High School Things You’d Be Sued For Today

[Sterling von Shimmer]

I was just looking through some of my mom’s old pics recently and found some cheer photos that reminded me of how awful my HS cheer program was during my freshman year. And how I just accepted it because I was a kid and didn’t know any better. It was only after I got older that I realized how grotesquely mismanaged and b*****t inappropriate that program was. And even then only after I told my college teammates about it and they said “You know that’s messed up right?” And I said, “Really? I thought it was just team building.”

Now in retrospect, I realize just how manipulative that director was and how she pretty much ticked off all the boxes on the list of “things you’d be sued for today:”

1. Favouritism
2. Hazing
3. “Mismanaged” (stolen) funds
4. Teaching dangerous stunt technique that I’m sure she made up OTF
5. Public bullying and humiliation of new girls
6. Mild racism
7. Fraud
8. Hiding injury reports, academic suspensions, and disciplinary notices from the AD
9. Body shaming
10. Accusing a nun of being “f*****g jealous” of her when she got fired (which I don’t think you can be sued for but was nonetheless something she did).

And us kids just accepted all this Machiavellian BS because for all we knew, that was how HS cheer worked. We just assumed that adults knew best and didn’t want to complain lest we be cut. I don’t think it occurred to any of us at the time that this 40-something woman in a position of authority was nothing more than an overgrown mean girl and a proud, unapologetic bully. Because we didn’t think adults could be bullies. They were supposed to be above that. And she knew that and ran with it.

So anyway, does anyone else have a story like this or was my program just exceptionally awful?

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

My HS program was pretty tame but my aunt cheered HS in the 70s/80s in which regular activities included:

°Freshmen cheerleaders being "kidnapped" (blindfolded and placed in cars) and taken to a team dinner.
°Driving around to football player homes and serenading them with funny dances in costumes.

Lawsuit/Complaint City!

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

My HS program was pretty tame but my aunt cheered HS in the 70s/80s in which regular activities included:

°Freshmen cheerleaders being "kidnapped" (blindfolded and placed in cars) and taken to a team dinner.
°Driving around to football player homes and serenading them with funny dances in costumes.

Lawsuit/Complaint City!

One thing that I laugh about now: one time when I was in fourth or fifth grade, a bunch of us got together during recess and taught the non-cheerleaders how to stunt. So for about a month we were just tossing each other around, completely unsupervised, until a girl finally fell out of an extension and broke her arm. At which time the principal made an announcement over the PA that nobody could stunt anymore.

But what gets me is: during those four weeks, some adult HAD to have seen us -- a bunch of preteens throwing improvised basket tosses during recess -- and nobody tried to stop us. They just let us do it. Maybe because we were short and they thought if anyone fell, it wouldn't be from that high up so any injury wouldn't be that bad? I don't know. But I do know if that happened at my school today, somebody would get sued.

 

[catlady]

My HS program was pretty tame but my aunt cheered HS in the 70s/80s in which regular activities included:

°Freshmen cheerleaders being "kidnapped" (blindfolded and placed in cars) and taken to a team dinner.
°Driving around to football player homes and serenading them with funny dances in costumes.

Lawsuit/Complaint City!

I graduated in 1980 and the Sr's always kidnapped the Freshmen. The Freshmen would have to TP and confetti the opposing football field of the first team our school was playing. My year, it was a private Catholic boy's school. Long story short, the captains got a call from our principal and if we didn't return and pick up every single piece of confetti and trash, the priest in charge was going to cancel the game and press charges for damages and money lost. After picking up minuscule pieces of confetti out of the field for hours, the Sr's took us to dinner and then home. The Sr's didn't sleep all night since they were "kidnapping" and one of the Sr's pulled out into traffic and a paint truck hit her and slid into the opposing lane and killed an elderly woman. That tradition came to a screeching halt that year.

After HS I went to MIZZOU, and some of the hazing that went on in frats back then was downright diabolical. I had a friend that, while all of the pledges were extremely intoxicated, the brothers were supposedly going to brand them on their chest while blindfolded. In reality, it was just a thin metal sheet they placed on their chest and then they shocked them with a live electrical cord. Most of them passed out, but it's a wonder no one died.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

I graduated in 1980 and the Sr's always kidnapped the Freshmen. The Freshmen would have to TP and confetti the opposing football field of the first team our school was playing. My year, it was a private Catholic boy's school. Long story short, the captains got a call from our principal and if we didn't return and pick up every single piece of confetti and trash, the priest in charge was going to cancel the game and press charges for damages and money lost. After picking up minuscule pieces of confetti out of the field for hours, the Sr's took us to dinner and then home. The Sr's didn't sleep all night since they were "kidnapping" and one of the Sr's pulled out into traffic and a paint truck hit her and slid into the opposing lane and killed an elderly woman. That tradition came to a screeching halt that year.

