“We have seen more and more stress and violence related to joining the school cheerleading squads,” said a department spokesman. “Many schools have dealt with this issue by enlarging the sizes of their squads, thereby allowing more student-cheerleaders to participate. This has helped, but we wanted to extend the ‘right to cheer’ to every Texas school girl.”
So far the new ruling is being well-received by local school administrators.
“This might help,” said Bruce Madden, principal at Odessa Cactus High School. “Every year it gets harder to find a teacher willing to become cheer sponsor. If the issue of selecting cheerleaders is removed, we may have more interest.”
During a pilot program run last year in the Cactus school district, the open cheer squad concept seems to have worked.
“Other than having more cheerleaders than spectators at several non-district games, I saw no problems,” Madden said. “We did need more uniforms, but our new Cheer Booster club is handling that.”
A few students have questioned the all-inclusion policy. “I don’t wanna be a cheerleader,” said junior Beth Labronski. “I think cheering is dumb, demeaning, and a waste of time.”
Unfortunately for students such as Labronski, there is no procedure for opting out of cheering.
“This is all or nothing,” said Madden. “Unless you are in a wheelchair or a burka, we want to see you out there doing flips and supporting the team.”
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