My wife had Ryann write her story this summer as a means of therapy. Read her heart wrenching account of this ordeal from her perspective.

I started cheerleading in 2nd grade and ever since I was little, my dad has been telling me to remember that I am a cheerleader in Texas not a "Texas cheerleader". I always told him okay but I was never quite sure what he meant until last year when I discovered first hand what Texas cheerleaders and cheer moms really were and I now understand the difference. I now know that I am a cheerleader in Texas.

When I started cheerleading as a little girl, I met a girl named Stevie. If you looked up cheerleader in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Stevie next to the word. She had long, curly blonde hair; big, beautiful blue eyes; and a dazzling smile that she flashed constantly. She was an eye catcher; everyone in the stands was mesmerized by her. Cheerleading was her life. We got to be best friends. I loved her whole family. Her older sister was so pretty she could have been a model, and she was way cool. She had an older brother that didn't live at home but when he'd come home to visit he'd tease me and Stevie relentlessly. He was fun to be around. Stevie's mother was pretty and funny. She treated me like I was special. Stevie's mom and I had a great time making fun of each other. I thought she really liked me, and I knew I really liked her. I loved to go to their house because they treated me like one of the family. I am an only child, so the constant hubbub at their house was exciting for me to be around. I loved it!

Stevie and I were best friends for seven years and as all best friends we fought about all kinds of things. As we got older, Stevie tried to impress all the older kids because she thought it was cool. We would go places and she would ignore me and try to hang out with the older girls. She acted like she didn't know me. I would get mad at her and tell her how badly that hurt my feelings. She'd apologize but then do it again the next time we went somewhere. I was beginning to see that Stevie was one of those girls who had to be the center of attention; an attention hog. She'd make up stories to tell kids just to get their attention. I would say you know that didn't happen and she'd say but it sounded better that way. I didn't like it when she lied, and she was starting to lie to me.

We went to a birthday party one weekend in June and she did it again. She acted like I wasn't there, and she hung around with the cooler, older girls all night. They were sex texting boys, talking about who they wanted to have sex with, and discussing who had done or wanted to do what with whom. I didn't think she was cool; I thought she was disgusting. I didn't talk to her during or after that party because I was mad at her. I didn't like the way she treated me. A couple days later, I was reading her MySpace because I knew her password and she was talking about me. She was telling this older girl that I wasn't her best friend anymore because I just didn't understand her and she needed a new best friend. She wanted this older girl to be her new best friend. I got mad and hurt when I read it, so I fired off an e-mail to her. It was a rant; I told her everything she did at that party and that I wasn't impressed and if she wanted a new best friend that was fine with me.

She got my e-mail and showed her mother. She called me and said she still wanted to be my friend, but I guess her mother was unhappy about the e-mail. She thought my mother wrote it. How stupid! I never had a problem telling Stevie exactly what I thought, why all of a sudden would I need my mother's help? Maybe Stevie's mom was angry with the message and instead of getting mad at Stevie; she took it out on the messenger. I don't know but anyway, my mother was over at Stevie's house one night shortly after this and Stevie's mother got mad and threw my mom out of her house. This was the last time we went over to Stevie's. This was the summer before I started junior high.

Flash forward to junior high. I had made junior high cheerleader and was excited to be starting a new year. Stevie, of course, was also a junior high cheerleader but there were lots of other girls, so I was fine. I hung around with a girl named Lilly. She was an exquisite looking girl with a beautiful smile. She didn't have a mouth full of braces like the rest of us. She was very talented. She was the best tumbler on the squad. I liked Lilly and was glad she was my friend.

"Oh my God Ryann, my party is soon! Are you coming?" Lilly asked.

"Of course, duh! " I replied. Lilly Garcia was one of my best friends and one of my cheerleading teammates. We hung out together and spent the night at each other's house. Of course, I was going to her 13th birthday party. Well at least that's what I thought…

On the SHJH cheerleading team, we had all kinds of cliques. Lilly and I were in the same one. Then in another clique you had Stevie and Vickie. Vickie was cute. She was little and had the prettiest dimples. She was funny and kept us all laughing. Stevie and Vickie's clique was the cool clique and they had lots of followers. Everybody wanted to be in the cool clique except me; I was perfectly content in my little group. Stevie, being the attention hog that she was, needed to have everyone in her clique. She was mad at me; no one was allowed to dislike Stevie. She decided I wasn't allowed to have any friends and went about making sure she lured all my friends away and most of them fell in line because it meant that they were in the best clique. Stevie and Vickie would start planning their weekends on Monday and make sure everyone in their circle was included. Stevie's mother even helped her with weekend sleepovers, trips to the football games, bowling allies, and haunted houses. Gradually it became the thing to do; spend the weekend with Stevie and Vickie.

