junior quarterback Michael Oppong at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester, Massachusetts, said on Twitter that he was told he would be suspended for one game after announcing he would kneel during the anthem before a recent game. It was a decision district officials quickly reversed .(Oppong) did not violate any school rule when he peacefully and silently protested during the national anthem, Worcester Superintendent Maureen Binienda said in a statement. He exercised his constitutional rights without disturbing the school assembly and he is not being disciplined in any way by his actions.High school players arent the only ones following Kaepernicks lead.Preston Brown, football coach at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, took a knee during the anthem before his first game of the season. Brown said he didnt ask his team to join him ahead of time, but all but two of his players did so. Afterward, Brown said that he wanted to call attention to social injustices and economic disparities.I grew up in poverty, a lot of these kids are growing up in poverty, Brown said. Theres a lot of social injustices and economic disparities. Theres issues right here in our own community.Its a message that resonates across Camden, a predominantly African-American community and one of New Jerseys poorest. Browns bosses with the school district expressed support for the flag as well as the right for Brown and his players to kneel, calling it a personal issue.In Rockford, Illinois, some football players at Auburn High took a knee during the anthem and the school saw it as a teachable moment. Athletic director Mat Parker said coaches and players would discuss the protest in what we hope will be a meaningful dialogue.The student athletes said they wanted to create more social awareness of racial injustice in America, coach Dan Appino said. They made it clear that they did not intend to disrespect our military; rather, they wanted to embrace the freedom of expression and other constitutional rights that our military fought so hard to preserve. This movement is sweeping the nation as a peaceful form of protest. I am not happy that football is being used as the platform for this protest, but I respect the passion our kids feel about this topic.---Associated Press writers Megan Trimble and Carolyn Thompson contributed to this story. Wholesale College Jerseys Authentic . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. Cheap College Jerseys Outlet . Jeff Green scored 13 points and Kris Humphries 12 for the Celtics, who nearly blew an 18-point, second-half lead. Sullingers 20-20 was the first by a Celtics player since Kevin Garnetts first game in Boston in 2007. Garnett was dealt -- along with Paul Pierce -- to Brooklyn during the off-season. http://www.cheapcollegejerseysfreeshipping.com/ . With the first unit struggling of late and Amir Johnson - one of the teams iron men - hobbling on an injured right ankle, Patterson knew he could get the nod in a challenging matchup against one of the leagues up and coming players at his position. ALBI, France -- When they sit down late on Saturday afternoon for the ritual they call the "apero" -- meaning nibbles and alcoholic drinks -- the French still wont know who is going to win their beloved Tour de France this year. But they might have a much clearer idea of who wont win it. Riders who dont have the legs to carry them to victory in Paris, who have been bluffing and pretending to be strong in the first third of the 3,404-kilometre Tour, could be cruelly exposed on Saturday when the race sharply gains altitude in the Pyrenees mountains where France and Spain meet. Although the two climbs on the menu arent the most brutal of this 100th Tour, theyre still tough enough to make all but the strongest riders struggle. Just how decisive the ascents prove will depend on how aggressive, ambitious and confident the strongest climbers are feeling. If they want to test overall race favourites Chris Froome and Alberto Contador, or if those two want to test each other, then Stage 8 offers the first real opportunity for them to do so. "It depends if people want to hold their cards close to their chests or if they want to come out swinging," said American rider Tejay van Garderen. "I expect for them to come out swinging, so there should probably be some big gaps." Almost certainly, Daryl Impeys second day in the race leaders yellow jersey on Saturday will be his last, at least this year. The first South African to wear that prized shirt doesnt have the uphill bursts of speed to stay with Froome, Contador and other contenders for overall victory should they go at each other like hammer and tongs up to the Col de Pailheres, immediately followed by a slightly less arduous ascent to the Ax 3 Domaines ski station. Impey is convinced Froome will be wearing yellow in Paris on July 21. "The climbing ability hes shown, hes definitely nearly in a league of his own. Hes obviously a different climber to Contador, but I think Chris is going to be hard to beat." On a stage that, with the mountains looming, felt like the calm before a storm, Peter Sagan from Slovakia won the finishing sprint Friday in Albi, an enchanting medieval city on the banks of the Tarn river, dominated by its 13th century fortified brick-built Sainte-Cecile Cathedral and listed as a World Heritage site by the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO. Impey rode strongly to stay in Sagans bunch and keep the race lead he inherited from teammate Simon Gerrans on Thursday. Ryder Hesjedal of Victoria was tied for 13th overall, 22 seconds off the lead, after finishing the stage in the front pack. Quebec Citys David Veilleux is in 139th overall, 40:26 off the pace, and Svein Tuft of Langley, B.C., was 55:26 behind in 178th. Sagan is ruunning away with the Tours chase for the green jersey, awarded to the rider who collects most points from sprints at the end of stages and during them. Cheap College Jerseys Authentic. He won that jersey last year, too. Sagan is known both for his speed and versatility as a rider and an impish sense of humour. He embarrassed himself and quickly apologized earlier this year for pinching the bottom of a podium hostess at the Tour of Flanders, grinning cheekily as he squeezed. He has been all business since the Tour set off from Corsica on June 29. Since he was bloodied in a crash on the first day, Sagan has never finished lower than third in a stage (not including the team time trial on Stage 4) -- with three second places, one third place and now a win on Stage 7. It took the pack up four moderate climbs on a 205.5-kilometre slog in intense heat from Montpellier. Assuming Impey surrenders the race lead on Saturday, the 2012 Tour will get its fifth different wearer of the yellow jersey. The record at a single Tour is eight, which happened in both 1958 and 1987. The 15.3-kilometre long climb to Pailheres, topping out at an altitude of 2,001 metres is tougher than the shorter ascent to Axe. But that last climb might be more decisive because it comes at the very end of the stage, meaning it could turn into an uphill sprint finish. "Well know who has already lost the Tour and the contenders for victory," said Alain Gallopin, a director on the RadioShack-Leopard team. "Therell be no more secrets, no bluff." RadioShack-Leopards main contender for overall victory, 2010 winner Andy Schleck, on Friday lamented the teams decision to cut ties with his brother Frank -- the third-place finisher in 2011 who is absent from this Tour because he is completing a one-year ban for testing positive for a diuretic at last years race. "Im sad and disappointed, and if I tell you what I honestly think they might use it against me and fire me as well," Andy Schleck said. The three-week Tour has now lost 10 of its original 198 starters, with another three dropping out Friday. They included veteran American rider Christian Vande Velde. Riding with back pain and a blood clot in a neck muscle from a crash on Wednesdays Stage 5, the 37-year-old tumbled again, on a bridge. "I was on top and underneath a lot of people," he said. "I wont be back next year. This was my last Grand Tour. Its not a great way to go." The Garmin-Sharp rider last year testified to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that he took banned performance-enhancers when he rode with Lance Armstrong on the U.S. Postal Service team. This Tour is the first since Armstrong was last year stripped of his seven Tour titles from 1999-2005 for serial doping. ' ' '