<p>"Jan. 2, 2007 - The pictures posted on MySpace.com looked like the latest installment of “Girls Gone Wild.” In them, cheerleaders from McKinney North High School in Texas exhibited all variety of bawdy behavior. One shot showed a bikini-clad girl sharing a bottle of booze with a friend. Another featured a cheerleader and several other girls in risqu? poses offering glimpses of their panties. But the most infamous photo of all was taken in a Condoms To Go store. Five smiling cheerleaders dressed in uniform posed with large candles shaped like [male sex organs]…</p>
<p>The photos are at the heart of a scandal that has rocked McKinney, an affluent bedroom community north of Dallas. By many accounts, the group of cheerleaders, known as the “Fab Five,” were out of control?an elite social clique that flagrantly flouted school rules but faced few sanctions. In many ways, they seemed like the stereotypical “mean girls” that periodically trigger bouts of consternation among parents. But there’s an added wrinkle to their tale: the Fab Five’s alleged ringleader was the daughter of McKinney North’s principal, Linda Theret…"<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16441559/site/newsweek/”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16441559/site/newsweek/</a></p>
<p>Interesting story. The pictures are the least of it; the girls did a lot of clearly inappropriate things.</p>
<p>I am interested that the pictures themselves seemed to make such a difference to people. Two teenage girls in bikinis with a bottle of – gasp! – liquor? Risque photos showing “glimpses” of their panties? Clowning around in a condom store? None of that is exactly off-the-charts behavior, at least in the experience of this father of a teenage daughter. Posting the pictures on MySpace, of course, showed a severe lack of judgment, but that’s a severe lack of judgment shared by millions of their peers. And I think it’s revealing and sad that the condom-store picture originally drew double the penalty of the booze picture (which of course displayed illegal behavior).</p>
<p>I know that parents differ, but I would have been very upset if my kids were drinking in h.s. I also would have been upset if they were taking risque pictures in sex shops. </p>
<p>Indeed, I saw pictures on my older S’s blog showing him drunk and drinking. He was 19 at the time. I was not amused. Not only was I justifiably concerned about his drinking (blog had lots of alarming details), but I also was concerned about S’s lack of judgment to publish on-line things that showed him in such a bad light.</p>
<p>I don’t think that what those cheerleaders were doing was normal or expected behavior. I also think that they didn’t deserve to be representing their school as cheerleaders or in any kind of official school position.</p>
<p>I’m not suggesting that the girls’ parents shouldn’t be upset about the drinking. But welcome to the club, there are a lot of us out here. At many high schools in this area, especially the elite private ones and the famous suburban publics, drinking is nearly ubiquitous, and stupid/inappropriate blogging is pretty common, too. As your experience shows, these are not the first (or the first millionth) kids to post drinking pictures on the web, and the only reason I don’t share your experience is that I don’t read my daughter’s blog(s) (and I know she thinks that it’s stupid to post incriminating things there anyway).</p>
<p>Clowning at the condom shop – sorry, I don’t see anything wrong with that, and I would love to know what bothers you about it. If teenagers joking about sexuality is bad behavior then, well, there aren’t many well-behaved teenagers out there. I think joking about sexuality, pretending to be slutty, etc., is very, very age-appropriate. </p>
<p>I do see something wrong, from the school’s point of view, with posting public pictures of five cheerleaders in uniform clowning at the condom shop. That was inappropriate, and deserved some response. But a 30-day suspension? Not even close.</p>
<p>Of course, the article makes clear that some of those girls did things that should have gotten them kicked out of the school permanently long before those pictures appeared, but it wasn’t clear at all that all of the girls suspended over the condom-store picture had engaged in the truly egregious conduct that should have been punished more harshly in the past.</p>
<p>why would anyone over the age of 13 not know that every word and picture you post online can come back to bite you. These sites have been used by lawyers, politicians, police to legally incriminate you, or merely besmirch your name. </p>
<p>I am not even getting into why kids indulge in some of these behaviors. I just hope it’s not as widespread as some say. And I hope that my kids know by know the limits for stupid behavior, that I have drawn.</p>
<p>I don’t know if parents are gutless, or plain dumb, trying to be their child’s pal, enabling the behaviors, smiling fondly at the ‘accomplishments’ and popularity of their precious ones.</p>
<p>A child attending a school where her parent is the principal is a recipe for trouble and, I think, the underlying problem here. </p>