Lilly and her mom had been telling me about the plans for Lilly's party for awhile. I was soo excited. I was a bit puzzled because I hadn't gotten an invitation, but I just figured maybe they were having it the weekend after her birthday. On the Monday before Lilly's birthday, she was really mad at me for some reason that I didn't understand. When she finally spilled, I figured out that a rumor was going around that I called her anorexic. I felt bad; I never called her anorexic. Think about it. I probably weigh 15 pounds less than Lilly. I teased Lilly because she never ate anything at lunch. She'd get her lunch tray every day and throw it away untouched. She was embarrassed to eat in front of her boyfriend Jake. He was a big 8th grade jock and quite the catch. I thought she knew I was kidding.

I apologized to her the next day. On her birthday I gave her $10 to pin on her shirt. We do that at school and everybody gives you money all day to make your day special. I didn't even get a thank you. I called her that night to make sure everything was okay and to see if she was still mad. She said she wasn't so I thought everything was fine and we were friends again. BIG MISTAKE!

The following Monday at school, several kids were wearing these little crowns including Stevie and Vickie. Someone asked them where they got them and they said at Lilly's birthday party on Saturday. I couldn't believe my ears or eyes. Here were all these girls prancing around in their crowns during cheerleading class, bragging to everyone, na na, I got invited to Lilly's party and you didn't. I went up to Lilly and asked her about it and she said yes she'd had the party. I was shocked. I couldn't believe Lilly would do this to me. Why would she want to be so hurtful? She even invited Stevie and Vickie and they barely even talked at the time, but I guess Lilly and her mom wanted to join the cool clique. I was devastated. That whole week Lilly was acting weird toward me. She wouldn't talk to me unless I talked to her first. I knew something was going on, but I had no idea how badly Lilly hated me now.

Soon after this, my mom got a phone call saying that Lilly and this other friend of mine, Helen, were saying horrible things about me on MySpace. Helen was not a cheerleader, but she had been my friend for a long time. She had a crazy sense of humor and was lots of fun. My mom told me to see if I could find out what they were saying about me. I knew Maria's password because she had been my friend before she decided to join Stevie's clique. I went into Maria's MySpace and then moved over into Helen's and then Lilly's. The things they were saying about me were brutal. When I found them, I cried for hours and hours. They had used almost every cuss word in the book to describe me, and the thought that everybody at school could be reading all these hateful things about me was extremely upsetting. Helen was bragging that she had called me the b word in the hall and Maria was congratulating her for doing it because I deserved it. I thought Helen had called me the b word in the hall at school a few days earlier, and I told my mom about it after school that day, but my mom said to just stay away from her. Now I knew it was true because I was reading it. Lilly and Helen had a conversation calling me the b word, the n word, the f word, the h word and using many more hip hop slang words and phrases to talk about me. Their MySpace conversation was full of profanity and sexual innuendo. I was horrified that all these girls who had been my friends, even come to my birthday party two months before this, could just turn their backs on me like I was worthless. I guess there is strength in numbers. This little mob of girls had no trouble being vicious to me and I guess they justified their viciousness by rationalizing that I deserved this kind of treatment. This is what people call "mob think". These girls I thought were friends had become a pack of evil teenagers willing to be ruthless to me just because it was the thing to do.

The next day at school, I didn't speak to Lilly or Helen. I didn't have anything to say to either one of them. At lunch, Lilly and Vickie had Jake sit in my seat so I wouldn't be able to sit in my usual seat. I was embarrassed and almost cried but I didn't. I didn't want them to see how much they were harming me. I was forced to go sit by myself and eat my lunch while everyone laughed and talked about me. What crime had I committed that warranted this punishment?

We had to cheer at a basketball game after school that night, so I didn't go home after school. When my dad got to the game to watch me cheer, I told him what had happened to me at lunch. I started crying just talking about it. My dad marched right over to Mrs. Brown, our coach, and gave her a piece of his mind. Mrs. Brown and all the cheerleading moms of the girls who were being mean to me were outraged with my dad. Who did he think he was demanding that Mrs. Brown step up and take charge of her team and put an end to this clique system? How dare he accuse some of these precious cheerleaders of being mean and their lovely cheer moms of encouraging their daughter's bad behavior?

