How many people think this was a frivilous lawsuit?

[wiegie]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/am...st-2278522.html

 

Cheerleader must compensate school that told her to clap 'rapist'

By Guy Adams in Dallas

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

 

A teenage girl who was dropped from her high school's cheerleading squad after refusing to chant the name of a basketball player who had sexually assaulted her must pay compensation of $45,000 (£27,300) after losing a legal challenge against the decision.

 

The United States Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a review of the case brought by the woman, who is known only as HS. Lower courts had ruled that she was speaking for the school, rather than for herself, when serving on a cheerleading squad – meaning that she had no right to stay silent when coaches told her to applaud.

 

She was 16 when she said she had been raped at a house party attended by dozens of fellow students from Silsbee High School, in south-east Texas. One of her alleged assailants, a student athlete called Rakheem Bolton, was arrested, with two other young men.

 

In court, Bolton pleaded guilty to the misdemeanour assault of HS. He received two years of probation, community service, a fine and was required to take anger-management classes. The charge of rape was dropped, leaving him free to return to school and take up his place on the basketball team.

 

Four months later, in January 2009, HS travelled to one of Silsbee High School's basketball games in Huntsville. She joined in with the business of leading cheers throughout the match. But when Bolton was about to take a free throw, the girl decided to stand silently with her arms folded.

 

"I didn't want to have to say his name and I didn't want to cheer for him," she later told reporters. "I just didn't want to encourage anything he was doing."

 

Richard Bain, the school superintendent in the sport-obsessed small town, saw things differently. He told HS to leave the gymnasium. Outside, he told her she was required to cheer for Bolton. When the girl said she was unwilling to endorse a man who had sexually assaulted her, she was expelled from the cheerleading squad.

 

The subsequent legal challenge against Mr Bain's decision perhaps highlights the seriousness with which Texans take cheerleading and high school sports, which can attract crowds in the tens of thousands.

 

HS and her parents instructed lawyers to pursue a compensation claim against the principal and the School District in early 2009. Their lawsuit argued that HS's right to exercise free expression had been violated when she was instructed to applaud her attacker. But two separate courts ruled against her, deciding that a cheerleader freely agrees to act as a "mouthpiece" for a institution and therefore surrenders her constitutional right to free speech. In September last year, a federal appeals court upheld those decisions and announced that HS must also reimburse the school sistrict $45,000, for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit against it.

"As a cheerleader, HS served as a mouthpiece through which [the school district] could disseminate speech – namely, support for its athletic teams," the appeals court decision says. "This act constituted substantial interference with the work of the school because, as a cheerleader, HS was at the basketball game for the purpose of cheering, a position she undertook voluntarily."

 

The family's lawyer said the ruling meanst that students exercising their right of free speech can end up punished for refusing to follow "insensitive and unreasonable directions".

OK, maybe I can see why the girl lost, but I just don't see this as a frivolous lawsuit. (And I think the school superintendent is a complete a-hole.)

 

(Edit: yes, I misspelled frivolous. sorry)

Edited May 9, 2011 by DMD

[gbpfan1231]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/am...st-2278522.html

 

OK, maybe I can see why the girl lost, but I just don't see this as a frivolous lawsuit. (And I think the school superintendent is a complete a-hole.)

 

(Edit: yes, I misspelled frivolous. sorry)

Agree with you - can see the reasons for losing (don't agree with them) - not frivolous in my opinion.

[bpwallace49]

Gimme a R- A-P-I-S-T! What's that spell?

 

Go F yourself superintendent. . . . .

[BeeR]

Agree with you - can see the reasons for losing (don't agree with them) - not frivolous in my opinion.

Exactly.

 

I wonder how many truly frivolous lawsuits go down every day which, if lost, require no reimbursement by the sue-happy ahole that brought it there? Example #8 billion of what a joke our courts are.

[Furd]

I think that I'm going to read the opinion before I chime in. However, for those of you that have jumped on the "its not frivolous" bandwagon, please consider this:

 

Let's say that the cheerleader folded her arms and refused to cheer for the player because that player was mean to her best friend in the lunch line at school..

 

Does that lawsuit posess the same amount of merit as the real one? If not, why not?

Edited May 8, 2011 by Furd

[BeeR]

[Furd]

except that he was guilty of assualt

 

fine

 

But under what legal principle is her "right" to refuse to cheer different then her "right" to refuse to cheer because he insulted her best friend.

[buddahj]

This is one crazy ass story.

[Clubfoothead]

Let's say that the cheerleader folded her arms and refused to cheer for the player because that player was mean to her best friend in the lunch line at school..

 

Does that lawsuit posess the same amount of merit as the real one? If not, why not?

 

Is refusing to speak speech?

[buddahj]

IMO, everyone was wrong but the girl.

 

Dude must be one helluva player (probably the only reason the rape charges were dropped).

I really think the school could've handled the situation better. That superintendent seems like a dooooosh.

I'm not really surprised that her parents attempted to sue...since this is the way our country is now a days.

[WaterMan]

School officials are so clueless.

[Clubfoothead]

I'm not really surprised that her parents attempted to sue...since this is the way our country is now a days.

