In Texas, football is king and what would King Football be without those erotic routines by scantily costumed cheerleaders to rev up the guys in the stands. Among the high schools, competition for a position on the cheerleader squads equals, if not surpasses, that of the comptition for a place on the football team.
Most of you may recall the "Texas Cheerleader Mom" who, in 1991, tried to hire a hitman to kill the mother of a girl who was competing with her daughter for a place on the same cheerleader squad. She wanted the mother murdered because she thought the other girl would be so distraught over her mom's death that she would withdraw from the competition.
Anytime you have an elite group - cheerleaders, fraternity members and spcial op military units for example - the candidates for such groups or their "newbies" are likely to face some sort of degrading initiation rite. That degradation is known as "hazing" and acts of hazing have been outlawed throughout the United States.
Now, seven Texas teenaged high school cheerleaders from the Houston suburb of Katy are in the news after having been charged with pushing several bound and blindfolded junior varsity cheerleaders into the swimming pool at a private residence. The seven girls have been charged with a misdemeanor and, if convicted, face a punishment of up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.
One of the newbies, along with her parents, made a complaint because she could not swim and, once in the water, feared she was about to drown. Guess what's happened to the traumatized victim. She is the one that is being punished. The poor girl has been ostracized by her fellow students and both she and her parents have received all kinds of threats..
Gerald Treece, Professor of Law and Associate Dean at South Texas College of Law, maintains that the offending cheerleaders should have been charged with aggravated assault, a felony. He believes that when they threw the bound and blindfolded junior varsity cheerleaders into a swimming pool, they put the victims' lives in jeopardy, thereby committing a felony.
On the other hand, the defendants' attoneys say that the seven cheerleaders should never have been charged with anything beause no one ended up being hurt and thus no crime occurred. According to the attorneys, they are guilty only of using bad judgement and there is no law against that.
Bad judgement, my ass! When an attorney talks to the press with a straight face and insists that in this case no crime has been committed, he is just another example of the only difference between a lawyer and a liar - the spelling. The cheerleaders committed a crime bordering on a felonious assault.
The fact that the newbies consented thereto does not absolve the perpetrators. If a chronic pain patient begs you in front of 10 credible witnesses to take his life, you will be brought up on a murder charge if you go ahead and put him out of his misery. At best, consent may serve to mitigate the extent of punishment if the cheerleaders are convicted.
When all is said and done, this will have been an extremely expensive experience for the accused cheerleaders. Even if they are acquitted by a jury, their parents will have accumulated a ton of legal bills as each defendant is represented by a different attorney. And, there is always the possibility of a civil lawsuit for damages to follow. Come on girls, how about doing some of those erotic gyrations and let's hear some of those great cheers!
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