Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Problem:SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A high school basketball tournament on the Northern California coast has become the latest flashpoint in the ongoing protests over police killings of unarmed black men after a school was disinvited because of concerns its players would wear T-shirts printed with the words "I Can't Breathe" during warmups. 
  
 This photo provided by the Fort Bragg Advocate-News shows Mendocino High School girls basketball wearing the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a recent game. A high school basketball tournament on the... (Associated Press) 
  
 The athletic director at Fort Bragg High School informed his counterpart at Mendocino High School this week that neither the boys nor girls team would be allowed to participate in the three-day tournament hosted by Fort Bragg High starting Monday, Mendocino Unified School District Superintendent Jason Morse said. 
  
 The boys were reinstated after all but one player agreed not to wear the shirts inspired by the last words of Eric Garner, the New York man who died after an officer put him in a chokehold, while on the Fort Bragg campus during the Vern Piver Holiday Classic tournament, Morse said. Too few girl players accepted the condition for the team to field a tournament squad, he said. 
  
 Mendocino varsity teams first wore the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a game with Fort Bragg on Dec. 16, according to the girls coach, Caedyn Feehan. The girls also wore them before games at two other tournaments and didn't receive any blowback, Feehan said. 
  
 "I didn't even know what it meant. I thought it was a joke about how I had conditioned them so hard," Feehan said. "None of the administrators knew what it was or that any of them were doing it in advance. This was entirely for their cause that they had strong feelings about." 
  
 Professional basketball players such as LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving wore "I Can't Breathe" shirts during warmups this month without repercussions from the NBA. After Kobe Bryant and other Los Angeles Lakers players wore them before a game and on the bench on Dec. 9, coach Byron Scott said he viewed it as a matter of "freedom of choice and freedom of speech." 
  
 That's how Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son Connor plans to sit out the tournament, sees it. Connor wore the T-shirt at the Dec. 16 game in the name of team solidarity, but the shirt has now taken a constitutional angle, the father said. 
  
 Marc Woods said he brought the issue to the American Civil Liberties Union, and hopes to hear back after the holidays. He referred to a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Tinker v. Des Moines, which found high school students wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War were protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. 
  
 "This is completely a First Amendment issue," Marc Woods said. "That's why I'm offended." 
  
 Bruce Triplett, the athletic director at Fort Bragg High, did not return a call and email seeking comment. Principal Rebecca Walker issued a written statement Friday saying school administrators respected the Mendocino teams "for paying attention to what is going on in the world around them" and that the T-shirts were being prohibited as a security precaution. 
  
 "To protect the safety and well-being of all tournament participants it is necessary to ensure that all political statements and or protests are kept away from this tournament," wrote Walker, who said she was speaking on behalf of the athletic director and the Fort Bragg school superintendent. "We are a small school district that simply does not have the resources to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, students and guests at the tournament should someone get upset and choose to act out." 
  
 Marc Woods, whose father was a California Highway Patrol officer, said he is outraged by what he sees as using intimidation to silence players and fans. Fort Bragg administrators have warned spectators who plan to protest the T-shirt ban that they will be asked to leave, he said. 
  
 "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it," Marc Woods said. 
  
 Both schools are located in Mendocino County, known for redwood forests, rugged coastline and marijuana-growing, located 120 miles north of San Francisco. The student bodies at the two schools are 1 percent black and 50 percent white and 41 percent Hispanic at Fort Bragg, 75 percent white and 9 percent Hispanic at Mendocino. 
  
 __ 
  
 Associated Press Fresno Correspondent Scott Smith contributed to this report. ||||| This photo provided by the Fort Bragg Advocate-News shows Mendocino High School girls basketball wearing the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a recent game. (Photo: AP Photo/Fort Bragg Advocate-News, Chris Calder) 
  
 The members of a California high school basketball team barred from participating in a tournament because they continued to wear "I can't breathe" T-shirts, plan a rally Monday, according to a local newspaper. 
  
 Members of the Mendocino High School girls basketball team will meet outside the Fort Bragg High School for what a poster said would be a peaceful exercise of free speech rights and to raise awareness of racism and police brutality, said the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 
  
 The coastal communities to the north of San Francisco were thrust into the national spotlight this weekend after the athletic director at Fort Bragg High School said that neither boys nor girls teams from Mendocino would be allowed to participate in the three-day tournament hosted by Fort Bragg out of concerns the players would wear T-shirts printed with the words "I can't breathe." 
  