 

Silsbee is probably about 100 miles south of Jasper. I think it represents an improvement.

[borge007]

School officials are so clueless.

In a few cases like this one-you are correct.

[Ditkaless Wonders]

As long as the cheerleader did not shoot the rapist i am good. School officials here need to get tuned up.

[BeeR]

fine

 

But under what legal principle is her "right" to refuse to cheer different then her "right" to refuse to cheer because he insulted her best friend.

The one where he was guilty of assualt (if not rape). Which hardly makes her objections "frvilous." The super is a flaming ahole.

[major-tom]

Another vote for Texas. Full disclosure - I was born in Houston.

[Furd]

The issue with respect to the OP was whether the lawsuit was frivolous, not whether the school acted appropriately or not.

 

I dug up the opinion from The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. I learned that HS sued the school district, prinicpal, and district attorney for money damages alleging that her rights under the Constitution and state law had been violated.

 

Here are pertinent parts from the courts' first amendment analysis:

 

Finally, Appellants claim SISD, Bain, Lokey, and McInnis violated H.S.'s right to free speech under the First Amendment because H.S.'s decision not to cheer constituted protected speech inasmuch as it was a symbolic expression of her disapproval of Bolton's and Rountree's behavior. Courts have long held that public school students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Tinker v. Des Moines Ind. Community Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 511, 89 S. Ct. 733, 21 L. Ed. 2d 731 (1969). In order to determine whether conduct "possesses sufficient communicative elements to bring the First Amendment into play, [we] must ask whether an intent to convey a particularized message was present, and whether the likelihood was great that the message would be understood by those who viewed it." Canady v Bossier Parish School Board, 240 F.3d 437, 440 (5th Cir. 2001) (citing Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 404, 109 S. Ct. 2533, 105 L. Ed. 2d 342 (1989)).

 

Appellants contend the district court erred in holding that H.S. "did not convey the sort of particularized message that symbolic conduct must convey to be protected speech." Even assuming arguendo that H.S.'s speech was sufficiently particularized to warrant First Amendment protection, student speech is not protected when that speech would "substantially interfere with the work of the school." Tinker, 393 U.S. at 509. "The question whether the First Amendment requires a school to tolerate particular student speech . . . is different from the question whether [it] requires a school affirmatively to promote particular speech." Hazelwood School Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260, 270, 108 S. Ct. 562, 98 L. Ed. 2d 592 (1988). In her capacity as cheerleader, H.S. served as a mouthpiece through which SISD could disseminate speech, namely, support for its athletic teams. Insofar as the First Amendment does not require schools to promote particular student speech, SISD had no duty to promote H.S.'s message by allowing her to cheer or not cheer, as she saw fit. Moreover, this act constituted substantial interference with the work of the school because, as a cheerleader, H.S. was at the basketball game for the purpose of cheering, a position she undertook voluntarily. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's dismissal of Appellants' First Amendment claim against SISD, Bain, Lokey, and McInnis.

 

I haven't seen the decision regarding the district court's decision to award costs. It may not be published anywhere.

 

I'm kinda suprised that so many of you support a lawsuit in which the plaintiff essentially argued that a cheerleader has a constitutional right to refuse to cheer for somebody on her school's sports team. A plaintiff who was suing because somebody was dismissed from a cheerleading squad.

 

That sounds pretty frivolous to me.

[Ursa Majoris]

She'd have been much better served to have taken her expulsion from the squad but not sued, simply publicized the fact that the school has very dubious ethics. There's a ton of ways to destroy people and institutions without going to court.

[muck]

She'd have been much better served to have taken her expulsion from the squad but not sued, simply publicized the fact that the school has very dubious ethics. There's a ton of ways to destroy people and institutions without going to court.

 

This.

 

******************************

 

IMO, the girls' lawsuit is borderline frivolous...I haven't decided how to vote.

[jetsfan]

I voted frivolous. Her (parents) decision to sue was completely unwarranted and I have no problem with the court forcing them to pay for the school's attorney fees.

[gbpfan1231]

Agree with you - can see the reasons for losing (don't agree with them) - not frivolous in my opinion.

I misread the article....

 

I think the lawsuit was frivolous. I better ways to go about this than to sue. Too easy to sue nowadays.

[Duchess Jack]

IMO, everyone was wrong but the girl.

 

Dude must be one helluva player (probably the only reason the rape charges were dropped).

I really think the school could've handled the situation better. That superintendent seems like a dooooosh.

I'm not really surprised that her parents attempted to sue...since this is the way our country is now a days.

+3.

 

You lost me on the fourth one. I can understand parents suing for reinstatement, a formal apology and the ahole being fired with no problems at all, damages though, I can see where it might be the American way.

[buddahj]

+3.

 

You lost me on the fourth one. I can understand parents suing for reinstatement, a formal apology and the ahole being fired with no problems at all, damages though, I can see where it might be the American way.

I just meant that we live in a lawsuit happy country. Instead of trying to work things out in person...it just seems to me that some people would rather have someone else fight their battles for them.

[Scooby]

this prick wouldnt even be alive to cheer for if he f'd with my daughter

[Ursa Majoris]

The poll looks a tad different to what it did before.