Friday, Jun. 27, 2008

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Re: Investigation Unveils Tryout Facts and Sometimes Plan B is Best

We are the parents of one of the FMHS incoming seniors who did not make the varsity cheerleading squad for 2008-2009.

After reading both the original story about the cheerleading try outs appeals and the follow up story, we decided we needed to provide additional facts that were not stated in either story, and to also clarify some points.

We chose to go through the LISD appeal process and not get involved with the media, but given the incomplete picture painted by your follow up story, we want to now come forth with the full story about what happened prior to and during try outs. More importantly, we want to try to ensure that this never again happens to any other LISD students.

The issue about the judge was only one of several concerns that we brought to the attention of LISD administrators and the school board to support our position that the FMHS cheerleading tryouts were flawed.

We still believe that judges should not be from any local businesses so as not to give any appearance of impropriety and not put the judge in an awkward situation. We know that the judge did in fact know some of the candidates and did give pointers and tips to some of the candidates, which we believe violates the intent of the district’s cheerleading constitution, which states: “judges should not be hired to judge tryouts if they have tutored or taught the cheerleader candidates during the current school year. Every attempt should be made to hire judges who have not worked with students in the LISD area.” *

Regarding the issue of the reduction of the squad, there were statements made prior to try outs that there would not be a full squad next year and another statement made that some of the current cheerleaders would not be back for next year and they had no one to blame but themselves. The LISD response to this is that the statements were misunderstood. It is our opinion that these statements were not misunderstood.

To clarify the point about the “natural break,” it is important to know that the cheerleading constitution does not define what the “natural break” is and therefore, this gives total leeway for the coach and/or administrator to decide how large of a break to choose and at what point to choose the break. There is no “determining mathematical formula” for choosing the break as is stated in the story. The three judges’ scores are added, then put in order from highest to lowest and the point breaks between each score are determined. Where the break is chosen is a completely arbitrary and subjective decision.

According to your story: “this year’s FMHS try out’s first scoring break was after the 15th candidate.” Not true. The break chosen was a 5 point break; however, there were also breaks of: 6, 13, 9, and 4 prior to the break chosen and 2 more breaks of 5 points as well as a 4 point break and an 8 point break after the break chosen. It is our position that since there was a 5 point break between candidates 20 and 21, why couldn’t they have taken the maximum allowed of 20 instead of choosing the break between candidates 15 and 16? A 5 point break amounts to a 1.67% difference – in our opinion, this is not a reasonable difference to be considered a “natural break.” The point spread between candidate number 15 and candidate number 20 amounted to 5 percent.

In years past when someone did not make it on a squad, we had always assumed that the break had been a large break, such as 10 or 15 or 20 points; therefore, it was a complete shock to us that a 5 point break would be considered enough of a break. Out of a possible 300 maximum points, 5 points is minuscule.

The response from LISD is that the administrator who made this decision “was instructed to consider the first natural break with enough cheerleaders to have an effective squad.” Nowhere in the constitution are there instructions to this effect. And that is our point – the constitution is so vague and full of holes that it is interpreted differently by different coaches and administrators, and therefore, there is no consistency from year to year or school to school. We want this changed.

We also wonder what it means to have “an effective squad.” This is not the school’s competitive squad; there is another try out process for that. This is the regular cheer squad whose main goal, according to the LISD Cheer Constitution, is to “promote good sportsmanship, good citizenship, wholesome and enthusiastic school spirit and are first and foremost representatives of their school.” It makes no sense to us that they didn’t take the maximum allowed when the scores were so close.

Another fact to be aware of is that the administrator who made this decision told us in our first meeting that she was not aware that there was a maximum allowable of 20. We were deeply disturbed by this. How could someone who was responsible for making the final selection not know this important fact? The LISD response to this concern is that the administrator states she did know about the maximum. We do not understand the discrepancy between what we were originally told by this person and what we were later told during the appeal process.

Another issue that we brought up was the fact that safety mats were not used this year at try outs or during practices prior to try outs. Mats were used at every other high school in the district. Mats have been used every year at FMHS – except the first year the school opened – because there were no mats at that time. After that first year, the mats were purchased by the booster club – at the request of the coaches. We have done extensive research about safety in cheerleading, and spoken with physical therapists and professional coaches; it is understood by everyone that mats should be used.

Prior to try outs, a professional coach from a local gym expressed his concerns to one of the FMHS cheer coaches about the risks of tumbling without safety mats, and his concerns were disregarded. The LISD cheerleading constitution’s safety guidelines state: “If possible, all practice sessions should be held in a location suitable for the activities of cheerleaders, i.e., use of tumbling mats where warranted….” The LISD response to this concern is that the constitution “allows this to be a coach decision. The coach decided not to use mats and feels her justification is valid.”