After HS I went to MIZZOU, and some of the hazing that went on in frats back then was downright diabolical. I had a friend that, while all of the pledges were extremely intoxicated, the brothers were supposedly going to brand them on their chest while blindfolded. In reality, it was just a thin metal sheet they placed on their chest and then they shocked them with a live electrical cord. Most of them passed out, but it's a wonder no one died.

That confetti thing happened to us too! It was our Homecoming game so we had confetti for the Homecoming court at halftime. Turns out that wasn’t allowed because the football players couldn’t play on a field filled with confetti (dangerous I guess). So the officials told us if we didn’t pick up every single piece of confetti from the field in time for the second half, we’d have to forfeit. Which was a big deal because we were ahead (of our crosstown rival team) at the time.

Long story short we got it cleaned up, but it took about 100 cheerleaders, yearbook kids, friends, parents, and Homecoming queens dressed in formal gowns to get it done.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Speaking of things you can’t do today:

“Oh you’re an MTV cast member with no cheer experience? No problem.

Now, the first thing you’ll be learning is this thing called a double down...”

— UCA staff, 2001

 

[LittleMissA17]

Speaking of things you can’t do today:

“Oh you’re an MTV cast member with no cheer experience? No problem.

Now, the first thing you’ll be learning is this thing called a double down...”

— UCA staff, 2001

Live footage of me attempting cheer 3 and a half years into retirement.

 

[emo_wifey]

My HS program was pretty tame but my aunt cheered HS in the 70s/80s in which regular activities included:

°Freshmen cheerleaders being "kidnapped" (blindfolded and placed in cars) and taken to a team dinner.
°Driving around to football player homes and serenading them with funny dances in costumes.

Lawsuit/Complaint City!

I graduated in 07 and our cheerleaders still did this. We did it in color guard too, although our instructor made us call parents the week before and get permission.

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[tojofasho]

I graduated in 07 and our cheerleaders still did this. We did it in color guard too, although our instructor made us call parents the week before and get permission.

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I graduated 2011 and pretty much the same. The outgoing seniors would kidnap EVERYBODY who made Varsity, including returners, and have them have a giant slumber party at one of the seniors' houses. The next morning everyone would get a sign they'd have to wear at school all day (a posterboard with like a nickname tied around your neck with string, kind of like a cape), a ridiculous outfit, and usually a ridiculous hairstyle. All the parents had to give permission in advance and could choose which senior kidnapped their child (so if they didn't trust the driving of one of them, they could explicitly state as much). Once we got to school, we'd have to run around the entire thing singing the fight song for like 10 minutes until the bell rang.

Honestly, I freaking loved this tradition and I kind of hope it still exists, but I don't have a lot of faith that it does just because of the liability.

 

[JerseyGirl112]

I don’t have a hs story but if we’re talking hazing- I went to school in DC. I have a few more inappropriate hazing stories but the most PC one includes a rival of my sorority leading their freshman pledge class to the Lincoln memorial, forcing them to strip and then made them find their way back to campus blindfolded. I know this happens at a bunch of school but seeing as our campus was an open campus in the middle of a major city the optics are pretty horrific.


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[catlady]

I don’t have a hs story but if we’re talking hazing- I went to school in DC. I have a few more inappropriate hazing stories but the most PC one includes a rival of my sorority leading their freshman pledge class to the Lincoln memorial, forcing them to strip and then made them find their way back to campus blindfolded. I know this happens at a bunch of school but seeing as our campus was an open campus in the middle of a major city the optics are pretty horrific. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

:jawdrop: ....that's truly horrible.

 

[CheerBank]

Lord I haven't watched that show in decades, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Lord I haven't watched that show in decades, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

About once a year I’ll find an old mtv show on YT to rewatch. They pretty much have everything including the season of Road Rules where Dwight Schrute played the “road master.”

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Lord I haven't watched that show in decades, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

About once a year I’ll find an old mtv show on YT to rewatch. They pretty much have everything including the season of Road Rules where Dwight Schrute played the “road master.”