In a word? OUCH!
In an acronym? WTF?!?!?!?
A high school cheerleading coach and multiple administrators are under investigation this week after footage surfaced of a student in Colorado being held down in a split position by a coach and her teammates.
The young woman featured below is crying out in pain and begging all around her to stop.
According to a local news report, Denver Police are specifically looking into the following individuals:
- East High Principal Andy Mendelsberg
- Assistant Principal Lisa Porter
- Cheer Coach Ozell Williams
- Assistant Cheer Coach Mariah Cladis
- DPS Deputy General Counsel Michael Hickman
They have all been placed on leave based on the disturbing video below and what it depicts.
It depicts Williams, who is in his first year as coach, holding a cheerleader down by her shoulders, despite the clear pain she is in.
(The same technique was allegedly used with eight other cheerleaders, but this video was the only one released by news stations.)
The footage was shot on a cell phone camera by two team members and sent to 9 News anonymously this month.
However, it is believed that East High administrators have known about at least one of these videos since June.
“It was tearing my ligament and my muscle at the same time,” 13-year old Ally Wakefield tells News 9, adding of her coach:
“He was pushing down on the back of my right leg. He was pushing like with his other knee on my back to try to keep my posture straight.”
Adds her mother:
"This is a grown man pushing my 13-year-old girl so hard against her will while she’s crying and screaming for him to stop that he’s ripping tissues in her body."
An email Wakefield"s mom sent to the school back on June 15 reads as follows:
I have attached a video of the forced splits she and her other team members were forced to do at cheerleading camp and practices; unless they had a doctor’s note.
This is how Ally injured her leg.
My husband and I would like to know what the administration is going to do about my daughter’s injury and how it happened.
That"s a fair question.
Police are now looking for the answer.
Watch the upsetting footage below:
