Law Life: Cheerleaders lose suit involving underage drinking

By Pat Murphy The Daily Record Newswire One of the least sympathetic characters in federal civil rights litigation is the parent who cries foul when one of their little lovelies is disciplined by school officials. The issue in these cases never seems to be about whether the child did wrong. In fact, the transgression is often conceded. No, instead of being concerned about curing their child's misbehavior, the parent wants the school held accountable for somehow being unfair. Such is the case with the parents of three Tennessee teenagers who were kicked off the Ooltewah High School's cheerleading squad last fall for underage drinking. The parents of the three teens are JoDee Crumley, Tommy and Jennifer Smith, and Valerie and Todd Jones. On October 29, 2010, the three girls attended a Halloween party in nearby Ringgold, Georgia. Later that night, two other cheerleaders who had also attended the party were arrested for underage drinking on their way home. The two arrested cheerleaders did the right thing. That weekend, they went to the home of their cheerleading coach, Kelly Peterson, and told her about their arrest. They also identified the other cheerleaders who attended the party. Coach Peterson dismissed the two arrested teens from the squad for violating its code of conduct, which prohibits the drinking of alcohol and drug use. The following Monday, the Crumley, Smith and Jones children were brought before the school principal, Mark Bean. During this face-to-face, the three cheerleaders allegedly confessed to underage drinking, leading to their dismissal from the squad. Now, being the parent of a teen, my nightmare has always been the late-night call. So it's hard for me to figure out why the Crumleys, Smiths and Joneses didn't just chalk the whole experience off as a lesson well-learned. But no, the parents of the three cheerleaders were more upset with Principal Bean and Coach Peterson, so they sued under §1983, asserting equal protection, sex discrimination and Title IX claims. The gist of their complaint was that male student athletes at the school did not receive similar discipline for similar misconduct. The parents filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee where it landed in the lap of Judge Harry Mattice. Last week, Judge Mattice dismissed the lawsuit, pointing out that it appeared that other female student athletes who had attended the Halloween party had also escaped discipline. "Even accepting all of the facts asserted in Plaintiffs' Complaint and proposed Amended Complaint as true, the Court cannot identify any valid cause of action for a violation of Equal Protection or any other claim based on sex discrimination. Both Complaints state that other male and female student-athletes at the Halloween party who were similarly engaged in underage drinking were not similarly punished. ... "Essentially, as Defendants represent, Plaintiffs are complaining that both males and females were treated differently than they were for engaging in the same activity. These facts do not support a sex discrimination claim because Plaintiffs do not allege that only similarly situated males escaped the punishment meted out to them," Mattice wrote. He observed that the fatal flaw in the lawsuit was to some extent of the plaintiffs' own making since the dismissed cheerleaders refused to give up the names of others at the party. "[A]s Defendants pointed out, Plaintiffs refused to tell Defendants Bean and Peterson the names of other students and student-athletes who were drinking at the party. As Defendants logically argued, they could not punish these other individuals without knowing who they were," Mattice said. (Crumley v. Bean) Published: Tue, Aug 9, 2011