Cheer for your rapist or give $45,000

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Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

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I'm curious whether she had a case here. Summary: Cheerleader is sexually assaulted by boy on the basketball team. He pleads guilty, gets off on misdemeanor, and is allowed to stay on the team. The cheerleader didn't cheer his name along with the others when he came up on the team, and when the school found out, they kicked her off. She sued the school on free speech grounds (which traditionally have been considered non-existent in public school, from my experience), lost, and has to pay $45,000 for their legal fees.

Also wondering why the scumbag was allowed to stay on the team.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

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Damn it this shit makes me pissed off. I really hate the power that high school sports have here in Texas. It really screws a lot of crap up. We have huge high schools, just so there's a larger base for the sports teams. Advocates in favor of smaller schools to improve academics get shouted down by the need for football and basketball supremacy. It really sucks and harms a lot of students in many ways.

But this... THIS makes my blood boil. As sick as I am of everyone saying "Texas sucks", when shit like this happens it just makes me want to throw up and say "okay, you're right, this state sucks. I'm just damn glad that I happen to know the 100 or so people that are the exception to the rule." THIS makes me want to punch someone, multiple people in fact and kick a few of them once they've hit the ground.

EDIT: Also, Texas can't take all the blame this time. It was a Federal appeals court that upheld the decision, and the Supreme Court that refused to hear the case.
 
C

Chibibar

It is times like this I am ashamed of my state :( That boy should have been thrown out of the school for a guilty RAPE. I don't care how good you are, in the real world, that is jail sentence buddy, not a misdomenor and STILL stay on the team? yea right.
 
TommiR

TommiR

escushion said:
I'm curious whether she had a case here.
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While I possess little knowledge of legal matters and even less knowledge of US legal matters, I had a look at the Federal appeals court ruling on the case, and the reasons they gave for the ruling appear pretty convincing to me. There were several points of appeal covered in a hefty dose of legal mumbo-jumbo, but the Free Speech one seems to have been dismissed on the basic grounds that, as a cheerleader, it was her job to cheer as required, and the school was not required to promote her message by allowing her to cheer or not as she saw fit. Furthermore, her failure to cheer as per her cheerleading contract with the school was sufficient grounds for her removal from the cheer squad. Seemed pretty reasonable to me.

Also wondering why the scumbag was allowed to stay on the team.
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Me too. I guess a misdemeanor is not sufficient cause to expel someone from the team. But a rape charge getting turned into a verdict for misdemeanor sounds a bit surprising.
 
strawman

strawman

TommiR said:
a rape charge getting turned into a verdict for misdemeanor sounds a bit surprising.
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Chances are good the prosecutor didn't believe the case was strong enough to pursue the actual crime. Perhaps they were lucky the boy decided to take the plea agreement. Who knows. It can be very hard to successfully prosecute a sex crime without significant evidence, beyond just physical evidence.

I hope he got on the sex offender list, though.
 
Espy

Espy

stienman said:
Chances are good the prosecutor didn't believe the case was strong enough to pursue the actual crime. Perhaps they were lucky the boy decided to take the plea agreement. Who knows. It can be very hard to successfully prosecute a sex crime without significant evidence, beyond just physical evidence.
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Yeah, this is the really tough thing in these cases. They just devolve into he said/she said if there isn't some good evidence.

Either way, having grown up in Texas, high school sports is the height of everyones life and everything falls to the wayside for them. One of the reasons I wanted to get away. I found the attitude to be cult-like and creepy.
 
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