A Cheerleader Is Suing Her School After They Tried to Cover Up Her Sexual Assault

A teen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who claims to have been the victim of a sexual assault at the hands of her cheerleading peers, has now filed a lawsuit against her high school. She says authorities, who were supposed to protect her, chose repeatedly to invalidate her experience and the humiliation she experienced in its aftermath.

The girl, who is known only as B.P., was on a trip to Phoenix to attend cheerleading camp when members of her squad ganged up on her while she was showering and proceeded to take nude pictures and video of her against her will. According to Courthouse News, the cheerleaders used their coach’s cell phone to take the unauthorized footage, which they then “passed around and posted to Snapchat.” As the teen tried to cover up, her teammates had the audacity to yank the shower curtain away.

But it gets worse. While completely violating B.P. in her vulnerable state, the girls also verbally harassed her, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Jan. 16. They taunted her with lines like, “Who would want to have sex with her” and “her body ain’t sh**,” according to B.P.’s complaint.

When the traumatized teen tried reporting the assault to her coach and other authority figures, though, she was struck down again and again. First, she reported the attack to Brittny Saavedra, the cheerleading coach, who is named in the suit. In an act of victim-blaming at its finest, Saavedra told the girl the incident was “no big deal” and “that she needed to apologize to her teammates for overreacting to a joke,” according to Courthouse News. Unwilling to rock the boat in the name of justice, she also refused to punish the attackers, saying it would “ruin the trip for everybody,” says the complaint.

Upon returning to Albuquerque, B.P. shared the nightmare with her parents, who called the Phoenix Police Department. But the coaches “refused to cooperate,” according to Courthouse News. They wouldn’t return phone calls and claimed there was no video evidence, according to the complaint. It seemed no one wanted to believe or defend B.P., though she wouldn’t let that stop her from pursuing justice.

Back at school, she endured harassment from her teammates and coaches. “Her coaches called her a ‘baby’ and told her to ‘get over it,'” according to Courthouse News. “She says she was demoted, excluded from team activities, and finally quit the team because of the harassment.”

Finally, the teen’s parents got the Albuquerque Public Schools District involved — but they didn’t do much besides discipline one girl who took pictures and video without B.P.’s permission, says the complaint. Shockingly, though, the girl was still allowed to remain on the varsity cheerleading squad.

Finally, B.P. had had enough. She was ready to transfer schools, and her brother — who also felt unsafe — requested a transfer as well. “But the school district told them they could not transfer unless her parents signed a release of liability from the nude photos incident, the complaint states,” Courthouse News says. APS Executive Director of Compliance for Special Education Cynthia Soo Hoo, who is also named in the suit, sent the family an email which read in part, “(T)he District is willing to facilitate a transfer of [B.P.] ahead of other students if we can put any and all disputes behind us. Attached is the settlement agreement necessary for an approved transfer to Albuquerque High School,” according to Courthouse News.

In other words, B.P. could transfer to another high school in the district as long as she let the assault go and didn’t put the situation in the hands of the law. Instead, she and her family did just that.

First, they filed for and were granted a temporary restraining order. The school transfer that had been delayed for months was finally granted. Then the family pressed charges against six school authorities, including the principal, assistant principal, athletic director, and the head and assistant cheerleading coaches.

B.P. is represented in the suit by a guardian, Rachel Higgins, and will be represented by attorney Kelly Stout Sanchez. According to Courthouse News, B.P. and her family are seeking “punitive damages for civil rights violations, including Title IX violations, retaliation, failure to protect from pervasive harassment, deprivation of a public education and emotional distress.”

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