Say Anything Blog

Because their daughters were denied “due process.”

The parents of two Seattle-area high school cheerleaders are suing the district for suspending the girls from the squad after nude photographs of them circulated via text message.

The two teens were suspended from the squad — one for 30 days and one for the entire year — after school officials learned of the photos in August, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

The families suing Northshore School District weren’t identified because the girls are minors.

The lawsuits, filed on Nov. 17, say the district violated the girls’ due process rights, according to the paper. The families allege it was unnecessary for school officials to share the photos with other staff members, and claim they were negligent in failing to report the matter to police as a potential case of child pornography.

Matthew King, the attorney representing the families, told the Post-Intelligencer that it was unfair to punish the cheerleaders but not the other students who received or forwarded the photos.

“We’re not technically challenging the sanctions as being too strict, we’re saying they weren’t evenly enforced across the school,” said King. “There should have been some punishment meted out to those who were in possession of the photos. … It seems like the girls are getting the brunt of it.”

One of the pictures was taken three years ago and sent to the teen’s then-boyfriend. The other was snapped in June. The lawsuits allege that the girls believed they had deleted the photos, but accidentally sent them to members of the football team.

As a parent, I can tell you that a lawsuit certainly wouldn’t be my reaction to this situation.  “Accidentally sent them to the football team.”

Yeah.  Right.

Due process, as provided for by the 5th amendment, simply means that nobody can be denied life or liberty without first being afforded some sort of hearing.  Frankly, I don’t think being booted from the cheerleading squad is equivalent to denying anyone life or liberty.  Cheerleading for a school is, after all, a privilege and not a right.  Using this lawyer’s reasoning, nobody could be cut from the cheerleading team without some sort of school or court hearing.

Also for the accusations of child pornography, I think it’s a bit dangerous to invoke statutes intended to protect children from pederasty in a situation that has seventeen-year-old girls sending out pictures of themselves (inadvertently or otherwise) to other people their own age.  I think you could make a case for the school needing to punish the other kids who helped distribute these photos - fair is fair - but outside of that I don’t see where the school district did anything wrong.

There was a time in this country when a situation like this would have prompted shame, embarrassment and an effort from the parents to reform their wayward daughters.  These days it prompts lawsuits and finger pointing.

Sad.