Earlier this week, the Supreme Court denied review of the case of the Texas cheerleader who was suspended from her team for refusing to cheer for her rapist without comment. This means that a lower court ruling, which said that a cheerleader acts as a mouthpiece for the school and can thus be dismissed for refusing to speak, will stand. It also means that the cheerleader's family now owes the district $45,000 for the costs of "defending a frivolous suit," as ordered by the New Orleans appeals court...This story illustrates an appalling violation of a student's right to speak out against an insensitive and traumatic order from school officials. The girl, who is known just as "H.S.," says that she was 16 when she was raped at a party by Rakheem Bolton, a star of her high school football team. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and received a suspended sentence. The following winter, Bolton was playing in a basketball game when he went up to the foul line to shoot a free throw. H.S.'s lawyer says that the girls were instructed to chant, "2, 4, 6, 8, 10, come on, Rakheem, put it in." H.S., who had cheered for the rest of the game, folded her arms and remained silent.
Even the cynical asshole in me can't mock this one. Like I was all set to go on about how women just don't understand the committment that joining a team implies. How when a man joins a team he joins a group of brothers, and he's committed to see it through to the end, when a woman joins a team she's in it until the going gets tough or it interferes with her Reality TV viewing schedules.