The next day at lunch, the little lunch crew tried pulling another sneaky stunt. They waited until I sat down and then they all got up and moved to a different table, trying to leave me all alone again. This time I moved with them, so they all got up and moved back. I moved back with them. Their plan had been foiled and they were furious.

That afternoon, my dad had an appointment to see Mr. Wilson, the school principal. He intended to tell him about the lunch incident, the MySpace attacks, and the cheerleading drama. I was being harassed by this group of girls. They had a blue journal that they would write in and if I would get near them when they had it, they would put it away or hide it. I know it had awful things about me in it. They would get together and tell secrets and when I'd ask what they were talking about, they'd all scatter; like rats when you shine a light on them. It was sickening to have most of the team think it was acceptable to ignore me, talk about me behind my back or write horrid things about me in a journal. My dad talked to Mrs. Brown and Mr. Wilson and got the impression that neither one of them was very concerned about my welfare. My dad insisted that they follow the cheerleading constitution that we had to sign before we became cheerleaders. It stated that "any cheerleader abusing anyone physically or verbally in or out of school will be dismissed immediately". The same day that my dad was meeting with the principal, a parent sent an anonymous e-mail to the nurse saying that she knew I had mono and was at school with a fever. The nurse called me into her office to take my temperature and asked me if I had lunch with Lilly Garcia. I did not have a fever and had permission from my doctor to be at school. Now the parents of the mean girls wanted in on harassing me too.

On our cheerleading squad, Mrs. Brown had her favorites, the girls she hated, and the girls she just didn't care much about. I was in the hated category. Stevie and Lilly were in the favorite group. All of her favorites were the first ones chosen for "Cheerleader of the Week". Her favorites were the girls who got to do special things at the pep rallies. If anyone was paying attention, she had a group of about six girls who were picked to do everything; and you know I was paying attention. I, of course, was not on the preferred list so I never did any relay races or games at the pep rallies, nor was I ever chosen to be "Cheerleader of the Week". Don't get me wrong, Mrs. Brown would say she loved us all, but everyone knew she loved her favorites more. The entire squad knew which girls fell into which category because Mrs. Brown was crystal clear about her feelings toward us.

Mrs. Brown wasn't a very good coach either. She didn't know much about cheerleading and depended on her favorites to explain how to do things. She would put girls in charge to teach us something and they would yell and scream at us and act like we were stupid. At one practice, Vickie called me a stupid a$$, and everyone who heard her started laughing at me. Mrs. Brown, of course, heard none of this; she was probably busy at her computer. Mrs. Brown even had us doing three tier stunts. My mom had to tell her that according to school rules these dangerous stunts were not permitted and had not been allowed for eleven years. Why didn't Mrs. Brown know this? It wasn't the best of situations. Mrs. Brown would even cuss at us sometimes. Mrs. Brown would make us audition each week for our half-time position and then stick her favorites in the coveted front spots for the performance. How did Mrs. Brown think she was building team spirit or camaraderie when she was constantly pitting us against each other? She was instead fostering an "I'm better than you attitude". I was beginning to think cheerleading wasn't all that great after all. This was not my idea of fun.

Lilly's "immediate" dismissal occurred seven days after my mom and dad made a formal complaint insisting that the school district honor its constitution. Mrs. Brown made sure Lilly was in team pictures that morning before dismissing her that afternoon. Lucky me; I got to watch as every girl who was in, or wanted to be in the cool clique, took "buddy pictures" with Lilly. I had a bird's eye view of everyone clamoring to be Lilly's BFF even though Mrs. Brown and I knew the offensive things she'd written about me on her MySpace. Ironically, the picture Lilly had chosen to be displayed on her MySpace was of her in her school cheerleading uniform, but this was the girl everyone was aspiring to be like. Why did Mrs. Brown insist she be included in team pictures? Why did she make me watch this? This was demoralizing to me, but now looking back, it is clear to me, that Mrs. Brown wasn't concerned about my feelings or what watching this might be doing to my fragile psyche.

