Law & Courts

Court Denies Cheerleader’s ‘Right’ to Silence

By Bryan Toporek — May 03, 2011 1 min read
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If you haven’t seen it yet, my colleague Mark Walsh has some excellent coverage of the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear an appeal of a Texas high school cheerleader who was dismissed from her squad after refusing to cheer for a player accused of sexually assaulting her.

A federal district court ultimately decided that the school isn’t required to promote particular student speech under the First Amendment, and thus, did nothing wrong by making her cheer. The court calls the cheerleader “a mouthpiece through which [the school district] could disseminate speech—namely, support for its athletic teams.”

Read more about the decision in Mark’s The School Law Blog. (And be sure to check out the comments section too.)

UPDATE, 5/4: Not only did the Supreme Court refuse to hear this cheerleader’s case, but she’s now being ordered to compensate the school district to the tune of $45,000 for “filing a frivolous lawsuit,” according to The Independent. (H/T to Ian Quillen, my colleague of Digital Education blog fame, for the link.)

A version of this news article first appeared in the Schooled in Sports blog.