 The phrase, uttered by Eric Garner as police wrestled the unarmed, black man to the ground in Staten Island, N.Y., leading to his death, has become one of the most prominent slogans among protesters who argue that Garner's death and others are caused by entrenched police racism. 
  
 The Mendocino High School boys team was reinstated after all but one player agreed not to wear the T-shirts, which the high-school athletes had worn during warm-ups. Too few girls agreed. 
  
 Brian Triplett, the athletic director at Fort Bragg High, did not return a call and e-mail to the Associated Press seeking comment. Fort Bragg High Principal Rebecca Walker issued a written statement Friday saying school administrators respected the Mendocino teams "for paying attention to what is going on in the world around them" and that the T-shirts were being prohibited as a security precaution. 
  
 "To protect the safety and well-being of all tournament participants it is necessary to ensure that all political statements and or protests are kept away from this tournament," wrote Walker, who said she was speaking on behalf of the athletic director and the Fort Bragg school superintendent. "We are a small school district that simply does not have the resources to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, students and guests at the tournament should someone get upset and choose to act out." 
  
 Professional basketball players such as LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving wore "I Can't Breathe" shirts during warm-ups this month without repercussions from the NBA. After Kobe Bryant and other Laker player wore them before a game and on the bench on Dec. 9, coach Byron Scott said he viewed it as a matter of "freedom of choice and freedom of speech." 
  
 That's how Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son Connor plans to sit out the tournament, sees it. Connor wore the T-shirt at the Dec. 16 game in the name of team solidarity, but "now that's become a First Amendment violation, that's what he is fired up about," the father said. 
  
 Woods, whose father was a California Highway Patrol officer, said he is outraged by what he sees as using intimidation to silence players and fans. Fort Bragg administrators have warned spectators who plan to protest the T-shirt ban that they will be asked to leave, he said. 
  
 "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it," Woods said. 
  
 Both schools are located in Mendocino County, known for redwood forests, rugged coastline and marijuana-growing, located 120 miles north of San Francisco. The student bodies at the two schools are 1% black, 50% white and 41% Hispanic at Fort Bragg; 75% white and 9% Hispanic at Mendocino. 
  
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1AYF3rS ||||| The high school basketball team barred from a Fort Bragg tournament after wearing T-shirts protesting the death of Eric Garner are planning a rally to protest the decision Monday morning. 
  
 Members of the Mendocino High School girls basketball team, whose invitation to the tournament was withdrawn because they refused to stop wearing T-shirts reading “I Can’t Breathe” during warm-ups, will meet outside Fort Bragg High School at 10:15 a.m. 
  
 The Mendocino boys team is playing in the tournament. 
  
 A press release announcing the rally characterized it as a peaceful exercise of free speech rights and to raise awareness about racism and police brutality. 
  
 The controversy has thrust the coastal communities into the national conversation over the deaths of black men at the hands of law enforcement. Garner is the New York man who died after a police officer put him in a choke-hold. 
  
 Fort Bragg High School Principal Rebbecca Walker said the decision to rescind the invitation was made for safety reasons. Players who could not set aside their “personal beliefs about a situation that occurred on the other side of our country” would not be allowed to participate, she said. 
  
 You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat. |||||
Solution:
The boys' and girls' basketball teams in Mendocino, Calif., caused a stir earlier this month when they wore black warmup shirts emblazoned with "I Can't Breathe," a move that quickly got both teams uninvited from a tourney in nearby Fort Bragg. The boys' team got reinstated after all but one member agreed to leave the shirts protesting the death of Eric Garner home, reports the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, but the girls' team is taking their protest to the steps of Fort Bragg High School, where they're holding a rally today. They're characterizing it as a free-speech exercise meant to highlight racism and police brutality, notes the Press Democrat. Fort Bragg's principal had earlier said in a statement that her school couldn't ensure public safety if players couldn't set aside their "personal beliefs about a situation that occurred on the other side of our country." Which makes it a bigger issue, Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son is the lone holdout on the boys' team, tells the AP. "Now that's become a First Amendment violation, that's what he is fired up about," Woods says. "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it." Concurs the girls' coach, Caedyn Feehan, "This was entirely for their cause that they had strong feelings about. ... I didn't even know what it meant. I thought it was a joke about how I had conditioned them so hard."
Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Problem:SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A high school basketball tournament on the Northern California coast has become the latest flashpoint in the ongoing protests over police killings of unarmed black men after a school was disinvited because of concerns its players would wear T-shirts printed with the words "I Can't Breathe" during warmups. 
  