The very next morning Mr. and Mrs. Garcia got a Channel 4 news crew to come out to the school. They stood outside the building with the support of Stevie's mom and dad and Vickie's mom and said "Lilly was dismissed from the cheerleading squad for attacking another teammate on her MySpace. She was out of town when these posts were made. We think someone must have gotten her password somehow." Everyone at school knew that Channel 4 was out there because the kids saw them. They all rushed home to watch Channel 4 that night; only to hear that Lilly didn't post that stuff; she couldn't have because she was out of town. Someone else must have used her password and made those posts. Coincidentally, in Lilly's posts she says she's at her "cuzinz", but her father failed to mention that post. Can you believe he left out that little piece of pertinent information?

That is when the nasty little rumor began; fueled by Channel 4 and a group of angry parents and girls who spread it all over the school that I stole Lilly's password and posted all that stuff on her MySpace. Lilly's mom worked at a popular hair salon and had the perfect forum to spread this false rumor. Can you imagine the gossiping that went on there? Never mind truth or common sense; I have come to realize that people will believe anything if you say it long and loud enough. Did anybody ask; do you have to be at home to post on MySpace? PLEASE!!! Lilly was talking to Helen at the time she was saying all those vile things about me. The girls who knew that Lilly posted all that garbage were told to go out and lie for Lilly. I was told that Lilly's mother was coercing girls to lie for her oh, so sweet daughter. I guess Lilly could do no wrong nor could her parents possibly hold her accountable for what she'd done. They instead set out to destroy me; a 13 year old. What were these reprehensible adults teaching their kids? This untrue rumor, based on absolutely no fact, spread throughout the entire school and community like wild fire. Kids would come up to me at school and say things like:"How could you do that to Lilly?" "Everybody in the school hates you Ryann." Then there was the most idiotic question: "Why did you hack into Lilly's MySpace and write those revolting things about yourself? Was it to frame Lilly and get her kicked off the squad?" There was the lie spread by Lilly and her soulless mob that I posted this degrading stuff about myself on Lilly's MySpace because I wanted to be captain. Go figure…the squad already had a captain. There were the kids who would talk about me like I wasn't there and say things like "I hate Ryann, don't you?" There were the girls who would go up to the few friends I had left and say, "You and Nancy are the only friends Ryann has" almost daring those girls to remain my friends. There were the kids who would ask the teacher if they could change desks so they wouldn't have to sit near me. When I walked down the hall, kids treated me like I was invisible; they would look the other way when they saw me or pretend they didn't see me. There were the snide comments that were made loud enough for me and anyone sitting near me to hear but not loud enough for the teacher to hear. After school, older kids would even yell appalling things about me from the car line as I waited for my ride home. Even Stevie's older sister, the one I thought was "all that", yelled something awful to me while she waited to pick Stevie up after school. Stevie's sister and the other high school girl she had in the car with her just laughed at me after she shouted her rude remark. You know the old saying "sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you". Let me be the first to tell you that there is absolutely no truth in this old adage. These words hurt me down to the bone. A doctor can't just reset a break like this; there is no easy remedy for the damage caused by these savage words that were brazenly hurled at me.

There were the outrageous notes I got blaming me for all of Lilly's woes. Poor Lilly, she had become the victim. It made me crazy; I didn't write that crap. I knew Lilly wrote every word of it and so did she. How could she live with herself; lying to everyone? Did she have no conscience, no decency, no soul? This was not just happening a t school; I was getting this treatment everywhere Ð ndash;Wal-Mart, the grocery store, you name it. I was hearing this from kids at every school; not just the junior high. This awful group of parents and kids put together quite a campaign of lies - they set out purposely to ruin my reputation because I got Lilly kicked off the cheerleading squad. The way I see it Lilly got herself kicked off the squad, but it felt like I was the only person capable of seeing that Lilly created her problem and then didn't have the character to accept her punishment. I did have some supporters but almost everyone; kids and parents were afraid to get involved.

Early in December, as all of this drama was continuing full steam, the cheerleaders were expected to be in a Christmas parade. Mrs. Brown told us that we had to ride in the float, do a short performance, and then do half hour shifts of face painting. As always, all of her mandates were attached with threats; if we didn't go to the parade, we would get a demerit. I went but I had a terrible feeling and before long I truly regretted going.

