Posted on 05/06/2011 9:07:43 AM PDT by Allinone69z
A teenage girl who was dropped from her high school's cheerleading squad after refusing to chant the name of a basketball player who had sexually assaulted her must pay compensation of $45,000 (£27,300) after losing a legal challenge against the decision.
The United States Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a review of the case brought by the woman, who is known only as HS. Lower courts had ruled that she was speaking for the school, rather than for herself, when serving on a cheerleading squad – meaning that she had no right to stay silent when coaches told her to applaud.
She was 16 when she said she had been raped at a house party attended by dozens of fellow students from Silsbee High School, in south-east Texas. One of her alleged assailants, a student athlete called Rakheem Bolton, was arrested, with two other young men.
In court, Bolton pleaded guilty to the misdemeanour assault of HS. He received two years of probation, community service, a fine and was required to take anger-management classes. The charge of rape was dropped, leaving him free to return to school and take up his place on the basketball team.
Four months later, in January 2009, HS travelled to one of Silsbee High School's basketball games in Huntsville. She joined in with the business of leading cheers throughout the match. But when Bolton was about to take a free throw, the girl decided to stand silently with her arms folded.
"I didn't want to have to say his name and I didn't want to cheer for him," she later told reporters. "I just didn't want to encourage anything he was doing."
Richard Bain, the school superintendent in the sport-obsessed small town, saw things differently. He told HS to leave the gymnasium. Outside, he told her she was required to cheer for Bolton. When the girl said she was unwilling to endorse a man who had sexually assaulted her, she was expelled from the cheerleading squad.
The subsequent legal challenge against Mr Bain's decision perhaps highlights the seriousness with which Texans take cheerleading and high school sports, which can attract crowds in the tens of thousands.
HS and her parents instructed lawyers to pursue a compensation claim against the principal and the School District in early 2009. Their lawsuit argued that HS's right to exercise free expression had been violated when she was instructed to applaud her attacker. But two separate courts ruled against her, deciding that a cheerleader freely agrees to act as a "mouthpiece" for a institution and therefore surrenders her constitutional right to free speech. In September last year, a federal appeals court upheld those decisions and announced that HS must also reimburse the school sistrict $45,000, for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit against it.
"As a cheerleader, HS served as a mouthpiece through which [the school district] could disseminate speech – namely, support for its athletic teams," the appeals court decision says. "This act constituted substantial interference with the work of the school because, as a cheerleader, HS was at the basketball game for the purpose of cheering, a position she undertook voluntarily."
The family's lawyer said the ruling meanst that students exercising their right of free speech can end up punished for refusing to follow "insensitive and unreasonable directions".
I don’t know the race of the cheerleader, but it is pretty certain Rakheem is black, and you know that black jocks are a “special” breed.
The SOB should have never been allowed back on the team, but Sports in High School are more important than rape.
Did you read the full article? She was a mouthpiece for the school team.
>>No, the kid should no longer be playing basketball for that team.<<
That’s up to the people in his city to decide.
>>Could she and her family have agreed to stop paying taxes to support the alleged rapist and the cheerleading team? Could she continue to maintain the friendship and camaraderie she’d invested in the other members of the cheerleading team (likely not a small investment)?<<
She continued on the cheerleading team. That was her choice. The boy served his adjudicated sentence, so legally he’s OK. Her only option was to quit the team, the friendship and camaraderie with the other members of the cheerleading team would still be there.
Forcing her to cheer for someone she believes raped her is abhorrent, I agree but exactly what did the guy do to her? I don’t feel like going into all the details of sexual intercourse this morning but there’s other acts that are charged as rape these days. Was it one of these? I think so or else he’d still be in prison.
Maybe it is up to the people of his city. But it is a very sad commentary that the school sides with someone who plead out a rape charge instead of his victim. She has now been doubly victimized, while he may wind up with a scholarship. If that is justice by local standards, remind me not to move to that city.
Apparently winning basketball games is more important than the rape of a young woman.
“Justice” in that town is a sad sick joke - and apparently the people of the town WANT IT THAT WAY.
Sick sick sick.
This rapist should have castrated then shot.
Sickening
I thought this was preposterous until I read the money quote, one line from the end of the article:
“In September last year, a federal appeals court upheld those decisions and announced that HS must also reimburse the school sistrict $45,000, for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit against it”
My brain can compartmentalize this issue into separate elements. The rape is not even the issue here. It is irrelevant. Her actions at the game are irrelevant. The issue is bain’s action and the frivolous lawsuit. I’d like to see a lot more of this.
So. I recall cheerleaders at out school and it was not uncommon to see one or two doing other things while cheers were going on. Getting pom poms out of the way or adjusting their outfits.
I wish she had just done stuff like that, or pretend coughing, sneezing... anything to avoid cheering for the person that admitted to assaulting her!
Why? So women will stop coming forward again?
I'm with you. Even if they had won in court, a lawyer would not have solved the problem. A fathers job is to solve the problem, and it's not hard to find the right solution.
>>Why? So women will stop coming forward again?<<
Read the whole story. This is not at all about the rape. That is a side story. This is about her frivolous lawsuit.
Raped again. First at the party, then by the school, then by the courts.
Parents should learn from this travesty to keep their daughters out of cheer-leading squads, mixed parties, and public schools if possible.
Does anyone consider it a double standard that we know the accused student’s name and see his picture, but his accuser’s identity is not revealed?
You’ve got to be kidding me.
The U.S. Supreme Court can’t be bothered with determining whether ObamaCare is legal but they do have time for this?
So a girl folds her arms and refuses to cheer and it gets all the way to the Supreme Court??? Ridiculous. We are toast as a country.
You have to wonder how cut and dried the sexual assault was. They were not able to get a conviction for it, and I wonder how close of a relationship this girl had with her cheerleading teammates - if it had been an acquaintance of mine, I would not hesitate to exercise my 1st amendment rights outside of the arena.
I would be tempted to smuggle in cheer cards saying RAPIST and have the cheerleading team hold them up when this individual took the court. That would have been interesting.
People are having a hard time focusing on what this story is about. The back story is the rape. Another back story is her refusing to applaud the player that attacked her.
The story is this: A person in a particular role refused to participate in her role because of a conscientious objection. The school removed her from the role because she would not carry it out. Now, she may have had a good reason for not carrying it out, but the mere fact that she didn’t carry it out gave them reason to remove her from that particular role.
So far so good?
Here is where it went south: She instigated a frivolous lawsuit for them removing her from the squad. She lost and the lawsuit was deemed frivolous, therefore she is liable for their court costs.
And the lawsuit WAS frivolous.
American society encourages brutal and lawless atheletes by winking at criminal behaviors.Nothing matters but that "our" team win!And the players on "your" team don't give a s--- about any of the fans.
Hasn't really changed from the days of the Roman circuses and gladiators.
I thought the victim’s identity was normally witheld. Also, she was juvenile (16) at the time of the attack. I’m guessing the perp was 18. Also, there were two other assailants with Rakheem whose identity I don’t think was released, but they all three jumped out of the bedroom window when others tried to force their way into the bedroom.
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