 This photo provided by the Fort Bragg Advocate-News shows Mendocino High School girls basketball wearing the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a recent game. A high school basketball tournament on the... (Associated Press) 
  
 The athletic director at Fort Bragg High School informed his counterpart at Mendocino High School this week that neither the boys nor girls team would be allowed to participate in the three-day tournament hosted by Fort Bragg High starting Monday, Mendocino Unified School District Superintendent Jason Morse said. 
  
 The boys were reinstated after all but one player agreed not to wear the shirts inspired by the last words of Eric Garner, the New York man who died after an officer put him in a chokehold, while on the Fort Bragg campus during the Vern Piver Holiday Classic tournament, Morse said. Too few girl players accepted the condition for the team to field a tournament squad, he said. 
  
 Mendocino varsity teams first wore the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a game with Fort Bragg on Dec. 16, according to the girls coach, Caedyn Feehan. The girls also wore them before games at two other tournaments and didn't receive any blowback, Feehan said. 
  
 "I didn't even know what it meant. I thought it was a joke about how I had conditioned them so hard," Feehan said. "None of the administrators knew what it was or that any of them were doing it in advance. This was entirely for their cause that they had strong feelings about." 
  
 Professional basketball players such as LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving wore "I Can't Breathe" shirts during warmups this month without repercussions from the NBA. After Kobe Bryant and other Los Angeles Lakers players wore them before a game and on the bench on Dec. 9, coach Byron Scott said he viewed it as a matter of "freedom of choice and freedom of speech." 
  
 That's how Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son Connor plans to sit out the tournament, sees it. Connor wore the T-shirt at the Dec. 16 game in the name of team solidarity, but the shirt has now taken a constitutional angle, the father said. 
  
 Marc Woods said he brought the issue to the American Civil Liberties Union, and hopes to hear back after the holidays. He referred to a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Tinker v. Des Moines, which found high school students wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War were protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. 
  
 "This is completely a First Amendment issue," Marc Woods said. "That's why I'm offended." 
  
 Bruce Triplett, the athletic director at Fort Bragg High, did not return a call and email seeking comment. Principal Rebecca Walker issued a written statement Friday saying school administrators respected the Mendocino teams "for paying attention to what is going on in the world around them" and that the T-shirts were being prohibited as a security precaution. 
  
 "To protect the safety and well-being of all tournament participants it is necessary to ensure that all political statements and or protests are kept away from this tournament," wrote Walker, who said she was speaking on behalf of the athletic director and the Fort Bragg school superintendent. "We are a small school district that simply does not have the resources to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, students and guests at the tournament should someone get upset and choose to act out." 
  
 Marc Woods, whose father was a California Highway Patrol officer, said he is outraged by what he sees as using intimidation to silence players and fans. Fort Bragg administrators have warned spectators who plan to protest the T-shirt ban that they will be asked to leave, he said. 
  
 "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it," Marc Woods said. 
  
 Both schools are located in Mendocino County, known for redwood forests, rugged coastline and marijuana-growing, located 120 miles north of San Francisco. The student bodies at the two schools are 1 percent black and 50 percent white and 41 percent Hispanic at Fort Bragg, 75 percent white and 9 percent Hispanic at Mendocino. 
  
 __ 
  
 Associated Press Fresno Correspondent Scott Smith contributed to this report. ||||| This photo provided by the Fort Bragg Advocate-News shows Mendocino High School girls basketball wearing the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a recent game. (Photo: AP Photo/Fort Bragg Advocate-News, Chris Calder) 
  
 The members of a California high school basketball team barred from participating in a tournament because they continued to wear "I can't breathe" T-shirts, plan a rally Monday, according to a local newspaper. 
  
 Members of the Mendocino High School girls basketball team will meet outside the Fort Bragg High School for what a poster said would be a peaceful exercise of free speech rights and to raise awareness of racism and police brutality, said the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 
  
 The coastal communities to the north of San Francisco were thrust into the national spotlight this weekend after the athletic director at Fort Bragg High School said that neither boys nor girls teams from Mendocino would be allowed to participate in the three-day tournament hosted by Fort Bragg out of concerns the players would wear T-shirts printed with the words "I can't breathe." 
  
