It's in this ABC News report. Really, how ridiculous can you get? I thought this was 2011. Apparently folks, we have been transported right back into the stone age. Or at least it seems this way by the actions of Silsbee High School in Texas.
Student H.S. (name protected ) only wanted what a lot of high school students dream about. She wanted to help cheer her high school sports teams on to victory. Like most other high school students she worked hard academically and physically to stay on the cheerleading team and to prepare herself for college.Becoming a rape victim could have destroyed that for her. What was left of her life after the sexual assault seems to have been destroyed by the Silsbee High School and District in Texas. How did they do that? By trying to force the victim of sexual assault to cheer for the perpetrator when he continued his athletic life at Silsbee High School.
The report says that this perpetrator was indicted by a grand jury of felony sexual assault of a minor. He pleaded it down to a charge of misdemeanor assault sentenced to:
The news report says that school officials did the right thing by expelling the perpetrator after the indictment. He received a one-year suspended prison term and he gets to perform community service. Two years probation and a $2,500 fine are also part of his judicial system punishment.
Oh yeah, and the Silsbee High School expelled him for awhile. When the perpetrator returned they let him back on the athletics team. Then they tried to force the victim he assaulted to continue to cheer for him, by name.
Ah! But Silsbee High School didn't seem to be finished with the cheerleader. When she refused to cheer for the scumbag who assaulted her the school kicked her off of the cheerleading team.
Her parents sued the school. They felt that the school's position violated their daughter's freedom of speech rights. Guess what the legal system did? They said that a cheerleader is only a mouthpiece for the school and sided with Silsbee High School.
Yes, folks. Cheerleaders are required to be smart and keep their grades up to stay on the cheerleading team. Apparently, they aren't allowed to use those brains.
You would think that officials at Silsbee High School would be happy with the messages they are sending. Shouldn't this have been enough for the school to heap upon the victim? Nope.
In a final act of meanness, the school system has heaped more insult onto the victim and her family. They want her parents to pay thousands of dollars in the school's legal fees. By losing the battle to protect their daughter's freedom of speech it opened the parents up to having to pay.
But wait, there's more. This online petition has more details. It's probably a good thing that I took my blood pressure medicine before reading and signing the petition.
This is one school system that I won't be cheering for. How about you?