<p>Any of us who have been group leaders in extracurricular activities where our own child is among the participants can understand the friction and conflicts that come with the dual role. It is very hard to be the coach’s kid or the scout leader’s kid, and it is even harder for the coach or the scout leader to deal with the issues that may arise in this challenging situation. </p>
<p>I was a Cub Scout den leader, and while the experience was a positive one in some respects, it also involved four years of friction with my son as a den member. He could not easily switch roles from being my kid to being one member of the den, and he did a lot of acting out at Scout events as a result – something that I did not deal with as well as I might have.</p>
<p>Having your mom be the principal is the same situation, but on a larger scale.</p>
<p>I also think the community and school system did not react well. As far as I can see, the only problem with the condom store photo is that the girls were wearing their cheerleader uniforms at the time. They should perhaps have been kicked off the squad for wearing their uniforms during an unsanctioned activity, but I fail to see why they were suspended from school. Being silly with condoms is similar to making snow sculptures of male genitalia (something else that school authorities go bananas about). It’s tasteless and a bit childish, but it’s harmless. The insubordination in class and the drinking are far more serious issues.</p>
<p>“I don’t share your experience is that I don’t read my daughter’s blog(s) (and I know she thinks that it’s stupid to post incriminating things there anyway).”</p>
<p>Just FYI: I wasn’t trying to read S’s blog. I accidentally found it after he sent me a message with some compliments that he said his songs had received on an on-line site. Proud mom that I am, I plugged the compliments into Google, and up came his blog.</p>
<p>(Not suggesting that you thought that I deliberately read his blog. Just showing how unexpected people can end up reading things that were posted on-line for a totally different kind of audience to peruse.)</p>
<p>The wrong people even can get e-mails. Once while downloading my own e-mail from work, through some computer glitch, I got hundreds of e-mails that had been sent to another executive in my company. Once my husband got in the mail copies of snarky e-mails that a summer intern whom we had taught a year previously had sent to a student at our college, who was interning with her. The two young women were roommates (in a state where we don’t live), and were having lots of disagreements. Somehow the one who didn’t attend the college where we taught thought that she’d ruin her roommate’s reputation to send the e-mails to her professor.</p>
<p>I think the issue with the condom shop photos may have been because they were in uniform. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the school to have an expectation of behavior when a student is in uniform and thus representing the school.</p>
<p>Boy. I’m not even a parent, and I think that the “Fab Five” were more than a little idiotic. And I’m surprised that some parents are saying “Kids will be kids.” </p>
<p>These kind of teenagers are the bane of my existence. And I’m supposed to go to school with people like this. Urgh. {Regina George would be proud.}</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that type of Mean Girls-like, “elite” groups of girls (complete with a cute name) actually existed. It just seems so absurd–but I attend a tiny private school where this sort of thing is unheard of, so I guess maybe I’m just sheltered.</p>
<p>this was high school?
I am reminded of where my daughter attended middle school ( a K-12) the high school teams often were attended by a group of cheerleaders- however they were mostly 2nd and 3rd graders-
cute as buttons!</p>
<p>Every year the cheer squad at my d’s high school seemed to be divided between those who behave like the Fab Five and those who were good students and leaders. Problem was the well-behaved girls were only able to take that sordid environment for so long and usually quit to go on to more productive activities. My d was a cheerleader for years…mostly competitive. She did school cheer for a while and had very mixed feelings about the experience. She loved being in front of a big crowd on the football field or at a pep rally, but hated the rest of it. The “Mean Girls/Alpha Females” hassled the non-partiers for not buckling to the pressure to drink and be promiscuous. And the reputation of the nice girls suffered by association with the bad girls. (I remember my d being so excited when asked out by someone she thought was nice and smart, only to be disappointed that she had to spend the evening fighting him off. He actually said to her ‘you’re a cheerleader…what’s your problem?’)</p>
<p>We had similar incidences where cheerleaders were photographed drinking and worse…and were dismissed from the squad only to be reinstated the moment a parent whipped out their attorney. It happens every year…and it won’t stop until parents stop enabling their kids and until school officials grow a backbone and enforce the conduct rules. Which means…basically…it won’t stop.</p>
<p>I agree that it has a lot to do with the parents-and other adults
It is pretty interesting to watch- from a sociological standpoint.
