Penalty for smoking unclear,
girl's supporters say
By Lori Price and Nancy
Calaway
Staff Writers of the
Arlington Morning News
GRAND PRAIRIE - Sitting near
red-and-gold pompoms, photos and a decorated South Grand Prairie
High School jacket, Amber Page (pictured right) flails her hands
in frustration as she explains her disappointment in being kicked
off her cheerleading squad for smoking.
"You might as well
confine me to a state prison, because they have not only taken
away my dream, but they've taken away so much of my pride,"
Amber said during an interview at her home Friday. "I was
always so proud to cheer at South, because that's what I was. I
wasn't a football player or a softball player, I was a
cheerleader."
The petite, blond 17-year-old's
dreams were quashed when she was dismissed from the squad after a
school administrator caught her smoking a cigarette in the school
parking lot in April. Amber received a paddling for
the incident, but was barred from returning to the squad during
her senior year.
Grand Prairie school officials
have said cheerleaders were tested on the rules and demerits in
their handbook as part of their class work. School trustees
decided Thursday night to form a task force to examine the
guidelines for all extracurricular activities.
Amber said she's heartbroken
by the administrative decision to kick her off the squad. School
board members upheld the ruling this week.
"I've worked so hard and
I've been cheering all my life," she said. "I feel like
everything is being taken away from me."
Amber has been a cheerleader
for more than a decade, including three years at South Grand
Prairie, all while maintaining an A average at school.
But she quit cheering
competitively with an all-star squad so that she could devote her
talents to the school team.
Now, she said she plans to try
out for the Texas Tech University squad after high school.
Amber said she knew that
smoking was wrong, but she doesn't understand why she's being
punished so harshly. She said she offered to speak to younger
students in the district about the dangers of smoking as an
alternative to being dismissed from cheerleading.
"I made a mistake that
was stupid and it was silly, but I've learned from it,"
Amber said. "Punish me, but not for the whole year."
Amber's parents, Mike Page and
Tonya Hernandez, said their daughter was grounded for a week for
smoking.
Ms. Hernandez said she was
disappointed when she found out about her daughter's smoking, but
she doesn't believe school officials acted appropriately. The
district's punishment, she said, is too much for her daughter,
who has never been in serious trouble at school before.
"What they're doing is
taking a good kid and treating her like a bad kid," Ms.
Hernandez said. "That's just not right."
Mr. Page said he would also
like to know why there wasn't a more extensive investigation
regarding Amber's case. She is a minor, he said, who was smoking
cigarettes with other minors, yet she was the only one punished.
"Why didn't anyone ask
where she got the cigarettes from? Why weren't the other kids
taken in, too?" Mr. Page said. "It just doesn't make
sense."
Amber and her parents have
said they were not aware that tobacco use was grounds for
dismissal from the squad. They said the list of demerits
regarding cheerleaders was not a part of the cheerleader handbook
they received at the beginning of school.
"Had I known that this
was going to jeopardize [cheerleading], they know that I would
have never done that because they know how much I love this,"
Amber said, referring to school officials.
School officials said Amber
and her parents signed a statement acknowledging receipt and
understanding of the cheerleader handbook.
On Thursday night, the Grand
Prairie school board examined the handbooks and rules for all
extracurricular activities after approving next year's
cheerleader handbook.
"It passed with the
stipulation to put together a task force to look at all the
guidelines for all activities," said Sam Buchmeyer, a
district spokesman.
Although a time frame for when
the task force will be assembled has not been specified, Mr.
Buchmeyer said any recommended changes the panel may decide on
won't take effect until the 2000-2001 handbooks are discussed
next year.
The current cheerleader
handbook, which Amber was asked to abide by, does not include a
list of infractions and how many demerits each holds as
punishment. District officials said that document was handed out
separately.
According to the 1998-99
demerit list, any alcohol, drug or tobacco related violation of
the Student Code of Conduct results in 30 demerits. Cheerleaders
who have more than 26 demerits are dismissed from the squad.
