@yojaehs You pretty much said what I was thinking about all this morning. I'm really trying to look at this with an open mind especially since a couple posters that I tend to mostly agree with feel so strongly against this rule. But, I just can't get past the point that you have SIX MONTHS to make this decision. Six months of seeing half your team throwing layouts and knowing you won't be competitive during the season, six months of your coach telling you everything will be fine when at the same time most of your stunt groups can't hit a level 5 stunt, six months of seeing other kids leave the program but you chose to hang in there, or six months of rumors about financial issues but you chose to ignore them. Most of the examples given in this thread could be seen well before November 1st but the parents/athletes chose to ignore them.
For the record I do believe there should be an appeals process but while having no actual knowledge of this I am willing to bet that the USASF has not adopted one is because of the culture of cheer. With the way the industry is right now can you imagine the appeal reasons? "My baby's coach yelled at her during practice." "Her teammate bullied her because she said she wasn't tight in the air." "We only got third at our last competition. " "My cp wants to be on a big name team and a spot opened up." The USASF would be so inundated with silly appeals that they'd never get to the real ones.
I think 95% of the reasons given here for the need for release could have been seen well before November 1st and are just dumb. The only ones that have been presented that I really "get" are a gym closing down after November 1st or an athlete being dismissed from a level 5 team. A coach once said to me that he will sign a release if he asks an athlete to leave the gym or to leave the level 5 program but if the athlete chooses to leave after November 1st then he wouldn't. I think there's something to that.