 The phrase, uttered by Eric Garner as police wrestled the unarmed, black man to the ground in Staten Island, N.Y., leading to his death, has become one of the most prominent slogans among protesters who argue that Garner's death and others are caused by entrenched police racism. 
  
 The Mendocino High School boys team was reinstated after all but one player agreed not to wear the T-shirts, which the high-school athletes had worn during warm-ups. Too few girls agreed. 
  
 Brian Triplett, the athletic director at Fort Bragg High, did not return a call and e-mail to the Associated Press seeking comment. Fort Bragg High Principal Rebecca Walker issued a written statement Friday saying school administrators respected the Mendocino teams "for paying attention to what is going on in the world around them" and that the T-shirts were being prohibited as a security precaution. 
  
 "To protect the safety and well-being of all tournament participants it is necessary to ensure that all political statements and or protests are kept away from this tournament," wrote Walker, who said she was speaking on behalf of the athletic director and the Fort Bragg school superintendent. "We are a small school district that simply does not have the resources to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, students and guests at the tournament should someone get upset and choose to act out." 
  
 Professional basketball players such as LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving wore "I Can't Breathe" shirts during warm-ups this month without repercussions from the NBA. After Kobe Bryant and other Laker player wore them before a game and on the bench on Dec. 9, coach Byron Scott said he viewed it as a matter of "freedom of choice and freedom of speech." 
  
 That's how Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son Connor plans to sit out the tournament, sees it. Connor wore the T-shirt at the Dec. 16 game in the name of team solidarity, but "now that's become a First Amendment violation, that's what he is fired up about," the father said. 
  
 Woods, whose father was a California Highway Patrol officer, said he is outraged by what he sees as using intimidation to silence players and fans. Fort Bragg administrators have warned spectators who plan to protest the T-shirt ban that they will be asked to leave, he said. 
  
 "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it," Woods said. 
  
 Both schools are located in Mendocino County, known for redwood forests, rugged coastline and marijuana-growing, located 120 miles north of San Francisco. The student bodies at the two schools are 1% black, 50% white and 41% Hispanic at Fort Bragg; 75% white and 9% Hispanic at Mendocino. 
  
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1AYF3rS ||||| The high school basketball team barred from a Fort Bragg tournament after wearing T-shirts protesting the death of Eric Garner are planning a rally to protest the decision Monday morning. 
  
 Members of the Mendocino High School girls basketball team, whose invitation to the tournament was withdrawn because they refused to stop wearing T-shirts reading “I Can’t Breathe” during warm-ups, will meet outside Fort Bragg High School at 10:15 a.m. 
  
 The Mendocino boys team is playing in the tournament. 
  
 A press release announcing the rally characterized it as a peaceful exercise of free speech rights and to raise awareness about racism and police brutality. 
  
 The controversy has thrust the coastal communities into the national conversation over the deaths of black men at the hands of law enforcement. Garner is the New York man who died after a police officer put him in a choke-hold. 
  
 Fort Bragg High School Principal Rebbecca Walker said the decision to rescind the invitation was made for safety reasons. Players who could not set aside their “personal beliefs about a situation that occurred on the other side of our country” would not be allowed to participate, she said. 
  
 You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat. |||||
Solution:
user
The boys' and girls' basketball teams in Mendocino, Calif., caused a stir earlier this month when they wore black warmup shirts emblazoned with "I Can't Breathe," a move that quickly got both teams uninvited from a tourney in nearby Fort Bragg. The boys' team got reinstated after all but one member agreed to leave the shirts protesting the death of Eric Garner home, reports the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, but the girls' team is taking their protest to the steps of Fort Bragg High School, where they're holding a rally today. They're characterizing it as a free-speech exercise meant to highlight racism and police brutality, notes the Press Democrat. Fort Bragg's principal had earlier said in a statement that her school couldn't ensure public safety if players couldn't set aside their "personal beliefs about a situation that occurred on the other side of our country." Which makes it a bigger issue, Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son is the lone holdout on the boys' team, tells the AP. "Now that's become a First Amendment violation, that's what he is fired up about," Woods says. "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it." Concurs the girls' coach, Caedyn Feehan, "This was entirely for their cause that they had strong feelings about. ... I didn't even know what it meant. I thought it was a joke about how I had conditioned them so hard."
assistant
Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Problem:SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A high school basketball tournament on the Northern California coast has become the latest flashpoint in the ongoing protests over police killings of unarmed black men after a school was disinvited because of concerns its players would wear T-shirts printed with the words "I Can't Breathe" during warmups. 
  