The school board agreed
Thursday to include the infraction list in next year's
cheerleader handbook to avoid confusion, Mr. Buchmeyer said.
Brittany Pippen, 19, a former
South Grand Prairie cheerleader, said she is concerned that the
student handbook does not specify punishments.
"Nowhere in the Code of
Conduct did it ever say what the penalty for smoking would be if
I was caught," said Ms. Pippen, who graduated last year.
"It never said you would be kicked off the squad. In my
opinion, if I would have known the exact consequences, I might
have changed some of my actions."
District officials said they
didn't immediately know how many students have been caught
smoking on campus this year. But previously, officials have
contended that there is not a large number of students who smoke.
Some students and graduates
said they disagree.
"Smoking is a bad problem
on campus," said Tanna Thornton, a 1998 South Grand Prairie
graduate. "The rule is just not enforced, because if it was,
they'd have an office full of kids all the time."
Some believe Amber is being
used to set an example for other students.
"If it would have
happened to any other student, they would have taken their swats
and it would be over with," Ms. Thornton said. " But
because she is a cheerleader, they are doing these other things."
Kacey Cartwright, a 17-year-old
graduating senior who cheered with Amber on the South Grand squad,
believes her friend's punishment is too harsh.
"I don't think,
personally, she should have been kicked off," Kacey said.
"By doing that, they've done nothing to make her a better
person or the cheerleaders or the school"
Athletes are often punished
differently, Kacey said, echoing a concern expressed earlier this
week by Amber's parents.
David Thompson, athletic
director and football coach for the school, said there are rules
for athletics that are listed in the coaching manual, but did not
cite a formal handbook that is used and given to students.
"Each coach has a copy of
the manual, and I'm sure they go over that with the athletes,"
Mr. Thompson said. "Everything is up to the discretion of
the coach, but there is some punishment that goes along with it
that is not up to the discretion of the coach."
Mr. Thompson said he could not
give specific example of punishment because he didn't have a copy
of the manual with him.
Mr. Thompson declined to
comment on Amber's punishment, but he said that he has never
dismissed anyone from an athletic team for smoking.
John Pogue, a trustee, said he
would like to see one handbook for all students who participate
in extracurricular activities. But, he added, penalties for
cheerleaders and athletes should be tougher.
"They should be held to a
higher standard because they know going in that they're a choice
group," Mr. Pogue said. "Not everybody gets to do what
they get to do, and they are more of an example and a role model
than those in organizations that everyone can be a part of
without having to be selected."
Staff Writers Kathy A.
Edgar and Julie Elliott contributed to this report.
Do school policies favor
male athletes over cheerleaders? Mike Page started asking this
question when his daughter was paddled and removed from the
cheerleading team for smoking a cigarette. He's still waiting for
an answer.
It doesn't take Dad long to
find what he is looking for in the storage room of his Fort Worth
home. Over and over in the past few months, he has thought a lot
about trophies, tiaras and the unfair treatment of young girls.
He spots the 1982 Miss Texas Star Best Party Dress award. It's
right next to the StarLight Baby 1982 Winner trophy. Mike Page
grabs those out of storage, along with a couple of tiny tiaras
won by his daughter, Amber Page, when she was just 1 year old.
She is 17 now, with a stream of trophies and straight-A report
cards behind her. Something catches in his throat. After a
lifetime of pageants and pompons, after a lifetime of applause,
suddenly it feels as if so much of it is gone, smacked out of her
with a paddle (picture example).
She did something wrong. Dad knows that. But the punishment seems
too severe.
Amber Page, selected to be captain of the Class of 2000 varsity
cheer team when school starts Aug. 16 at South Grand Prairie High
School, was kicked off the squad after an assistant principal
caught her smoking a cigarette in the school parking lot one day
last spring.