When I first arrived at the junior high parking lot, we loaded on the float. Stevie and her posse were already talking about the news report that Channel 4 aired, and Stevie with her big mouth was purposely saying it loud enough for me to hear her. Then as we were about to take a picture Vickie leaned into take the picture and she accidentally leaned on me and said "Ew, I didn't mean to touch her." I couldn't believe she would say something so cruel. I mean these girls used to be my friends and now they were treating me like I had rabies. Towards the end of the parade route I could see Lilly, her sister, her mother, Stevie's mother, and some more Lilly supporters. As the float neared the Ryann haters, most of the cheerleaders on the float stood up and yelled "We love you Lilly". I couldn't even look at them. Imagine how I felt. I felt beat down; I just wanted to crawl into bed, put the covers over my head, and pray this would all go away.

After we got off the float, we had to line up to do a little routine for the crowd. The float incident happened again. The cheerleaders all professing their love for Lilly, only this time cheer moms joined the chant. Everybody who was there got to hear this, and again, I felt beat. I felt like someone was slapping me in the face with every "I love Lilly" that was shouted. Mrs. Brown stood there and watched all of this. She did nothing. Could she not see what this was doing to me? Did she not care? Who knows, maybe she was trying to figure out a way to join in; she certainly didn't seem worried about what all of this abuse was doing to me.

Next I went to fulfill my face painting duty and then I could go home; thank goodness. There were three other cheerleaders on my shift and they were all nice girls, so that was good news. The first twenty minutes were fun. I painted snowmen, candy canes and wreaths on little kids' faces but as usual I could never get too comfortable. Suddenly the door to the room opened and in walked Lilly, her sister, her mother, Stevie, her mother, Vickie, Maria and a couple other Ryann haters. The two moms sat down in the chairs and watched as the group of girls they brought in bullied me. They shamelessly marched up to the other face painters and demanded that they paint I heart Lilly on their faces. I just sat there in utter disbelief. From the corner of my eye, I swear I could see Stevie's mom grinning as these girls harassed and intimidated me. One of the girls even came over to me to have me paint I heart Lilly on her face. I did it because I was still in shock. When my mom saw me paint this on the girl's face, she came over to me and whispered "Your shift is over; let's go." These cheerleaders could have had their faces painted during their shift; there was no reason for them to be doing this during my shift except to BULLY ME. Mrs. Brown watched all of this and again did nothing. In fact, she took pictures. I bet she has some cute pictures of me from that night where I'm all smiles. Ya think!

My dad was standing outside and watching all of this from the window. My dad came in as I was getting ready to leave. I guess he had had enough. He watched these adults and their kids bully me and he was disgusted. As we were leaving, he leaned down and said softly to Stevie's mom "Last year, at this time, we spent $2000 on your family for Christmas." The previous Christmas, her son had been in a car accident and he was severely injured with head trauma. It was touch and go for awhile and the doctors didn't know if he would make it, or if he did, whether there would be any lasting effects from the accident. Stevie's mom stayed in the hospital with her son and didn't work. We knew they were feeling the crunch, so we did all that we could to help them during this crisis. Stevie was over at our house one day before Christmas saying that all she wanted for Christmas was a laptop but she knew her parents couldn't afford it. My dad bought her the laptop that Christmas. He also paid for Stevie's brother's college ring. He was graduating the end of December and that is what he had asked for as his graduation gift. My dad was adamant that Stevie's brother get the ring and that he believed it came from his parents. Now, a year later, my dad watched as this woman who was once a friend, who he thought cared for his daughter, was encouraging kids to bully her. This was disheartening for all of us to see.

We left and went to a restaurant next door to grab a quick bite to eat before heading home. We were just sitting down at the restaurant when we spied Stevie's mom, Vickie's mom and Lilly's mom headed toward the police. My dad quietly got up and went out there. Stevie's mom turned on the fake tears to the police officer claiming that my dad "got in her face". The first words out of her mouth were "He got a girl kicked off the cheerleading squad." Lilly getting kicked off the squad had nothing to do with what she did; nothing to do with the fact that she violated the cheerleading contract she and her parents signed; nothing to do with the school's decision; it was entirely our fault. The police officer listened to the women and then listened to my dad. The officer said that there was no crime committed and sent everyone away. I couldn't think. I'm not sure I was even breathing. I just watched, horrified, as these evil, evil cheer moms tried to have my dad arrested. This was the man Stevie's mom used to call "her hero" after he helped them last Christmas. My, my, my how times had changed.