 This photo provided by the Fort Bragg Advocate-News shows Mendocino High School girls basketball wearing the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a recent game. A high school basketball tournament on the... (Associated Press) 
  
 The athletic director at Fort Bragg High School informed his counterpart at Mendocino High School this week that neither the boys nor girls team would be allowed to participate in the three-day tournament hosted by Fort Bragg High starting Monday, Mendocino Unified School District Superintendent Jason Morse said. 
  
 The boys were reinstated after all but one player agreed not to wear the shirts inspired by the last words of Eric Garner, the New York man who died after an officer put him in a chokehold, while on the Fort Bragg campus during the Vern Piver Holiday Classic tournament, Morse said. Too few girl players accepted the condition for the team to field a tournament squad, he said. 
  
 Mendocino varsity teams first wore the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a game with Fort Bragg on Dec. 16, according to the girls coach, Caedyn Feehan. The girls also wore them before games at two other tournaments and didn't receive any blowback, Feehan said. 
  
 "I didn't even know what it meant. I thought it was a joke about how I had conditioned them so hard," Feehan said. "None of the administrators knew what it was or that any of them were doing it in advance. This was entirely for their cause that they had strong feelings about." 
  
 Professional basketball players such as LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving wore "I Can't Breathe" shirts during warmups this month without repercussions from the NBA. After Kobe Bryant and other Los Angeles Lakers players wore them before a game and on the bench on Dec. 9, coach Byron Scott said he viewed it as a matter of "freedom of choice and freedom of speech." 
  
 That's how Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son Connor plans to sit out the tournament, sees it. Connor wore the T-shirt at the Dec. 16 game in the name of team solidarity, but the shirt has now taken a constitutional angle, the father said. 
  
 Marc Woods said he brought the issue to the American Civil Liberties Union, and hopes to hear back after the holidays. He referred to a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Tinker v. Des Moines, which found high school students wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War were protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. 
  
 "This is completely a First Amendment issue," Marc Woods said. "That's why I'm offended." 
  
 Bruce Triplett, the athletic director at Fort Bragg High, did not return a call and email seeking comment. Principal Rebecca Walker issued a written statement Friday saying school administrators respected the Mendocino teams "for paying attention to what is going on in the world around them" and that the T-shirts were being prohibited as a security precaution. 
  
 "To protect the safety and well-being of all tournament participants it is necessary to ensure that all political statements and or protests are kept away from this tournament," wrote Walker, who said she was speaking on behalf of the athletic director and the Fort Bragg school superintendent. "We are a small school district that simply does not have the resources to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, students and guests at the tournament should someone get upset and choose to act out." 
  
 Marc Woods, whose father was a California Highway Patrol officer, said he is outraged by what he sees as using intimidation to silence players and fans. Fort Bragg administrators have warned spectators who plan to protest the T-shirt ban that they will be asked to leave, he said. 
  
 "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it," Marc Woods said. 
  
 Both schools are located in Mendocino County, known for redwood forests, rugged coastline and marijuana-growing, located 120 miles north of San Francisco. The student bodies at the two schools are 1 percent black and 50 percent white and 41 percent Hispanic at Fort Bragg, 75 percent white and 9 percent Hispanic at Mendocino. 
  
 __ 
  
 Associated Press Fresno Correspondent Scott Smith contributed to this report. ||||| This photo provided by the Fort Bragg Advocate-News shows Mendocino High School girls basketball wearing the "I Can't Breathe" T-shirts before a recent game. (Photo: AP Photo/Fort Bragg Advocate-News, Chris Calder) 
  
 The members of a California high school basketball team barred from participating in a tournament because they continued to wear "I can't breathe" T-shirts, plan a rally Monday, according to a local newspaper. 
  
 Members of the Mendocino High School girls basketball team will meet outside the Fort Bragg High School for what a poster said would be a peaceful exercise of free speech rights and to raise awareness of racism and police brutality, said the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 
  
 The coastal communities to the north of San Francisco were thrust into the national spotlight this weekend after the athletic director at Fort Bragg High School said that neither boys nor girls teams from Mendocino would be allowed to participate in the three-day tournament hosted by Fort Bragg out of concerns the players would wear T-shirts printed with the words "I can't breathe." 
  