An officer of the Grand Prairie Police Department gave her a $135
citation for being a minor in possession of tobacco, a
misdemeanor.
Two male administrators took her into an office where one of them
paddled her in private, as is district policy.
To protect student confidentiality, school district officials
will not comment in detail on the specifics of Amber's situation.
Grand Prairie School Board President Norris "Stretch"
Rideaux says the board agreed in closed session to uphold the
administration's treatment of Amber to encourage good citizenship
among students.
Dad is fuming.
"No way would they do this to a quarterback," he says.
After Amber was paddled, television cameras and newspaper
reporters went to the school. In a year filled with horrible
violence on American campuses, public attention turned to how
kids are treated at school. Violence in movies, in the news, and
on video games surely plays a part. But are there more subtle
influences? Do we teach kids to disrespect government? Are we too
quick to hit them? Do we use humiliation to control them?
Mike Page took a week off of work as a grocer in Irving to try to
persuade school administrators to change their minds about
removing his daughter from the squad.
He ended up with more questions than answers.
"Would they spank a 17-year-old male cheerleader?" he
wonders. "How can they be so hard on a kid who makes a
mistake?"
He sets "Miss StarLight" and "Miss Texas Star"
on the hearth of the brick fireplace in the family room of the
home where he lives alone. Amber lives with her mom in Grand
Prairie.
He wants to look at the trophies for a while as he wonders what
to do next. The baby pageant trophies look a little tarnished
these days. Once in a while, he cries. He couldn't love his blond,
blue-eyed daughter any more than he already does, and he hates
that she is hurting.
Here's how Amber's dream unraveled:
It was Friday, April 30. Amber met a big group of friends in the
school parking lot. She says a lot of the kids were smoking
cigarettes.
She was standing with her back toward the school when a friend
told her "Hey, Amber, Mr. Pecor is coming." She thought
her friends were pulling her leg.
Assistant Principal David Pecor pointed at her, and gestured for
her to come to the office with him.
In the South Grand Prairie High School book of rules,
cheerleaders caught smoking can earn 16 to 30 demerits. Thirty
demerits are enough to kick a student off the cheerleading squad.
In meetings with various assistant principals that day, Amber was
told her offense earned her 30 demerits. She was given a choice:
two swats with a paddle or two days of in-school suspension in a
room Amber calls "the dungeon," a room in the basement
of the school where students spend time in isolation. Amber chose
the paddle.
Administrators called Mike Page, just as they are supposed to do
before they paddle a student.
"There is no way I want you to do that to my daughter!"
Page says he told them. Mike Page argued and yelled, but he was
told those were the rules and Amber made the choice. Finally, he
says, he relented.
Friday passed without punishment. On Monday, Amber got ready for
school with dread. She put on four pairs of shorts, then covered
them with a pair of overalls. She wanted the extra padding.
When she went to the school office, she was told she'd be kicked
off the squad. She started to cry. She wasn't paddled that day.
Amber says this was her first offense. She suggested that her
punishment be constructive, and volunteered to teach anti-smoking
classes to younger students. Her suggestion, she says, was turned
down.
That doesn't make sense, she thought: "What are they trying
to teach me?"
On May 7, a week after she was seen smoking, school officials
called her back into the administrative offices. The door was
closed. Assistant Principals Mike Cook and Benny Reed were there.
Amber remembers wishing a woman was in the room.
"That's the least they should do," she says.
Grand Prairie requires that two administrators be present. Gender
is not taken into account. Amber was wearing a short denim skirt.
One of the principals picked up the paddle. Amber says she was
hit twice.
In a special school board meeting, Mike Page pleaded with the
board to grant his daughter a reprieve and allow her to remain on
the cheerleading squad. Other cheerleaders attended the meeting
and told the board that neither they nor Amber were aware of the
consequences of smoking.
The board discussed the issue in a closed meeting, then voted to
uphold the administration's action.
