Chai's Analysis

Cheerleaders are being discriminated against? Bring it On!

Answer "yes" or "no" to the following questions:

1. In highschool, did you loathe the cheerleaders?
   
2. Did you try out for cheerleading? If yes, did you make it on the squad? If not, were you disappointed?
3. Did you try out for junior varsity or varsity athletic teams?
4. Did you party in highschool?
5. Were cigarettes and/or alcohol part of the party?
6. Did you take pictures of people at the party?
7. Did you post those pictures on a website?
8. If you were a cheerleader or athlete, whose pictures were sent around the school (or via website), did you get suspended?

Well, if you were Jaimee Bruno, a highschool cheerleader, attempting to party but never partook in the drinking and smoking, and still got suspended after pictures of you and your squad mates ended up on myspace.com, would you be angry?

I sure would.

Jaimee Bruno, 17, one of the five cheerleaders suspended from the Leland High School squad, and her mother, Denise Bruno, allege that educators selectively suspended the female cheerleaders for attending the 2005 party, but took no action against the male athletes. The Santa Clara County Superior Court lawsuit says the San Jose Unified School District violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act and seeks an unspecified amount in damages and reimbursement for attorney fees and other costs. [link]

There are two reasons why I think this lawsuit is interesting. First, Leland allegedly never suspended the male athletes who were at the same party. I don't understand how school districts can make, in my eyes, blatant mistakes like this. Granted, I know the counsel for the District has arguments to justify the administration's stance on why only the five female athletes were suspended, however, it just doesn't seem right. Let's look at the law the plantiff cited that the defendants allegedly violated: the Unruh Civil Rights Act. This Act states,

"All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, or medical condition are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever." Civil Code section 51(b)

And, yes, accomodations covers public agencies, which means the District cannot (intentionally) violate this Act.

The second interesting point of the article and the lawsuit is the alleged contract that the cheerleaders and athletes had to sign. I find this interesting on so many levels which I can't help but bullet point.

• A minor signing a contract is probably not valid. Depending on the age of majority in California, these athletes may have been younger than that age. Well, maybe the parents signed for their child, but still, quite fishy.
  
• The contract allegedly states that athletes cannot be drinking and smoking. Okay, fair enough. But shouldn't they be promoting that to all the kids in their school, not just athletes?
• Finally, if there was a contract that stated the above provision, wouldn't the male athletes be in as much of a violation as the suspended cheerleaders?

And, on a last note, Bruno's mom sounds like quite the saavy parent. According to this article, it sounds like she exhausted her administrative relief and is now, prior to the statute of limitations for the Act, she filed a lawsuit on behalf of her daughter. It is so rare that you meet a parent who doesn't want to jump into the lawsuit circuit before exhausting administrative remedies. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. We are talking about Leland here, a really well-to-do area, with many resources. Anyway, I got my popcorn ready to watch the drama unfold. As we (non-cheerleaders say about anything cheerleading) say, "Bring it ON!"



p.s. Hot damn! The poor girl doing the bridge!

Update. Thanks Wonkette for linking to this site. Also, the Mercury News did an editorial piece on this story.

posted by Chai at 1:14 PM | 3 people analyzed.

why?

why is it that when i am at home i analyze more about my life than about the world? why is it when i am at my own home, i analyze more about the world than about my life?

posted by Chai at 6:35 PM | 0 people analyzed.

One Anniversary That Shook

Loma Prieta. Doesn't that name sound beautiful? "Loma" means hill in Spanish. "Prieta" means [insert lack of Spanish knowledge here]. To me, those two words means earthquake. A big, bad earthquake. Today marks the seventeen (17) year anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Really? Seventeen years? Wow. Seems like yesterday.

I remember, on that fateful day, that I just finished eating my afternoon snack with my grandparents, mom, and little brother. My mom told me to go to my room to start my homework. I remember opening up my "Hello Kitty" pencil box to look for my favoritest pencil to start my fifth grade math homework. A few minutes after I started my homework, my desk started to shake. My first thought was that my brother was running around. While the shaking got stronger, I realized that it wasn't my brother, it was an earthquake. Earthquake in California elementary schools means "drop, cover, and hold on." I dropped what I was doing (homework) and found cover underneath my desk. I held on to the desk and in a few seconds, my hutch came crashing over me. I was a stunned.

After the earth shook, my mom yelled my name and when she could barely hear me, she ran into my room and almost fainted. So much of our rooms had shifted, but my desk area looked like a disaster zone. She thought I was in that mess. She thought correctly, but I wasn't hurt. Luckily, I listened to my teacher and did the routine successfully. That didn't stop my mom from yelling and praying to God while rescuing me.

Fortunately, all of us in the house were safe. We did not want to risk it again, so every year we updated our earthquake kits and had safety brackets on all our furniture. Ah, October 17, 1989, a date that I will never forget.

posted by Chai at 9:23 PM | 1 people analyzed.

The GAP + AIDS

I hate to be writing this because I hate GAP t. h. i. s. m. u. c. h. I have to give it up to their social conscious, we need more money team in coming up with this idea of GapRed.

All the word inspi(red) tee shirts are sold out online. I really wanted to get the shirt that says DESI(RED). It took me a few seconds to see that it was actually "desired" and not "desi-red." Which would honestly be funny if it was desi-red, because I am Indian (or desi) and Native Americans have historically been called Red (see Redskins). So it would be a coalition of the Indians from India and the Indians from America on one tee-shirt. Of course, my imagination took the best of me. ;)
So, if you can spare some of your disgust for a few minutes to walk into a sweatshop chain only to support AIDS causes in Africa, then do it. You have been told.

posted by Chai at 12:59 PM | 0 people analyzed.