Former KSU Cheerleader Awarded $145K For Kneeling

Tommia Dean, a former Kennesaw State University cheerleader, took a knee at a football game during the national anthem in 2017 and is now being paid $145,000 via a lawsuit settlement two years later.

Dean filed the suit in 2018 after receiving backlash to her public protest that happened with four other cheerleaders. She listed KSU’s then-President Sam Olens, along with Scott Whitlock and Matt Griffin, who worked for the KSU athletics department at the time, as defendants.

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Now, the lawsuit has been nullified when documents, obtained by MDJ Online, show Dean settled with the Georgia Department of Administrative Services for $145,000.

The documents, which were signed by Dean and a representative from the state department, revealed the agreement the two sides settled on.

“A compromise has been reached,” the agreement states. “The intent of this agreement is to buy peace of mind from future controversy and forestall further attorney’s fees, costs, or other expenses of litigation, and further that this agreement represents the compromise, economic resolution of disputed claims and, as such, shall not be deemed in any manner an admission, finding, conclusion, evidence or indication for any purposes whatsoever, that the KSU defendants acted contrary to the law or otherwise violated the rights of Dean.”