The reason given to the cheerleaders for not using mats this year was “for the improvement of the squad.” We continue to question how this improves the team, especially when there is the risk of injury. We believe that it gives the appearance that LISD allows coaches to risk the safety of the students in order to improve the teams. Many cheerleaders can and do tumble on hard wood floors and other unsafe surfaces. But they shouldn’t.

We believe that if this practice of not using mats during try outs is allowed to continue at FMHS or any of the other district schools in future years, it is just a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt. Tryouts are the time when the students are most nervous and stressed and the possibility of injury is great.

Finally, we want to point out LISD’s own District Improvement Plan, which is available on the LISD website. This plan went into effect during the 2006-2007 academic year and is a 5-year plan listing goals for the district in various areas.

Goal 4.5 states: “Students shall expand their involvement in extracurricular and co-curricular activities,” with the evidence of this goal being: “program enrollment increases.” When the varsity cheer squad at FMHS decreases by 25-percent in one year, how is the school meeting this goal in the cheer program? In our opinion, it is sad that rarely does FMHS take the maximum number allowed for any of the cheer squads. Not because there aren’t enough talented kids for the squads, but just because they don’t have to due to the way that the constitution is written. We wonder if anyone within LISD is monitoring the District Improvement Plan’s goal 4.5 at each of the high schools.

The three incoming seniors who did not make varsity this year have been on All Star cheer squads since they were young girls; they were captains of either their FMHS squad, or All Star squads; they were nominated “All American” cheerleaders at NCA camps; they were cheerleaders for three years for FMHS.

In those 3 years as FMHS cheerleaders, they dedicated themselves to the program and the school, and in addition to “cheering,” they painted signs for all the different sports, decorated the school, participated in numerous fundraisers that many times benefited local non-profits, visited nursing homes and elementary schools; and now for their senior year, their final year at the school, the message that has been given to them is that they are of no value to the school any longer. Is this really the message that LISD wants to give to our children? That is the sad part of all of this.

We hope to change this for the future by continuing a petition that already has over 200 signatures of students, parents, and teachers.

The petition calls for the following: 1) allow incoming seniors who have been cheerleaders at their LISD high school for three years to be automatically on the varsity squad their senior year [as is the current policy with drill team and other sports and extracurricular activities]; 2) have a set, standard number of cheerleaders on each squad each year at all the LISD high schools: 15 for freshmen, 15 for JV, and 20 for varsity, thereby eliminating the arbitrary and undefined “natural break” system that is currently being used; 3) ensure that the administrators in charge of monitoring the try out process are fully informed of and knowledgeable of the constitution and process; 4) ensure that all safety guidelines [i.e. use of mats] and procedures are followed in a consistent manner at all the district high schools.

Regarding the school board’s decision, we believe it is important that it be known that the school board took an extremely long time in their deliberations. More importantly, their decisions against our appeals were not unanimous. Two of the board members voted in our favor and one board member who voted against us stated that they were doing so “with heavy hearts.” This indicated to us that at least some of the board members believed that our concerns have merit. Therefore, we hope that our recommendations for the future will be taken seriously and changes will be made to the LISD cheerleading constitution.

This is an outstanding school district that we have always been extremely proud of our daughters attending; unfortunately, we have seen throughout this process that there is room for improvement. We hope that we can trigger those improvements.

One final point regarding “ Sometimes, Plan B is Best,” we fully agree that we have to teach our children that life holds no guarantees, and that they must learn to cope with disappointments in life. However, we also believe that it is important to teach our children that when people in positions of authority are not playing “by the book” and when there are injustices done to them, they need to stand up and fight for what they believe in and do everything they can to make “right” those things that are obviously wrong.

Unfortunately, the appeal process did not work for our daughter; however, by showing her that we are continuing to pursue changes in the constitution, we hope that she will see that even people not in positions of power or authority can make a difference. We will pursue this to get those changes made in hopes that other LISD students do not have to go through what happened to our daughter.

Joe and Ana Henke Lewisville, Texas

* [Editor’s Note – The paragraph continues: “However, with the hundreds of camps in the state of Texas, attended by thousands of cheerleaders and taught by hundreds of instructors, it may be possible at some time that a member of thhe judging panel may have had some contact with a candidate who is trying out. Professional judges with outstanding credentials and references will be hired for all tryouts. They will be instructed to judge the candidates based only on the mastery of the skills that they see demonstrated during the tryouts. Tryout results will not be challenged because of prior knowledge of judges and candidates. LISD Cheerleader/Drill Team coaches may not serve as a judge for cheerleader tryouts.”]