 The phrase, uttered by Eric Garner as police wrestled the unarmed, black man to the ground in Staten Island, N.Y., leading to his death, has become one of the most prominent slogans among protesters who argue that Garner's death and others are caused by entrenched police racism. 
  
 The Mendocino High School boys team was reinstated after all but one player agreed not to wear the T-shirts, which the high-school athletes had worn during warm-ups. Too few girls agreed. 
  
 Brian Triplett, the athletic director at Fort Bragg High, did not return a call and e-mail to the Associated Press seeking comment. Fort Bragg High Principal Rebecca Walker issued a written statement Friday saying school administrators respected the Mendocino teams "for paying attention to what is going on in the world around them" and that the T-shirts were being prohibited as a security precaution. 
  
 "To protect the safety and well-being of all tournament participants it is necessary to ensure that all political statements and or protests are kept away from this tournament," wrote Walker, who said she was speaking on behalf of the athletic director and the Fort Bragg school superintendent. "We are a small school district that simply does not have the resources to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, students and guests at the tournament should someone get upset and choose to act out." 
  
 Professional basketball players such as LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving wore "I Can't Breathe" shirts during warm-ups this month without repercussions from the NBA. After Kobe Bryant and other Laker player wore them before a game and on the bench on Dec. 9, coach Byron Scott said he viewed it as a matter of "freedom of choice and freedom of speech." 
  
 That's how Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son Connor plans to sit out the tournament, sees it. Connor wore the T-shirt at the Dec. 16 game in the name of team solidarity, but "now that's become a First Amendment violation, that's what he is fired up about," the father said. 
  
 Woods, whose father was a California Highway Patrol officer, said he is outraged by what he sees as using intimidation to silence players and fans. Fort Bragg administrators have warned spectators who plan to protest the T-shirt ban that they will be asked to leave, he said. 
  
 "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it," Woods said. 
  
 Both schools are located in Mendocino County, known for redwood forests, rugged coastline and marijuana-growing, located 120 miles north of San Francisco. The student bodies at the two schools are 1% black, 50% white and 41% Hispanic at Fort Bragg; 75% white and 9% Hispanic at Mendocino. 
  
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1AYF3rS ||||| The high school basketball team barred from a Fort Bragg tournament after wearing T-shirts protesting the death of Eric Garner are planning a rally to protest the decision Monday morning. 
  
 Members of the Mendocino High School girls basketball team, whose invitation to the tournament was withdrawn because they refused to stop wearing T-shirts reading “I Can’t Breathe” during warm-ups, will meet outside Fort Bragg High School at 10:15 a.m. 
  
 The Mendocino boys team is playing in the tournament. 
  
 A press release announcing the rally characterized it as a peaceful exercise of free speech rights and to raise awareness about racism and police brutality. 
  
 The controversy has thrust the coastal communities into the national conversation over the deaths of black men at the hands of law enforcement. Garner is the New York man who died after a police officer put him in a choke-hold. 
  
 Fort Bragg High School Principal Rebbecca Walker said the decision to rescind the invitation was made for safety reasons. Players who could not set aside their “personal beliefs about a situation that occurred on the other side of our country” would not be allowed to participate, she said. 
  
 You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat. |||||
Solution:
The boys' and girls' basketball teams in Mendocino, Calif., caused a stir earlier this month when they wore black warmup shirts emblazoned with "I Can't Breathe," a move that quickly got both teams uninvited from a tourney in nearby Fort Bragg. The boys' team got reinstated after all but one member agreed to leave the shirts protesting the death of Eric Garner home, reports the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, but the girls' team is taking their protest to the steps of Fort Bragg High School, where they're holding a rally today. They're characterizing it as a free-speech exercise meant to highlight racism and police brutality, notes the Press Democrat. Fort Bragg's principal had earlier said in a statement that her school couldn't ensure public safety if players couldn't set aside their "personal beliefs about a situation that occurred on the other side of our country." Which makes it a bigger issue, Marc Woods, whose 16-year-old son is the lone holdout on the boys' team, tells the AP. "Now that's become a First Amendment violation, that's what he is fired up about," Woods says. "It doesn't take a lot to suppress the exchange of ideas when you put fear into it." Concurs the girls' coach, Caedyn Feehan, "This was entirely for their cause that they had strong feelings about. ... I didn't even know what it meant. I thought it was a joke about how I had conditioned them so hard."