Cheerleader who wouldn’t root for assailant loses
A Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the name of a basketball player - the same athlete she said had raped her four months earlier - lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal Monday.
A federal appeals court ruled in September that the cheerleader was speaking for the school, not herself, and had no right to remain silent when called on to cheer the athlete by name.
The girl, identified by her initials H.S., was 16 when she said she was raped at a party in her southeast Texas hometown of Silsbee in October 2008. She identified the assailant as Rakheem Bolton, a star on the Silsbee High School football team.
Bolton ultimately pleaded guilty in September 2010 to a misdemeanor assault charge and received a suspended sentence.
At a February 2009 basketball game in Huntsville, Texas, H.S. joined in leading cheers for the Silsbee team, which included Bolton. But when Bolton went to the foul line to shoot a free throw, H.S. folded her arms and was silent.
Cheerleader’s Father Speaks Out
It isn’t business as usual at Silsbee High School in Texas after the unlikely duo of the Ms. Blog and Fox News covered the story of the school kicking a cheerleader (known only as H.S.) off the squad for refusing to cheer for Rakheem Bolton, a basketball player who had assaulted her. (Though he was charged with sexual assault of a child, he pleaded guilty to a lesser assault charge, receiving only a suspended one-year prison sentence and two years probation.)
Contact information for the relevant school and district officials:
Richard Bain Jr., Superintendent, Silsbee Independent School District, 415 Highway 327 West, Silsbee, TX, 77656; rbain@silsbeeisd.org; (409) 980-7800
Eldon Franco, Principal, Silsbee High School, 1575 Highway 96 North, Silsbee, TX, 77656-4799; efranco@silsbeeisd.org; (409) 980-7800
Bobby McGallion, Athletic Director, Silsbee High School, 1575 Highway 96 North, Silsbee, TX, 77656-4799; bmcgallion@silsbeeisd.org; (409) 980-7800
I couldn’t give a crap about the athletic director, but I did send the following to the principal and superintendent:
Date: May 9, 2011 4:53:49 PM MDT
To: rbain@silsbeeisd.org, efranco@silsbeeisd.org
Subject: Thank you for your hard workDear Mr. Bain and Mr. Eldon,
I just wanted to thank you for your hard work in making the case for homeschooling. What better way to encourage parents to remove vulnerable children from the abusive environment known as school than to put a rapist back on an athletic team and then punish his victim for refusing to cheer him on? Holy cow, I could not come up with something that good my own self!
It is good to see that we have clever folks such as yourself on the inside hastening along the downfall of collectivist indoctrination disguised as education. Yes, it is unfortunate for the young woman who was victimized once to have to go through this again, but I’m sure she would be comforted knowing that this abuse at your hands is for a greater cause. I know that one day once you finish running your school and school district into the ground and shaming it before the entire country with your abusive treatment of minors, you will make the truth known to her.
In solidarity for independent education,
Kirsten C. Mylastname




