LHS cheerleaders get new coach, new chance
Published on Wednesday, February 25
By Eric Slagle
News-Post Staff
FREDERICK -- After concluding a two-week investigation into a cheerleader field trip to Disney World gone awry, Linganore High officials named a new cheerleading coach Tuesday and will allow the team to cheer at a basketball game tonight.
LHS teacher Mary Ellen Newcomb will take over as coach immediately, according to school officials. Michelle Perella had been coach of the squad.
The coaching change was precipitated by reports of bad behavior by members of the cheerleading squad and the arrest of one for shoplifting while the team was at a competition in Orlando, Fla., during the first weekend of February.
Some team members shoplifted merchandise from Disney World, according to Patricia Bostic, grandmother of one of the 38 students on the trip and one of their chaperones.
Ms. Bostic said her granddaughter confessed to stealing some merchandise, and was one of four girls suspended from school on Tuesday for three days.
It hasn't been decided if the students who were implicated in wrongdoings will be permitted to join the squad again next school year, said district spokeswoman Marita Loose.
Ms. Bostic said that after chaperones learned some of the girls had been shoplifting, they gave the cheerleaders an opportunity to anonymously put the merchandise back in a bag while the adults went to the food court.
When the adults returned, the cheerleaders had filled three shopping bags with materials they'd stolen during the course of the trip, Ms. Bostic said.
The team members are also reported to have had the police called to the hotel where they were staying after varsity squad members put highway cones around the hotel door of some of the junior members with a sign that said "contact management."
When the girls contacted hotel management, they in turn called police to the scene to investigate the incident, Ms. Bostic said.
The cheerleaders also got into trouble for "singing songs" on the plane on the trip back to Baltimore, said Ms. Bostic.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Christine Turneabe-Connelly confirmed that the company had received a letter of complaint from one of its passengers about the team's behavior.
Ms. Turneabe-Connelly said that, according to the complaint, the team's behavior was "not what you'd expect of someone representing their school, especially a high school." Ms. Turneabe-Connelly said the passenger had forwarded the same letter to the high school.
Ms. Bostic said she was upset that her granddaughter was being punished after confessing to stealing.
"They can only punish the ones who told the truth," Ms. Bostic said of school administrators. She believed that more than four girls had shoplifted and said she heard during the course of the investigation that this wasn't the first time squad members had stolen on field trips.
"We learned that this has been going on for the past four years," Ms. Bostic said. She said the school's three chaperones weren't up to the charge of handling the squad and wished she and other family members had been included in more activities.
"They let these girls run wild the whole time we were there," Ms. Bostic said.
Other parents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they were unhappy that the high school had taken so long conducting its investigation. Another said investigators had taken an accusatory tone with their daughter "as if they were trying to trick them into saying something."
The school system said it is satisfied the students have learned their lesson.
"They truly realize the profundity of the situation and realize their responsibility to behave maturely and accountably when representing their school," said Ms. Loose. "They're prepared to move forward on that note."
Ms. Loose said the coaching change will give the cheerleaders a "fresh start" and that cheering in the game tonight would have the squad "completing their season on a higher note than it appeared they would several days ago."
In a letter sent home to parents on Tuesday, LHS principal Marge Lyburn said a committee would be created to re-establish cheerleading activities at the school and that the goal would be to promote good character, community service and athleticism.
The committee, LHS Cheer --Better than Ever, will hold one-hour meetings on Thursday at 11:30 a.m., on March 3 at 7 p.m. and March 4 at 3 p.m. The locations have not been determined.