One girl for example, was encouraged in flirtacious behavior and while I know many kids like to try on older behavior, when only coquettish behavior is encouraged, even when in grade school, why are parents then surprised when as a high school student or even in college, girls are still boy crazy?
What is even more puzzling to me, is then they repeat that parenting behavior with their much younger daughter, while complaining about the older one.</p>
<p>I don’t think cheer has to be full of “Gossip girl” like females, but it is pretty hard to resist the major push when it seems to be coming from all sides.
I realize that some consider Texas a different country, and it probably is from Seattle. Here cheer isn’t a prestige thing, as it was when I was in high school, especially at my daughters school, where the girls are indistiquishable from any other girls, and while I think my daughter isn’t cognizant of all the goings on at her school, I think the girls on the sports teams get much more attention ( or the kids in band- or orchestra- or dance)
Of course the football team also is not full of multisport stars like when I was in school either- Her school team is in the bottom of the district & while the coaches are doing an excellent job to build the team- if you really want to play on winning football team, you are probably going to lean towards another school ( or district- like Bellevue)</p>
<p>But while I haven’t run into any really wild examples of behavior, I would also agree that posting pictures of dumb things you did, isn’t a sign of a lack of morality, just of judgement.
( not that I have been in a sex shop lately- but don’t you have to be 18 to go in there?)</p>
<p>Like your D, our D was a cheerleader for years, mostly competitive and some high school. Both she & we found the girls and guys on the competitive squads much more responsible and much harder workers,. Our D got very bored with high school cheerleading, as it fit more of the stereotype of what many people think of cheerleaders. and she wasn’t that way. </p>
<p>I hate that girls like this give cheering even more of a bad name than it already has.</p>
<p>And in December, the DMN ran the following story: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is an excerpt from the report of HARRY JONES, the Dallas lawyer hired to investigate the handling of discipline at the school. His investigation took about 200 hours and cost the district about $39,000. </p>
<p>The investigation listed the following as “failures”: </p>
<p>The district failed to write and amend a coherent constitution. </p>
<p>North failed to recruit and keep a qualified cheerleading sponsor with longevity. </p>
<p>Some parents failed to transmit solid values, beyond “success” and “individual rights.” </p>
<p>Most teachers failed to take a stand on principle, preferring career advancement. </p>
<p>The administration failed to implement and assess discipline equitably. </p>
<p>Many students failed to understand how the rules could get so twisted. </p>
<p>A small group of “ultra-cool” cheerleaders at the top of the North “food chain” resisted all authority and failed to recognize how they were hurting their community. </p>
<p>A few parents failed to see discipline as a loving instruction about life ? instead they enabled children to a profound degree. </p>
<p>The media failed to get the story straight: broadcasting it as a sensationalized battle between an upright crusader and “girls gone wild” and “teasing” with a risqu? photograph. </p>
<p>Previous cheerleading sponsors at North failed to give the real reason they quit. </p>
<p>The most recent cheerleading sponsors at North failed to give the real reason they quit. </p>
<p>The most recent cheerleading sponsor failed to embrace or thoroughly follow the constitution ? and quit in a very untimely fashion. </p>
<p>**The principal failed to properly juggle two of the most important responsibilities in her life: principal and mother. She must be held principally accountable. **</p>
<p>“The principal failed to properly juggle two of the most important responsibilities in her life: principal and mother. She must be held principally accountable.”</p>
<p>She was: she was given $75,000 and a letter of recommendation,</p>
LOL. Knowing what you have told us about the book, I’ll bet you’re right.</p>