The New Mexico High School Cheerleader Pauline Williams

The New Mexico High School cheerleader, Pauline Williams, refused to cheer for the point guard of the basketball team, Dyson Stevens, due to the fact of him sexually assaulted her in the past, but was not charged. The coach has asked her multiple times to cheer for him but she continues to refuse. This refusal of not cheering for him caused the school and coach to kick her off from the cheerleading team. Williams decided to take legal action about this. The legal issue here can be concluded to be: “has the school violated Pauline Williams’s right to freedom of speech/expression that is constituted under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution for cutting her off the cheerleading team for not cheering for Stevens during the free throws?”

Pauline Williams’s side of the legal issue is that she has the right to freedom of speech/expression. She can cheer or not cheer for anyone of her choosing without be penalized for it. The First Amendment protects her for expressing her opinions. She did not violate any rules and/or laws. She did not do anything that can seem unethical and wrong. She just simply did not want to cheer for someone that sexually assaulted her in the past. The school should not have the right to kick her off the team just because she did not cheer for Dyson Stevens. She might think that cheering for him, makes it feel like she is encouraging he’s action of the sexual assault. By kicking her off the team, it is denying her of her rights to freedom of speech/expression. She should have the right to not cheer all the time unless joining the cheerleading team is signing a contract to cheer for everyone on the team no matter what happens. Then if she does not cheer, she would be breaking the contract agreement and the school has a good reason to kick her off the cheerleading team. But the contract does not seem like the case, so the school kicking her off the cheerleading team for not cheering for one person does not really seem like a strong reasonable action. Not cheering him on is her way of expressing her opinion about him and it is not like she is not cheering for the team. She just did not cheer for him during his free throws. The school should not cut her from the team for this reason. Also, the principal did threaten her to cheer for Stevens or she gets cut from the team. And if she did compel, then it might be an improper threat situation and/or undue influence if there is contract involved (not sure if joining cheerleading team in high school has contract involved, probably not).

The school’s and coach’s side of the legal issue is that Pauline Williams should cheer for everyone on the team, no matter what. Well, this seems very reasonable for a cheerleader. So, her not cheering for everyone on the team, it seems to them that she is “interfering” with the work of the school. Being in the cheerleading team, she represents the school and she should do what they are meant to do, which