Windfall for school in cheerleader case

When you think the Evil Empire can't get any lower, it always does.

Background on this story: A cheerleader at a high school in Silsbee, Texas, accused a basketball player from her school of rape. The player went on to be convicted of assault for this incident. Despite this conviction, the school let him play on the basketball team anyway. (I guess forced drug tests don't catch convictions for violent crimes.)

Sometime later, at a school basketball game, the cheerleader refused to cheer for the player who had attacked her. Because of this, she was kicked off the cheerleading squad.

She sued the school for removing her from the squad. Outrageously, courts sided with the school. On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal.

All of that was bad enough. But now a federal appeals court has ordered the cheerleader to pay the school's $45,000 legal tab.

You read that right. A teenage girl who was brutally attacked, and then further humiliated by the school because she wouldn't cheer her attacker, is being forced to pay the school $45,000. Annual per capita income in Silsbee is less than $20,000. They're making a 16-year-old girl work for over 2 years just to pay a school that violated her rights?

Another judge for the impeachment block, I guess.

As with the Supreme Court's recent verdict overturning an award for a Louisiana man imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit, this is one of the meanest court rulings in modern times. Also as with that ruling, there's not even any legal basis for it.

In the end, the cheerleader was punished far more severely than the player who was convicted of assaulting her. The assailant only got a small fine and community service. But the victim (in addition to suffering the original crime) was subjected to additional humiliation by the school AND had to pay the school $45,000.

And so, a brand new low has been reached in right-wing viciousness.

(Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cheerleader-must-compensate-school-that-told-her-to-clap-rapist-2278522.html)