High School Cheerleader's Punishment

[MyDaughterCheers]

What do you think would be appropriate punishment for the following scenario? Detention, demerits, dismissed from squad or a combination of all 3?

Cheerleaders are having a feud with volleyball players that started when volleyball players publicly (via facebook) made fun of the cheerleader's practice clothing. In retaliation, Cheerleaders posed in front of Volleyball sign at school during a summer practice and gave "the finger". One of the girls in the photo posted it on her facebook. The photo was taken on the same girl's iPad by another girl who is not in the photo. On the first day of school, someone "anonymously" gave a copy of the photo to school officials.

Should all be punished equally? Should the girl who posted the photo receive more punishment than the others? Should the girl who took the photo be punished the same even though it was not her iPad and she did not post it? Should the girls in the photo be responsible for it being posted?

Thanks!

 

[Emily Jane]

I would say detention (and I'm not sure about demerits as I don't know what they are). Are volleyball being punished?

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

Demerits are something they get if they do something wrong like come to a game/practice late, improper uniform, improper behavior, etc. Once they receive 5 demerits they are dismissed from the squad. No, volleyball is not in trouble because the picture was given to the school anonymously so technically volleyball girls are innocent.

Do you think all of the girls should be punished equally?

 

[Emily Stalions]

I would say that the cheerleaders should get one or 2 demerits. Mainy because they are using an offensive gesture and they were together as a team taking that picture which rubs off on the school's reputation. No, I'm not sticking up for this volleyball team but making fun of clothes isn't really that big of a deal..
Were the v-ball players being rude about it or just saying that they didn't like their clothes? Can you put in some words what the v-ball players said?

 

[Future]

Personal thought….all the parents of these athletes, and the athletes, should be put into a room with the parents of suicide child. All this infighting escalates into bigger and more dangerous territory. They will hear first hand how something small, something insignificant, created an environment that was difficult for their child. After hearing it first hand, this 'infighting' this 'problem's' intensity goes from a hand grenade to a hang nail…..it really is petty, but it happens. But personal thought, where are the parents…what is their role….they are the adults and should be leading. Stop the behavior and monitor their Facebook…they have proven they (the children) are not being responsible in what they post.

 

[Mamarazzi]

All should be punished equally - volleyball players, cheerleaders, pic taker, pic poster, everyone involved. To me, the ultimate goal is get them to understand that ALL the behavior was childish, inappropriate, hurtful and just plain un-ladylike. How many 30-year-old women do you see walking around flipping the bird to their haters? Seriously?
I could think of a million effective ways to make them all work together to help them understand that as athletes at the school, they are a type of "family," whether they like it or not. Which means, you have respect for your family. You might not like everything about them, but you show respect, nonetheless.
Since the goal is obviously not to teach anyone a lesson (which is really quite a shame,) I'd say all (v-ball players and cheerleaders) should receive 4 demerits and detention(S.) Dare them to put another toe out of line...

 

[ErinS]

I say 1 demerit for everyone and they should be forced to watch that ABC Family Cyberbully movie.

Every school (district) should have a Safe School Bully and Intimidation Act so perhaps they should check it out and go from there.

Personally... I don't think its that serious, more good would come from getting the girls together (volleyball and cheer), talking about the problem, working out their differences and moving on....than from punishing them. Chances are they aren't going to "learn" their lesson and move on from it... they're gonna get pissed off and "retaliation" will just get slicker.

 

[Emily Jane]

Demerits are something they get if they do something wrong like come to a game/practice late, improper uniform, improper behavior, etc. Once they receive 5 demerits they are dismissed from the squad. No, volleyball is not in trouble because the picture was given to the school anonymously so technically volleyball girls are innocent.

Do you think all of the girls should be punished equally?

I think they should get 1 or 2 demerits on account of the hand gesture. Why aren't volleyball in trouble? Even if they didn't hand the picture in, there still should be evidence of what they said since it was on facebook. The cheerleaders were retaliating, not stirring up the feud in the first place.

And I do think all of the girls should be punished equally INCLUDING volleyball.

 

[cheerheart4life]

I personally believe that the volleyball players should get in trouble for harrassing them but if there is no evidence like the picture then you can't punish them. The cheerleaders shouldn't be kicked off the team, because that would cause more harm than good! They should either be given several detentions or not allowed to cheer at a couple football games. Nothing HUGELY serious but just something that lets them know not to do it again!

 

[Seeker30]

bench them! full uniform have them sit down and watch there cheerleaders cheer

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

The whole feud is absolutely ridiculous. The cheerleaders were at lunch during camp week. They were wearing spandex shorts. They saw some volleyball players who made comments and laughed at them. That evening, the same volleyball players posted comments on facebook, making fun of them and calling them "little girls" and saying they shouldn't be wearing spandex. I guess it escalated into some kind of arguement which resulted in the girls all "defriending" each other on facebook. This was a few weeks ago.

When the cheerleaders were hanging signs, they took the photo in question. The girl who's iPad the picture was on posted it on facebook but later deleted it. I don't know how long it was up. Apparently long enough for someone to print it.

Today was the first day of school. The picture was anonymously given to school administration and all of the girls were called into the office and questioned. The school made one girl log onto her facebook and they went thru her pictures. The girl who took the picture was questioned separately and they accused her of having taken it on her phone and posting it on her facebook. Later in the day, they called her to the office again and questioned her about who's camera/phone the picture was taken on and whether or not she had been the one to post it.

To my knowledge, those 2 were the only ones questioned separately and the others were questioned in a group. Tomorrow all of the girls and their parents have to meet with school administration to determine what punishment they are to get.

As far as the volleyball girls getting in trouble, it is coming down to cheerleader's word vs. volleyball's word because they all deleted each other on facebook so there is no longer a record of the original argument, unless someone saved it and I don't know if that's the case. Cheerleader's were wrong in what they did and the photo is out there for proof. In my opinion, Volleyball was wrong as well, but there is no proof of what they did or didn't do.

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

But personal thought, where are the parents…what is their role….they are the adults and should be leading. Stop the behavior and monitor their Facebook…they have proven they (the children) are not being responsible in what they post.

I wanted to address this separately. . .there were 6 cheerleaders involved and ONE posted it on her facebook page. I don't think the other 5 parents have any responsibility for what that one girl did. I do believe, however, if the parents SAW their child in the picture, they need to address it. The parent of the child who took the picture had no idea her child took the photo.

 

[ufomom]

I wanted to address this separately. . .there were 6 cheerleaders involved and ONE posted it on her facebook page. I don't think the other 5 parents have any responsibility for what that one girl did. I do believe, however, if the parents SAW their child in the picture, they need to address it. The parent of the child who took the picture had no idea her child took the photo.

No one would be in trouble if the girls in the picture had not given the middle finger salute.

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

No one would be in trouble if the girls in the picture had not given the middle finger salute.

Well, obviously not. I am not saying that they were right. If you read everything I wrote, I said the cheerleaders were wrong. I was simply answering above the question about where the parents were.

 

[INeverStopCheering]

Maybe I'm a little harsh, but if it were me and those were my cheerleaders they would be dismissed from the squad. I would tell them that I expect my girls not to react poorly to petty taunts and that they were not the people I wanted to represt my squad, school, or community.