BY Nina Mandell - NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, December 23rd 2010
A former high school cheerleader who claims she was kicked off the team when she refused to chant the name of her alleged rapist is taking her case to the Supreme Court.
The cheerleader is asking for the country's highest court to reverse an appeals court ruling dismissing the suit and ordering her (and her parents) to reimburse tens of thousands of dollars in legal costs, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The Texas girl, who is only identified as "H.S.," claims that the school district violated her right to free speech when she refused to cheer for Rakheem Bolton, a star athlete at Silsbee High School. Bolton, along with his friend, she alleged, sexually assaulted her at a party in 2008.
But the school district didn't agree with her behavior, and gave her the option of cheering for Bolton when he was on the free throw line at a basketball game or leaving the team, her lawyers allege.
Her lawyers argued that no terms in the cheer squad contract required her to cheer each time the squad began a chant and doing so violated her first amendment rights.
"She cheered the entire game except for a two brief times when the accused rapist went to the free-throw line," her lawyers said in a court briefing.
H.S.'s case made national attention when she lost her case against the school and officials, including numerous appeals – in the Fifth District Appeals Court in New Orleans. The court said that as a representative of the school, not herself, she didn't have the right to refuse to do a cheer. In the ruling, the justices argued that H.S.'s refusal to cheer "Constituted substantial interference with the work of the school," the Chronicle reported.
That was based on the 1969 ruling, when the Supreme Court ruled school officials could restrict student's right to free speech if it disrupted the educational process.
"It frustrates me," H.S. told ABC in September after she lost her appeal. "All I've wanted out of this all along is for somebody to say they've done wrong."
Lawyers for the school district deny any wrongdoing and said that Bolton had not been charged at the time – and had in fact been cleared by two grand juries. When he was finally indicted by a third one, he was expelled, according to ABC.
He eventually was indicted on felony sexual assault of a minor and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, receiving a one-year suspended sentence, two years probation, community service and a $2500 fine, KDHM reported in September.
"I feel relieved," he told the news station after the ruling. "I'm glad we came to an agreement and I'm just ready to move on with my life."
As for the former cheerleader, she told ABC she just wants to protect future rape victims from meeting the same kind of treatment she alleged school officials gave her.
"If everything works out the way we're hoping … then it makes a point that it's not all right," she told ABC. "And if we keep fighting for that, then maybe other people will too."
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