Cheerleader refuses to cheer for rapist, ends up with $45,000 debt



  • http://karmicrestitution.com/2011/05/16/karmic-restitution-award-h-s-silsbee-texas-high-school-cheerleader/

    TL;DR :

    Cheerleader peacefully refuses to cheer for her rapist and gets kicked out of the squad.

    She goes to court against the school, but the Supreme Court refuses to hear the case and now her family must pay $45,000 in legal fees.

    Also:

    [quote user="link to comment"]If you read the articles, you will see that Rakheem Bolton worked out a plea bargain arrangement whereby he pled guilty to misdemeanor assault–which means, he admitted to a judge that he did, indeed, attack H.S., but refused to admit rape [...] The cheer H.S. refused to perform was specifically directed to him during a free throw: “Two, four, six, eight, ten, Rakheem, Rakheem, put it in.”[/quote]



  • @Zecc said:

    “Two, four, six, eight, ten, Rakheem, Rakheem, put it in.”

    is it ok to laugh .. just a little ... ?



  • Seems like nobody did anything right here. The assaulter of course was wrong to assault her. The school was wrong to kick her off the team (though not as wrong as you would think- at the time the events transpired, the player had not even been indicted so the school should have been treating him as if he were innocent). And then she was wrong to file suit. Because, wrong as the school was, they certainly didn't do anything illegal. Her "free speech" was not restricted, and she was not "forced" to do anything. 

     It seems the only people who did anything right were the judges in her court cases.



  • @Bumble Bee Tuna said:

    It seems the only people who did anything right were the judges in her court cases.

    I wouldn't say that either... hitting her with the legal bill is also kind of a dick move. I think it would be more accurate to say the judges did they best to cope with a shitty situation for all involved.

    BTW, you can file a civil suit over almost anything, whether or not the action was illegal is not really relevant... of course, as this story shows, if you lose you're responsible for the legal costs.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @Bumble Bee Tuna said:
    It seems the only people who did anything right were the judges in her court cases.

    I wouldn't say that either... hitting her with the legal bill is also kind of a dick move. I think it would be more accurate to say the judges did they best to cope with a shitty situation for all involved.

    BTW, you can file a civil suit over almost anything, whether or not the action was illegal is not really relevant... of course, as this story shows, if you lose you're responsible for the legal costs.

    Not necessarily just if you lose; the judges in this case did not merely reject her complaint, but went further and ruled it frivolous.  That is not just "coping with a shitty situation"; that is deliberately and vindictively making it shittier for her.

    Also I read (in articles linked from the thinkprogress.org article linked from the originally-referenced post) that rape victims in Texas are billed for the costs of the evidence kits taken from them, and that the Texas House has just passed a bill forcing rape victims to get an ultrasound and hear a description of the fetus before getting an abortion.  It pretty much looks like there are a bunch of extremely conservative legislators and judiciary out there whose instinctive knee-jerk opposition to anything that sounds even vaguely like feminism actually leads them to side with rapists in practice.



  • ♿ (Parody)

    @cheer said:

    “Two, four, six, eight, ten, Rakheem, Rakheem, put it in.”

    TRWTF is that cheer. For all the trouble that people get in for people objecting to "insensitive" behavior, this is way the fuck out there*. I wonder if the coach still has her job?

    * Assuming the random internet comment is accurate**.
    ** Yeah, yeah, what are the odds.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @DaveK said:

    Also I read (in articles linked from the thinkprogress.org article linked from the originally-referenced post) that rape victims in Texas are billed for the costs of the evidence kits taken from them, and that the Texas House has just passed a bill forcing rape victims to get an ultrasound and hear a description of the fetus before getting an abortion.  It pretty much looks like there are a bunch of extremely conservative legislators and judiciary out there whose instinctive knee-jerk opposition to anything that sounds even vaguely like feminism actually leads them to side with rapists in practice.

    I don't know the details of Texas law, but (with the possible exception of paying for rape kits) it's hard to see how any of that is "siding with rapists." I'd take anything thinkprogress says with a lot of salt. Actually, it's usually safe to ignore.

    From this article, the payment angle is a little more nuanced: @Houston TV Station 2 said:
    Police departments are reimbursed for up to $700 by the Texas Crime Victims' Compensation Fund, but many departments cover the bills if they exceed that. After that happens, victims can apply for other costs associated with the rape kit hospital visits to be covered by the fund.

    There's more there about some costs that weren't reimbursed (apparently an additional $1,847 worth of bills).

    The untested status of rape kits is more interesting, although Texas is to (has already?) become the 2nd state (after Illinois) to require testing all rape kits.



  • @Bumble Bee Tuna said:

    Seems like nobody did anything right here. The assaulter of course was wrong to assault her. The school was wrong to kick her off the team (though not as wrong as you would think- at the time the events transpired, the player had not even been indicted so the school should have been treating him as if he were innocent). And then she was wrong to file suit. Because, wrong as the school was, they certainly didn't do anything illegal. Her "free speech" was not restricted, and she was not "forced" to do anything. 

     It seems the only people who did anything right were the judges in her court cases.

    +1 on everything you said.

    This is a very grey situation, no black & white except for the assault and rape (which is definitely wrong).

    My impression is that both the school and her family overreacted, with the family's indignation being more understandable than the school's, IMO. Edit: or then again may be not, since it's not like the school took legal action against them. They just put her off the team; which, who knows?, may even turn out to be beneficial in the long run.

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