The ex-Texas high school cheerleader, dismissed from the cheerleader squad for refusing to cheer for the basketball player who she said raped her, lost her bid for a U.S. Supreme Court hearing.
A federal appeals court had ruled she was rooting for the school, not for herself, so could not remain silent while on the job. The federal courts have also ordered the cheerleader’s family to pay the school district’s legal fees of $45,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit. -db
From the San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 2011, by Bob Egelko.
One Comment
> She identified the assailant as Rakheem Bolton, a star on the
> Silsbee High School football team.
> Bolton ultimately pleaded guilty in September 2010 to a
> misdemeanor assault charge and received a suspended sentence.
Why was this rapist allowed on any school teams, after he plead guilty to this pretty horrible crime? Doesn’t the school have an obligation to protect the safety of all of the students? This poor girl most certainly has unresolved emotions every time she thinks of his attack, and to be told that she how has to “cheer” for him at a ball game makes one wonder what kind of people the school administration are. If it was an “alleged” rape, that might be one thing, since rape allegations are often false. But since a guilty plea amde by the young man, then the girl’s claims must be substantially true.
Kicking her off the team was certainly a harsh thing to do. So, there must be more to this story that is being reported.
The case does open the doors to discussion about the power of schools, in relationship to student rights, however. Students on a cheering squad are not employees of the school. This is a voluntary activity. They are, at the bottom line, just students–mandated by law to attend a public school. If the school could remove the student from the cheering squad, could the punishment have been greater–including suspension? Where are the powers associated with punishment for refusing the “orders of the state” actually detailed?
Pushing this a bit, suppose a school decided to fly a Mexican flag, along side the American flag, and to allow the students of Mexican origin the opportunity to say the Mexican “pledge of allegiance”, instead of the American “pledge”. If US students were to be offended, and to refuse to stand during the Mexican “pledge”–could they be punished for expressing their opinions/beliefs that this was wrong in a US public school?
The public schools have a lot of power over our kids when they are on the school grounds, and sometimes when they are off the grounds too. It would be a healthy exercise to reexamine those rights every decade, or so.
Comments are closed.