At my mother's insistence, Mrs. Brown had a meeting with the cheerleaders on Monday, and in Mrs. Brown's own words, she "scolded" them for their behavior at the parade. She never spelled out that they were bullying me or told them she would not put up with it. She didn't tell them that if they continued to spread the false rumor that I posted that stuff on Lilly's MySpace which was bullying or continued to harass me, they would also be dismissed from the team. She just scolded them. If truth be told, they just had a little gripe session and most of the griping was aimed at me. Mrs. Brown told the team that if you do something wrong, you should be dismissed from the squad, but if you don't do anything wrong, you should not be dismissed from the squad. Could the coach have been any more ambiguous? Maybe had Mrs. Brown actually been forceful enough to make the girls believe there would be consequences for any bad behavior, things might not have spiraled out of control. Maybe had she stepped up and intervened on my behalf, she could have prevented the bullying. Looking back, I'm sure Mrs. Brown would have preferred that I had been dismissed from the squad than her favorite, Lilly. The principal, of course, true to form, did not even talk to the cheerleaders. He did nothing. They just weren't too concerned about little ole me. Things had gotten so bad for me at school that I asked a friend of my mom's who wasn't working to come up and have lunch with me. She came every day for eight days. I just couldn't handle the glares and taunting anymore. At last, it was Christmas break.

Lilly and Stevie decided to have a Christmas party for the cheerleaders at the Garcia house. I was not invited of course, but they were sure to let me know about it because invitations were passed out during cheerleading class. Yet, another heartless antic at my expense, and I'm certain every cheerleader went to the party. I was all alone and that is exactly what the gang of bullies wantedÉ…fait accomli. I had no friends, no party to go to, and nothing exciting to look forward to at Christmas. If their goal was to make me miserable, they had succeeded, but they would not break my spirit–not now; not ever.

During Christmas break, I got a nice surprise; Helen called to tell me she was sorry. She admitted that she knew Lilly had written all that atrocious garbage about me. She said Lilly was just trying to get out of it, so she was lying to everyone. She said Lilly called her crying the day the school found out about the MySpace posts and frantically begged her to delete all that stuff she wrote about me. After Christmas break, Helen did talk to me a bit, but it was made perfectly clear to all the kids that they weren't allowed to be my friend. If kids talked to me they had to sneak and make sure Stevie or anyone in her clique didn't catch them.

My parents asked that Lilly, Maria and Helen (the three MySpace contributors) be moved out of the classes we had together for the second semester. I did not wish to hear anymore of their dreadful remarks made to kids sitting near them but meant for me. Surprisingly, the school actually moved them one afternoon in mid-January, but by the next morning, Lilly, and only Lilly, was back in my class. Her parents must have complained and I guess Mr. Wilson didn't want to upset Mr. and Mrs. Garcia, so he put her back in my classes within a matter of hours. All this did was embolden Lilly and encourage her to continue bullying me. Why was such favoritism shown to Lilly Garcia and not the other two girls who had been involved? Once again, the school who was supposed to provide an environment in which I could grow and learn had let me down.

I still had to cheer at basketball games. Mrs. Brown split us into two groups; one group cheered for the eighth graders while the other group cheered for the seventh graders. My mom told Mrs. Brown that I would not cheer with anyone participating in the "I hate Ryann club." Mrs. Brown obviously acknowledged that there was an "I hate Ryann club" because I never cheered with certain girls again, but instead of disbanding the "I hate Ryann club", she just rearranged the squads. This was her fix; put a band aid over a gaping wound.

One night at a basketball game, Vickie's mom came in to talk to Mrs. Brown and she brought Vickie's little sister with her. Sally was twelve and had Down syndrome. Sally stood on the sidelines giving me evil looks as her mom talked to Mrs. Brown. Then Sally, still glaring at me, mouthed the words f--- y--. Isn't that special; Vickie and her friends were teaching Sally to hate me too. Again, I was just dumbstruck by how wicked these girls and parents were being, and I was getting absolutely no help from the school district. Mr. Wilson would stare at me when I walked down the hall and make it plain that I was creating a problem for him and he wasn't pleased. He never once asked me how things were going. Why would he; that might suggest he was actually interested in my well-being.

