Donations Help Offset $40K in Court Costs Faced by Ex-Cheerleader's Family
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by a Texas cheerleader kicked off the squad because she wouldn’t cheer for an athlete she had accused of rape.
But her cause is gaining momentum in social media circles as an online campaign via Facebook and Twitter has raised more than $23,000 to offset $40,000 in court costs the cheerleader’s family has been ordered to pay her former school district, the Associated Press reports. There’s also growing pressure for the district to decline payment of the fees.
“It’s really an awful statement to send on how you treat a teenage sexual assault victim,” said Alex DiBranco, who after reading about the case started a petition on Change.org and gathered more than 94,000 signatures asking the school district not to make the family pay the fees.
The girl’s father, who is still litigating the fees issue, tells the Associated Press that he cannot accept that a sexual assault victim and her family are being punished.
The cheerleader, identified as H.S. in court documents, folded her arms and remained silent when the basketball player she had accused went to the free throw line at a game in February 2009. She was suspended from the squad for her act of protest but reinstated two weeks later. The player pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault in September 2010 and received a suspended sentence.
H.S. sued claiming her First and 14th Amendment rights were violated when the school suspended her. She lost in the federal and appellate courts.
The AP reports that donations, mostly less than $20, started coming into an account set up by the family’s attorney after actress Jessica Mills heard about the case and started raising money with a friend on a “Help the Cheerleader” website.
