Boobirds can sing at Alabama vs. LSU

There’ll be no punishment for students who might protest Trump on Saturday

Alabama will not punish students who boo President Donald Trump at Saturday’s game against LSU at BryantDenny Stadium.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, the university’s Student Government Association said an earlier message that threatened to revoke seating at future games for “organizations that engage in disruptive behavior” had been taken out of context.

“The SGA strongly affirms its belief in free speech and the rights of all students to express their opinions,” the statement said. “Today’s report erroneously assigned a political context to a message meant only to remind students about heightened security and the consequences of altercations or other behaviors unbecoming of a University of Alabama student.”

Trump is expected to attend the game, which matches No. 2 LSU against top- ranked Alabama.

It will be the third weekend in a row Trump has attended a sporting event.

He was booed during Game 5 of the World Series featuring the Astros at the Nationals in Washington and heard a mix of boos and cheers at a UFC fight last weekend in New York.

The visit to Alabama was thought to be an ideal scenario for Trump, who is widely popular in the state. But when AL. com published a story about the message from the SGA’s vice president of student affairs, a student, it prompted outrage that Alabama would seek to silence students.

The message warned student organizations, which are assigned specific blocks of seats, that there would be heightened security for the game and asked that their members be in the stadium “no later than 12: 30 p. m.” The game begins at 2: 30 p. m. CT.

The message then went on to say “additional security will also be in the student section.”

“Any organizations that engage in disruptive behavior during the game will be removed from block seating instantly for the remainder of the season.”

While that was taken to mean protests directed at Trump, it referred to fights or arguments between student groups, an official with the SGA told USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly.

There are about 50 student organizations, mostly fraternities and sororities, that have seats in the block area.

SUSAN WALSH/ AP

JOE ROBBINS/ GETTY IMAGES Alabama students attending Saturday’s game versus LSU will not be punished if they protest against President Donald Trump, who plans to be at Bryant- Denny Stadium.