Posted on 09/14/2002 1:39:33 AM PDT by Michael2001
ASHEBORO -- The Board of Education took no action Thursday on a request by the local NAACP to suspend all cheerleading after the chapter president complained that all of the students on the middle and high schools squads are white.
Wesley Fennell, the president of the Asheboro/Randolph County branch of the NAACP, asked the board to suspend cheerleading activities until a better way of selecting team members could be developed and implemented.
"The current selection process has resulted in the total elimination of African American cheerleaders from the Asheboro City Schools system," Fennell said.
The city schools have cheerleaders for sports teams at Asheboro High, and South Asheboro and North Asheboro middle schools, Fennell said. Total African American student enrollment in the system is 14.6 percent. Another 21.9 percent are Hispanic.
The board did not discuss Fennell's concerns and gave no indication of how it might handle them. Superintendent Diane Frost instead provided a copy of a letter she sent to Fennell on Aug. 30.
"Our goal is to provide a wide array of extracurricular activities for our students," Frost's letter stated. "We hope students will choose to participate in at least one school activity every year, because there is a strong correlation between participation and high student achievement.
"We encourage any student who is interested in cheerleading, or any other activity, to pursue it. We strive to have an inclusive process, and certainly encourage participation from all groups of students."
Fennell said he has also learned that no African Americans participated in selecting cheerleaders. He said that the college cheerleaders brought in to help judge high school tryouts come from predominantly white universities. He said the system should also bring in cheerleaders from historically black colleges.
"This could have served as an opportunity to expose this school system to potential future minority teachers, and to expose Asheboro school students to positive role models of all races," Fennell said.
Fennell complained that the $18 fee charged for Asheboro High School's Blue Comet Cheerleading Clinic to be held later this month could exclude low-income students from participating in cheerleading. The principal told him that no student would be excluded because of an inability to pay the fee, but Fennell said he was concerned that students who couldn't afford it would be too embarrassed to admit it.
"This certainly seems to contradict the concept of an inclusive process," he said.
Why would the school suspend a sport that helps student athletes because the NAACP doesn't like it? Get over it. Stop being so negative and enjoy life. People like you need something like a hobby. Maybe you should try cheerleading.
It would be hilarious if a judge agreed with him and shutdown basketball and football programs as well until only 14.6 percent of those teams were African American as well. The NAACP would be fuming.
UNDERWARE CHECK!
"Total African American student enrollment in the system is 14.6 percent."
This might explain why there are no black cheerleaders....
...UNDERWEAR...
Thia ia awful... a grave injustice.
I hope this is resolved...and soon.
LOL!
LOL!
Welcome to FR!
I'll have to get a calendar out and see which comment you're responding to.
Once again I agree with you.
Mark it down.
I am in a much better mood today. Yesterday I was very cranky. ;)
You have a bad cough though.
LOL! Like the guy ahead of me said, you took it hook line and sinker!
But that's the point others on this thread have been trying to make. Many minority girls don't qualify for various reasons. "Qualifying" doesn't just mean looking nice in a cheerleading outfit. Today, cheerleaders do more than just stand on the sidelines and wave their pom-poms around. A cheerleader usually needs to have gymnastic, tumbling, and drill skills that often take years of practice and training to acquire.
There's a slight problem, in that I agree with this one. LOL
But damn, this thread is almost two years old.
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