All those years of preparing came to an abrupt end. The week
after school was out, Amber Page cried when all her friends went
off to cheerleading camp. She heard that the cheerleaders elected
the Pecor twins -- Brooke and Leslie -- to be the new
cheerleading squad captain and the assistant. The Pecor twins are
the daughters of the assistant principal who caught Amber smoking.
She says she loves the twins dearly. They have cheered together
for three years. They lifted her over their heads as she
performed difficult gymnastic stunts. They caught her when she
fell.
Was South Grand Prairie too hard on Amber Page?
The Pages think so, and have retained an attorney.
The school's code of conduct and its cheerleader guidelines say
smoking on campus is an offense that can result in a range of
punishment, the harshest of which includes removal from the squad
and paddling. Administrators could have opted for less severe
measures such as counseling or parent conferences.
Amber's punishment may seem severe to outside observers. But
paddling is an accepted form of student discipline in about half
of the school districts in the Metroplex, including all of Dallas.
"My goodness," said state Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston,
vice chairman of the Texas House of Representatives Public
Education committee when he heard about the punishment. "Do
they only want perfect children on their squad?"
Although Dutton thought Amber's punishment was severe, he said he
is not opposed to paddling as a form of student punishment.
What rankles Mike Page is his belief that cheerleaders are
treated more harshly than other athletes at the school. School
officials, including district spokesman Sam Buchmeyer, say a
written policy exists for male athletes participating in other
sports, but they couldn't locate it when asked for a copy.
Page's anger grew when he heard that the coaches in the district
are proposing a more lenient policy for student athletes than for
cheerleaders. Student athletes caught smoking would be suspended
for 10 days on a first offense if the school board votes to
accept a revised policy at its meeting Thursday.
Mike Page says he wishes his daughter had been offered the same
10-day suspension instead of what he says is a "life
sentence."
South Grand Prairie High School cheerleaders follow a code
written in 1995 by parents and cheerleading coaches. The code
states that cheerleaders are representatives of the school and
should have "higher standards" of behavior than other
students.
Grand Prairie Superintendent David Barbosa said that the question
of whether the district treated Amber fairly is really a moot
point.
"Everybody wanted cheerleaders held to a higher standard
than other organizations," Barbosa said.
District policy allows parents, students and teachers involved in
each extracurricular activity to set their own standard of
behavior. Everybody agrees in writing to abide by the rules of
their organization.
Amber signed the agreement three years in a row, Barbosa says.
Amber says she signed the code of conduct, but she says the
consequences were not specific.
"It is somewhat hard to believe that she wasn't aware,"
Barbosa said.
That difference in standards makes sense to some of the people
behind the pompons.
"As a cheerleader, you are not just football, not just
baseball, you are year around. You never fade off into the
background," says Southern Methodist University Spirit
coordinator Darren McCoy. "You don't have a helmet on, you
aren't way out in left field. You are in front of the stands, and
people relate to you as an individual.
"In the schools I went to, the grade-point requirement was
always higher for me as a cheerleader than it was for football
players," he said.
But is the "higher standard" fair?
In response to complaints by Mike Page, administrators in the
Grand Prairie school district say they will have a task force
look at how discipline policies differ among sports and other
extracurricular activities. Superintendent Barbosa said it will
take at least six months for the district to review its policies.
The district doesn't believe it is discriminating on a gender
basis. South Grand Prairie Senior High School has two male
cheerleaders, said Buchmeyer, the district spokesman.
Amber says she plans to keep her grades up so she can go to
college and be a cheerleader again.
"I love to perform," she says. "I love the
responsibility. I want to be a leader. I realize I made a mistake."
Although Amber says she's not as excited about her senior year
now, her dad says she'll pull through.
"She's such a good girl," he says.
Paddling students as a form
of discipline occurs in 23 states, mostly in the South. About
half of the districts in the Metroplex allow students to be
paddled in school.
