PLAYER OF THE WEEK
April 11, 2015
Heavy weather pelts region, Lafourche begins early dismissal
April 14, 2015
When South Terrebonne High School held its annual cheerleader tryouts, a segment of new squad members who came on board made the cut with greater ease than others.
That’s because the boys who applied for membership on the co-ed squad were not required to endure formal tryouts, with scores awarded by judges, as were the girls.
School officials say the boys got the pass of as a matter of practicality, since fewer boys applied than the maximum allotment of 10.
(To read another piece on this topic, click here)
But critics say the failure of school officials to require that the boys take part in formal try-outs – a practice that interviews with former cheerleaders say has gone on for years – is nothing less than discrimination according to gender, and that the practice needs to stop or the written rules need to be changed.
The mother of an incoming STHS student, a girl who did not make the cut after competing in a tryout against other girls, was scheduled to appear before the Terrebonne Parish School Board this week. Failure of school officials to follow their own rules, she claims, amounts to nothing less than discrimination on the basis of gender, whether intentional or not.
“This is discrimination,” said Loretta Verrett of Chauvin, mother of 14-year-old Kassidy Handy. “The rules say cheerleaders are chosen on the basis of their scores. The boys had no scores but they were still allowed on the team. It is not fair because the girls had to bust their behinds doing a tryout and the boys got it handed to them on a silver platter.”
Superintendent Philip Martin said the same practice would be followed if the maximum allowable number of girls had not applied; Tryouts, Martin said, would not be required for the girls in that case.
“It’s not as if one group has been singled out,” Martin said. “It would be a matter of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. The boys and the girls are not competing against each other, it’s girls competing against girls and boys competing against boys.”
But the rules – as currently written – make no distinction between ganders, girls, boys or geese.
Revised on Jan. 13, the rules for cheer qualification contain a complicated, well-thought-out formula that takes into account scores from a panel of judges, worth 80 percent, with the highest and lowest judge scores dropped for each student; an average of teacher recommendation forms provided by each student, worth 20 percent, and a student’s conduct GPA multiplied by 10, to be used in the event of a tie.
There is an exemption from tryouts for students of either gender who have served two consecutive years on a cheer squad in the district for two consecutive years as a junior and a senior, who will be graduating. But there is no exemption from tryouts strictly on the basis of gender, or the number of students in a given gender group who apply.
Six judges are appointed and there are intricate rules for them as well.
Up to 16 spots on the squad may be held by girls and up to 10 by boys, if any boys apply. There is no minimum number of squad members specified in the rules.
To be eligible for tryouts, cheerleader candidates must have a minimum 2.0 academic GPA and a minimum 3.0 conduct GPA.
“They told me clearly that the boys are on the team, period,” said Verrett, who was told by one school official that her concerns – admittedly fueled by the desire for her daughter to be selected – were “petty.”
But agreement on that point is not universal.
“This clearly is a matter of discrimination,” said Camille Moran, Louisiana coordinator for the nationwide advocacy organization United 4 Equality, which focuses on gender issues and seeks passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “And it is reverse discrimination in terms of the boys.”
Without having to officially earn their spots on the squad, Moran and other advocates said, their victory is arguably hollow.
The gender breakdown for the squad – no more than 16 girls and no more than 10 boys – appears “arbitrary and capricious” in the eyes of Joan Houghton-Bonds, president of the Baton Rouge branch of the Association of American University Women, an organization that advocates for women and girls.
Houghton-Bonds, who was consulted by The Times, said the cheerleader selection process, as explained to her, appeared problematic.
“They appear to be really capricious as to how they go about doing it,” Houghton-Bonds said. “I personally think the school board needs to look at their rules, their guidelines and that they should also be followed. It says that the girls have to play by the rules but the boys do not.”
In an interview, the father of one South Terrebonne boy said his son told him there were no tryouts for male applicants, that their clinics – the process during which candidates learn the various cheers or stunts that might be used for judging – would be used instead to get the boys onto the team. The students, the father said, were told not to share news of their acceptance until the team roster was officially posted.
Houghton-Bonds was disturbed at the notion of the boys being told to keep their good standing quiet.
“You do not play those games. That’s telling everybody they are stupid” she said. “They are not following their own rules. The boys didn’t have to try out let alone score. If you have rules you are supposed to follow them.”
Even though boys and girls would not have been competing against each other, she maintains, a girl who didn’t make the squad would have still had a higher score than any of the boys, since no score was ever tabulated.
Houghton-Bonds and other advocates interviewed over the past week questioned whether the practice could run afoul of the U.S. Education Act’s Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender and other factors.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, Jim Bradshaw, said the agency’s Office of Civil Rights refrains from offering opinions about specific facts, circumstances or civil rights law compliance without first conducting an investigation, as a matter of policy.
A statement from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights does state that the law, formally referred to as Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs receiving Federal financial assistance.
The statement goes on to say that under Title IX a school may not exclude, separate, deny benefits to “or otherwise treat differently any person on the basis of sex in its education programs or activities—including classes and extracurricular activities—unless expressly authorized to do so under Title IX or the Department’s implementing regulations.”
Whether cheerleaders or their parents have cause under Title IX to request an investigation, and the chances of a non-compliance finding is at this point an open question, said attorneys and advocates considered experts with issues under that law, interviewed last week. The claim voiced by Martin concerning practicality could be sufficient, they said, but without a review of the actual rules making an affirmative determination could be difficult.
The only way to know for sure, experts agreed, would be for a parent to make a Title IX complaint in writing to the U.S. DOE.
So far that hasn’t happened; Verrett said she is considering a formal complaint, however. Complicating matters is the fact that cheerleading is among the activities students may take part in that results in the award of an education credit, which counts toward graduation.
A finding of discrimination under Title IX can cost a district or school federal revenue streams, as well as costs associated with attorney fees and any applicable damages.
School board members hearing Verrett’s complaint are under no obligation to take any action, Martin said, explaining that the rules were written for the district by a consortium of parents, cheer sponsors and others who have experience dealing with cheerleaders and their selection.
Two boys got spots on the team, Martin confirmed.
“They had seen them in rehearsals and we knew these kids were good,” Martin said. “Had they known this would create a controversy, they would have made them try out. They had good grades and good skills. That there were only two was the game changer. Hindsight is 20/20.”
Not all local educational systems, however, have taken Terrebonne’s route, interviews reveal.
“We would still make you have to try out,” said Floyd Benoit, spokesman for the neighboring Lafourche Parish School District, when told of the Terrebonne situation. While not wishing to comment on Terrebonne’s situation directly, Benoit said it is considered essential in his parish for all who wish to be on a cheerleading squad to audition according to the rules.
“What if you have a guy who is 450 pounds and out of shape?” Benoit said. “It should be based on a point system.”
Loretta Verrett addresses the Terrebonne Parish School Board Tuesday night alleging gender inequality in cheerleading selections.
