BRENTWOOD Cheer squads and parents of Liberty Union High School Districts cheerleaders are up in arms over an upcoming vote that could keep cheer teams on the sidelines.

Word got out last week afterSuperintendent Eric Volta recommended to the school board not to offer traditional competitive cheering next year, when the California Interscholastic Federation is due to officially recognize it as a sport.

In 2015, the state legislature passed a bill thatclassified competition cheer as a sport. Now, schools are rushing to figure out the costs and requirements associated withthe federations bylaws.

On Feb. 22, the Liberty Union High School district discussed whether to add the two types of cheer,traditional competitive cheer and competitive sport cheer, also known as stunting.

A major difference between the two is that traditional competitive cheer has timed routines that many people would recognize and competes throughout the year. Competitive sport cheeris focused on stunts, such as tosses and tumbling, and competes in the spring.

We are looking at expense, equity and opportunity and whats the best we can give to our students, whether its competitive sport cheer or traditional competitive cheer, said Pauline Allred, president of the LUHSD school board. Cheer becoming a CIF-sanctioned sport would add expenses to our sports program.

Students and parents have spoken out and have launched a campaign to convince the school district to include competitive cheer as a sport.

The girls have worked so hard for cheer to be finally recognized as a sport and to give their athleticism some credibility, saidTiffani Hom, whose daughter is a freshman on the Heritage High School varsity cheer team. Its kind of like a slap in the face to the girls.

Gil Lemmon, the commissioner of athletics for the North Coast Section of the CIF, said that the sport is notequally protected under anti-discrimination laws, known as Title IX, yet. However, its inclusion as a sport under the CIF adds protections and requirements for the 26,000 student athletes currently competing in cheer.

Some people are putting the cart before the horse here, Lemmon said. This is an opportunity for the school to list the activity as a CIF-approved sport. This is no different than when we added lacrosse. It means that schools, if they offer that activity, would have to comply with all the other CIF rules and regulations.

The cheer community in the Liberty Union High School District is strong. Heritage High Schools varsity cheer team made it to the semi-finals and placed 10th at the Universal Cheerleaders Association Nationals in Orlando, Fla. The stunt group made it to the finals and placed 10th as well.

If you want to cheer in college, youll need that competition piece, said Deborah Hinds, whose daughter Desiree is also on the Heritage High School varsity cheer team. The Heritage and Freedom High teamsare the bestin the Bay area.

While the majority of cheer athletes are in traditional competitive cheering, competitive sport cheeringhas been gaining ground in recent years.

What were hoping is that over time, we would see the competitive sport cheer grow, Lemmon said. It has a season of sport and theres an opportunity for the student athletes to compete against other schools.

Antioch Unified School District is leaning toward offering both programs, but Pittsburg Unified is hinting that it might go the same route as Liberty Union, by only offering competitive sport cheer.

Greg Strom, coordinator of athletics for Pittsburg Unified, said that the decision mainly concerns expenses. Traditional competitive cheer requires more travel and fundraising.

Thisassessment was confirmed by LUHSD board member Raymond Valverde, who said that the district superintendent, Eric Volta, had cited funding as a concern when recommending that only competitive sport cheer be offered. Valverde supported keeping traditional competitive cheer and said that the district will be discussing the issue further at their March 8 meeting.

Whatever the outcome, the district has committed to keeping sideline cheer, which is a club, rather than a competitive sport.

LUHSD Superintendent Eric Volta could not be reached for comment.

Read the original post:

Liberty Union students, parents feel sidelined by district over cheer program - East Bay Times