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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".
>>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.<<
Yeah, me too. However, that has nothing to do with why she was ordered to pay the $45k. The rape is not even a part of this. It gives the public story a “hook” but it was not part of the court case. I’ve seen Judge Judy and Wapner a couple of times and it was comedic to see them listen to people bring up stuff that was completely irrelevant.
If I had been the judge in this case and the girl started saying, “but he raped me”, I would have said, “But it was your responsibility as a cheerleader to “cheer” if you cannot do that because you do not respect a team member, justly or unjustly, then you should not be on the squad. And you were justly removed for that very reason. Case dismissed. Oh, and this was frivolous in the first place so pay the other side’s attorney fees.”
It is stories like this that lead me to believe vigilantism is the only way to go, at times, because you cannot trust the justice system to give you justice.
If I were the father, I’d be tempted to level the school one night, once my daughter became 18.
Let’s see if the school can collect on that judgement.
A compelling argument indeed. As the parent of a girl who's on a squad I can tell you these girls represent the school, and the community. They are held to a higher standard and must sign agreements to conduct themselves appropriately.
But Rakheem Bolton should be held to the same standard. Why is this criminal on the team?
I’ve had an ongoing debate with one of my adult children over this case. There’s more to the story than this article covers. And a lot of detail not published anywhere.
Both the cheerleader and player should have been suspended from their respective teams well before the playoff game when she refused to cheer for Bolton individually. BOTH the cheerleader and players attended and got drunk at a party.
This case vs. the player was brought before a grand jury four times before they were able to get an indictment. That says the prosecutors didn’t have that solid a case.
That is probably because they were all drunk and she could not swear that what occurred was “rape rape” in the immortal words of Whoopi Goldberg. The cheerleader probably could not testify that what occurred, at the time, was with or without her permission. There was (apparently) no claim that the players had put anything in her drinks.
For all anyone knows, in her drunken stupor it was all OK on that drunken night, then the next day she cried ‘rape.’ The prosecutors eventually got the indictment because she was a minor. That is the danger one confronts in getting drunk.
“people think lawsuits are always the best recourse”
because it brings national attention
And you’re a mouthpiece for idiots. May someone in your family be treated like her.
Amen. The thought process that athletes (and not even a professional one in this case) should get continued protective treatment while his victim should be coerced into cheering for him is sickening.
I'm glad she got a judgment and only disappointed that it wasn't enough to bankrupt this corrupt gubmint school system
She is long past being the “accuser” and he the “accused” at this point.
He admitted his guilt - and they declined to punish him in any meaningful way.
I agree with you. I was stating an alternate course of action for the girl.
I am amazed at what sports obsessed people are willing to ignore to see their team win. I am not saying this is the case here - I don’t know enough about the sexual encounter.
I remember cheering really hard for Duke the year they won the National Title with Christian Laettner, and I did not want to see him suspended for stomping on another player. He should have been suspended, and I hope my feelings never cloud my judgement again.
is that a thoughtful solution? Let’s punish the victim, after all, she’s just a female.
If the boy assaulted her, he should have been in jail, I agree. However, being on the cheerleader squad is a voluntary activity, not a right. She was unfortunately placed in a position where she had to make a decision about what was more important to her - showing her feelings about the boy or being on the cheerleading squad. But it was her decision. Whether the boy should have still been on the basketball team is not relevant to the principle in this case, which is when you voluntarily agree to represent an organization, whether you are a cheerleader or the employee of a business, the organization has a right to dictate how you represent them. If you don’t like it, or feel you can’t represent them in that way, then you have the option to quit. Instead, she chose to sue over a “right” that didn’t exist - the “right” to stay on the cheerleading squad while determining for herself when and for whom she would cheer. The courts rightly determined that such a “right” does not exist, and that she cost the school district money on a frivolous lawsuit.
“May someone in your family be treated like her”.
Which are you advocating, rape or assault?
No one forced her to be a cheerleader, so no none was forcing her to cheer for this kid. She could have simply quit the cheer squad, and that would have solved her problem. The problem is she wanted to stay on the squad AND exercise her "right" to decide when to cheer and whom to cheer for. The courts decided that she had the right to quit if she wanted, but not the right to determine how she would perform if she chose to remain on the squad.
Or forced to study the wonderful contributions the LGBT have given society. ...problem is given her age, attending school at all could be considered voluntary.
She didn't give up her 1st Amendment rights. When not performing as a part of the cheerleadign squad, she was free to say anything she wanted to about the kid. But the school also had the right to remove her from the squad if her exercise of her 1st Amendment rights interfered with her performance on the squad or negatively impacted the school's image. Just as I could fire an employee for making comments on or off the job that reflected negatively on my business - he has the right to make the comments, and I have the right to not have him as an employee. Since the girl did not have the "right" to be a cheerleader - participation in extra-curricular activities is a privilege - she was not denied any of her constitutional rights by limiting the scope of her speech or activities during the time she was performing as a member of the squad.
Or empathy.
Suspending her from cheerleading was a insensitive act of cruelty. They should have understood that her action was born of the trauma of rape, not of revenge, and excused her action this one time. But making this kid pay $45,000. to the school as reimbursement for their legal fees is a travesty of justice. She had a bonafide case in appealing the school's action against her, because the school had no regard for the pyschological trauma she suffers from the sexual assault this guy perpetrated on her. It is inhuman to expect a girl to applaud a guy who raped her, no matter who she 'speaks' for. The school could have easily avoided the $45,000. legal fees anyway, simply by having a little compassion for this girl and make a public apology for suspending her, then offer her the job back if she'd agree to cheer everyone on her team. Doing this would have restored the girl's dignity and offered a solution that likely would have satisfied both parties. But what they did showed that the public schools could care less about the students, it's all about their POWER.
As for the Court, their decision is nothing more than a cruel reprisal for her daring to stand up to a government run institution. In demanding she applaud a man who raped her, they asked her to do something that flies in the face of human nature. Even as a so-called 'school spokesperson' she likely froze and just could not do it. But then again, public schools teach all about homosexual perversion and expect the children to work through that grossly abnormal human behavior, so this isn't surprising. The government has lost its way and has brought America back to the dark ways of pre-Constitution tyrants.
So, having a rapist on their school's basketball team and insisting his cheerleader victim applaud him is good for their image?
Everything is so sick, twisted, up-side down and inside out today that I often feel like I'm living in a dream, (or nightmare). In previous generations this puke who was convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl would have been kicked out of the school, not just the basketball team. But instead, his VICTIM gets the boot. Like I said, EVERYTHING today is out of whack. The day they took prayer out of school and bannished all public images and expressions of Christianity the Enemy of God smiled, walked into the vacuum and took over. And this is what we're witnessing all around us today, the very opposite of normalcy, goodness and righteousness.
She ought to write a book or sell her story to Hollywood and name names. Then she can use the proceeds to pay the school the $45,000.
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