More than 200 California high school students walked out of class to protest a football captain’s social media post, leaving school officials facing questions about accountability as the team forfeits its next game.
The Friday demonstration at Piner Junior Senior High School in Santa Rosa followed an Instagram post earlier this month in which the team captain wrote “Free the Cornell 7,” a phrase associated with seven students accused of gang raping a Cornell University student at a fraternity party in 2024.
Students staged the walkout because they believed the captain had escaped consequences, The Press Democrat reported.
An anonymous parent of a Piner cheerleader told the newspaper that the captain was barred from attending a team dinner Thursday but said they did not know whether he faced any other disciplinary action. The school’s full response remains unclear.
The controversy comes as Piner’s football program faces a separate setback: the Prospectors forfeited their scheduled Saturday matchup against Archie Williams High School in San Anselmo.
Head coach Adam Rosenstein told The Press Democrat that the team had only five healthy linemen available. The forfeit was confirmed Friday evening.
The loss leaves Piner with a 2-4 overall record and an 0-2 mark in conference play, according to MaxPreps.
The walkout unfolded amid demonstrations in Los Angeles, Seattle and Philadelphia over the Cornell case, with protesters alleging the university botched its investigation into the rape accusations.
At Piner, however, the immediate dispute concerns the captain’s post and whether the response to it was sufficient.
The available account does not establish whether school officials took further disciplinary action beyond excluding him from the team dinner, SFGATE reported.
