I hate to say this, I know there are more people than you could ever imagine who might disagree, at least privately, but I'm going to come on out with it-
There's more important things in life than high school sports, even football or basketball. So if one of your more talented players, a student who excels at both sports, is involved in a sexual assault of a younger female student, you should have no problem booting him from the team. After all, talent and ability notwithstanding, this is not the kind of person you would want to represent your school, correct? Just because he might well be instrumental, possibly even vital in getting you to the state finals, that should not really be an issue, right?
Well, evidently most of the citizens of this small little town in Hardin County Texas don't quite see it that way. When Rakheem Bolton, one of the star players on their school football team, was accused of sexual assault, the Grand Jury failed to return an indictment on him. A second Grand Jury did so, but he managed somehow to plea bargain his case down to one of simple assault. He later engaged in an altercation with one of his teachers, which earned him a requirement to engage in anger management courses. Otherwise, some one hundred fifty hours of community service staring him in the face and a few remorseful statements to the press, and he's back on the football field.
One of the cheerleaders on his squad then got in trouble for refusing to join in the squad's cheers for him when he made a play. She was told she had to forget about what happened and either join in with the rest of the squad in cheering him on, or she had to resign her position.
Sounds reasonable enough. Of course, it would probably be easier for her to accede to these demands if she were not the girl he and two others assaulted and, according to her, raped. Her father led her off the court when patrons of the school team, their former friends, neighbors, and fellow community citizens, verbally abused her for what they took to be her bad sportsmanship-or maybe it was her unladylike conduct.
She sued the school on First Amendment grounds, claiming that she had the right to not cheer her assailant. Unfortunately the Fifth Circuit Court Judge who heard the case disagreed, going so far as to sanction the girl for what was described as a frivolous lawsuit, even ruling that she was liable for the school's legal expenses. The family is appealing the verdict, but its probably a lost cause. Justice is often cold and hard when it is applied fairly and according to precedent, and the truth is there is no free speech issue here.
A better, perhaps more realistic attorney would have tried a different approach than the use of the First Amendment as grounds for a suit. Not being an attorney myself, I wouldn't know what that would be, but there would have to be something, you would think, some legitimate grounds with which to defend the rights of a young girl against an oppressive, humiliating, and perhaps even dangerous environment enforced by her own school against her, a victim, in favor of her oppressor. Maybe some kind of civil rights suit might have been more appropriate.
After all, this girl was subjected to an ordeal that went beyond one night at a football game. She was ostracized, mocked and humiliated during school hours on a regular basis, and it got so bad her younger sister transferred to another school.
The larger point, in reality, is that there never should have been a need to bring any kind of action in court. The offending player should have been removed from the squad permanently, but the people of that small town in Hardin County Texas, as much as the school officials involved in this sorry case, may have had other, varying priorities.
For one thing, the defendant was black, the girl white, and it was widely assumed the first Grand Jury failed to render an indictment because of that, due to the presence of a number of blacks on the Jury.
But even more perniciously, the school seems to have been far more intent on keeping a valued member of their sports team than in seeing to the welfare of the one lone girl, evidently feeling that, in some way that is unclear, she willingly put herself in the position where she should have known she was endangering herself. In other words, she was asking for it.
For the record, this happened at a party where a number of team members and cheerleaders were present, and alcohol was a factor. But even that much is beside the point. The girl has been expected to give up her position on the cheer-leading squad, sacrifice her own social standing at school, as well as her dignity, peace of mind, and in effect her basic rights, in order to help salvage the potential future of her assailant.
Bear that in mind the next time you hear somebody pontificate about how we should look out for the welfare of our children. With all too many people, that's apparently only good for so much, and as long as it doesn't stand in the way of a winning record.
