A federal lawsuit filed by the parents of a Black Pennsylvania cheerleader is accusing their daughter’s teammates, coaches, and other school officials of discriminating against the 16-year-old girl on multiple occasions. How they allegedly did so is enraging.
According to the Tri-City Herald, the Black student — who went unnamed in the lawsuit — was often excluded from team photos, given unfair discipline, and assigned to do other minor tasks that her white teammates did not have to all because she was Black.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Black cheerleader attends Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, Penn. While there are several alleged incidents where this student’s parents feel she was discriminated against, there is one incident in particular that stands out above the rest as the most heinous.
In February 2024, the cheer team was staying at a hotel in Florida for a national competition. While in her room, the Black cheerleader received a knock on her door from a teammate, who told her to go to another room where the rest of the team had gathered.
Once in the room, the lawsuit states that she was forced to crawl on all fours like an animal and pretend that she was a white cheerleader’s pet, who walked on her on an imaginary leash.
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Her teammates took videos and photos of the “humiliating” act, according to the lawsuit filed Nov. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
On the flight back to Pennsylvania, the complaint says one of the coaches told her to keep quiet about what happened to her in the Florida hotel.
The girl’s parents also claim in the suit that their daughter was often told she was not “cheerleader-like” by coaches, was singled out to film cheer competitions and was cropped out or not included in team photos.
The lawsuit specifically names school administrators, cheerleading coaches, members of the booster club, and the Cumberland Valley School District, claiming that they all violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Black girls’ equal protection under the 14th Amendment, according to the Tri-City Herald.