My mom heard that Stevie was running her mouth to a group of girls and threatened to drop my a$$ in stunts. Stevie was a base and I was the flyer. I was up in the air about eight feet or so, pulling scorpions, heel stretches, or whatever. That was a very dangerous threat; I could be badly injured if I was dropped. When my mom heard this, she knew it was no longer possible for me to cheer with these spiteful girls. She knew I could no longer cheer on Mrs. Brown's team because she believed her to be incompetent. She also did not want me around this group of despicable parents. This is also when it became evident to my parents that the school district had no intention of stopping the bullying. By their refusal to dole out consequences to those who were involved, they were actually condoning their behavior. My parents took me out of school and enrolled me in a different school. This was a very hard and traumatic time in my life.

I did finish cheerleading at my old school, but I did not attend the cheer banquet. Mrs. Brown invited Lilly even though she had been dismissed from the squad. My parents told . Brown that we couldn't attend the banquet with the Garcia's present after the way they had treated me, but I suppose she favored having Lilly there since she made it a priority to be sure the Garcia family was included. It is just as well I didn't go. The DVD shown at the banquet made it completely apparent where Mrs. Brown's sympathies lie. She had more pictures of Lilly than anyone else on the video, but to make matters worse, there were several pictures of Lilly displayed even after she had been dismissed from the squad. The intention must have been to portray a team that was never without Lilly. I think the message being sent was that Lilly certainly did not deserve her punishment - Mrs. Brown should never have been forced to uphold the constitution and demand that Lilly leave the squad. Oh yea, there was a picture of me in the face painting booth; from the night of the parade. This picture was taken by Mrs. Brown and displayed at the banquet for all my former teammates to see. Guess how distressed I looked? This was followed by a group picture, taken the same night, of Lilly, her sister, Stevie and Vickie; girls who had caused me so much grieve - they were smiling from ear to ear; you might say beaming. Looking at these pictures back to back pretty much said it all. Mrs. Brown also chose to give Stevie best base even though she threatened to drop me. She gave Stevie best cheerleader. To top it off, she made Stevie captain of the squad for the following year. Mrs. Brown refused to hear anything we told her. I would have been sick listening to all of that adulation heaped on a girl who was so undeserving.

In February, my parents went to the school board to force the school to follow its constitution. The constitution we signed stated that any cheerleader dismissed from the squad was ineligible to try out the following year. Mrs. Brown had already told Lilly she could try out again. We knew this is not what was stated in the rules. That is when my parents realized that Mrs. Brown had gone into the cheerleading website and removed that particular sentence. My parents produced the actual document that we had signed and, once again, forced Mrs. Brown to uphold constitution we signed so Lilly was ineligible to try out the following year. Do you know how insignificant it makes me feel to think Mrs. Brown wanted Lilly back so much that she would change an official document? I guess that illustrates her opinion of me. She didn't care one little bit about me; only Lilly. I definitely lost all respect for her when she did that.

I had been at my new school for about a month when an old friend from my other school called and asked me to go to open gym that night. I was excited; I hadn't seen Tonya in awhile. I specifically asked if Stevie or Lilly was going because I didn't want to see them. She told me "No". Tonya called me on the way home from school to tell me that Stevie and Lilly were going after all. I got mad at Tonya and asked her how she could have invited them knowing what they'd done to me. She told me that they were her new best friends and to get over it. I told her I had no intention of getting over it and that I didn't want to be anywhere near Stevie or Lilly. They were trash as far as I was concerned. I read To Kill A Mocking Bird this summer and in chapter 23 Atticus is talking to Jem and Scout and says "As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it Ðwhenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash." After reading this, I have decided that I could not have chosen a more precise or powerful word to describe the way I feel about the girls, parents, and teachers who allowed this to happen.

Unfortunately, I was forced to learn a lot of difficult lessons last year. I am so disappointed in the girls who I thought were friends. I feel totally betrayed by the parents who actively took part in the bullying. I have no respect for the educators who didn't lift a finger to help me. I also am saddened by the other girls and parents who knew what was happening but couldn't stand up and do the right thing because of fear. I have made tons of new friends at my new school and am very glad I changed schools. I am diligently trying to close this chapter in my life and think of these people as - just people I once knew. It is tough to do, because I truly considered many of these girls very good friends, and I used to think highly of several of the adults who acted so deplorably. I hope one day they grow a conscience and realize the pain and suffering they caused me; but I am not holding my breath. This episode in my life certainly does make me want to believe in karma. I'm sure that this horrendous experience has made me a stronger person, so in the words of a cheerleader in Texas "bring it on"!!!