Cheerleader fined 45 thousand dollars for not supporting her rapist

[Thurnez Isa]

Im dead serious

http://www.businessinsider.com/cheerleader-loses-lawsuit-2011-5?utm_source=twbutton&utm_medium=social&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=sportspage

he Supreme Court this week refused to hear the case of a teenage girl who was kicked off her cheerleading team after refusing to cheer for the boy who sexually assaulted her.

As a result, she now owes the school $45,000 in legal fees.

The girl, known only as MS, accused a fellow student of raping her at a party. He plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge to avoid jail time and was allowed to return to school and the basketball team.

She continued to cheer for the team during games, but refused to shout the boy's name or clap for him when he shot free throws. When the superintendent discovered what she was doing, she was kicked off the team.

She sued the Texas school, arguing that her free speech rights had been violated, but two courts ruled that as a cheerleader she speaks for the school, not herself, and did not have the right to refuse.

A federal appeals court upheld the ruling and ordered her to pay court costs for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/cheerleader-loses-lawsuit-2011-5?utm_source=twbutton&utm_medium=social&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=sportspage#ixzz1MGQgpZGL

[Luna]

Bloody.  Fucking.  Hell.

[Laughin Jude]

Ah Pangloss, you were so close and yet so far. It isn't the best of all possible worlds we live in, but rather the funniest.

(In a Byron-style "I laugh so that I do not weep" kinda way.)

[Adios]

Gawd Bless Amerricuh!!!!!

Gotta just love our justice system.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

High school sports are the State Religion of Texas.

[Luna]

Fuck the cash...

A confessed rapist was allowed back into a public school.

WHAT THE HELL?

[Adios]

Fuck the cash...

A confessed rapist was allowed back into a public school.

WHAT THE HELL?

Not only that, but back on the team as well.

[Eater of Clowns]

Fuck the cash...

A confessed rapist was allowed back into a public school.

WHAT THE HELL?

Pleaded to a misdemeanor.  Could be indecent A&B, could be sexual assault, wasn't specified.  Still not pretty.

[LMNO]

Horrible, yes.

But why would she want to cheer for a school that let her rapist back on the football team?  That just doesn't make sense.

[Adios]

Horrible, yes.

But why would she want to cheer for a school that let her rapist back on the football team?  That just doesn't make sense.

Teen/drama/cheerleader

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

My oldest was kicked off his basketball team this year because he was in a group that were all given written tickets for loitering at the mall.  The fact that he went to court and it was thrown out did not get him an apology and season was over by then...

Here, any brush with the law and your off any sports team you may be on for that school year, well unless your the next Michael Jordan or Lebron James....

And if you get convicted of something, you may well be expelled from the school.  Charter or Magnate, they can't expell you from the public school system...

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Horrible, yes.

But why would she want to cheer for a school that let her rapist back on the football team?  That just doesn't make sense.

Yeah, THIS.
It would make sense not to even GO to that school. And if she couldn't transfer somewhere else, fuck it. GED.

[Thurnez Isa]

Fuck the cash...

A confessed rapist was allowed back into a public school.

WHAT THE HELL?

Pleaded to a misdemeanor.  Could be indecent A&B, could be sexual assault, wasn't specified.  Still not pretty.

There was several of them and they were young

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cheerleader-must-compensate-school-that-told-her-to-clap-rapist-2278522.html

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".

Also I like how if you lose a case in court concerning free speech you will be charged.
Makes people think twice about taking any power structure to court.

And LMNO
What she's not allowed to do what she loves anymore?
and has to leave all her friends behind cause she was attacked?

[Triple Zero]

> A federal appeals court upheld the ruling and ordered her to pay court costs for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit.





On the one hand, taking (or keeping) the position of cheer leader for a team that includes your rapist may be a voluntary act. However it's completely reasonable that she shouldn't have to cheer for that guy. Given that position, it's not right that the only option is that he gets to stay and she has to leave. I don't think it's frivolous at all to fight that. Though I'm not sure if that was the claim made in court, or something else.

I do think, if she wanted to get back at the guy, the team and the school that all apparently support this situation, there were more ways to make a big stink than filing a lawsuit. Was there any way for her to know she was risking $45,000 by going to court?

[Sita]

The cheer she refused to say was:
"Two, four, six, eight, ten, come on, Rakheem, put it in."
according to this site

Reading that I can understand her not wanting to say it even more.