High School Spoof of Cheerleaders Is Banned as Sexist

Faced with a new state law that prohibits sexual harassment on campus, student leaders at a high school here have banned a traditional homecoming spoof of cheerleaders in which boys don miniskirts and balloon-filled bikini tops.

Woodbridge High School’s student council voted Thursday to eliminate the cheerleading parody in response to teachers’ complaints that it was lewd and demeaning to women.

Most student council members said they saw nothing wrong with the annual spoof, which attracts far more enthusiasm than any other pep rally, but they said they wanted to quell the controversy.

Woodbridge Principal Greg Cops said he stayed out of the debate to allow students to democratically decide a sensitive issue.

“All we are is microcosms of society,” Cops said. “If it’s happening out there, it’s happening in here. Where is poking fun and where is harassment? Where is the line between those two things? . . . It’s a classic debate, it’s a great debate, it’s a learning debate.”

Each year since the school was founded in 1980, about a dozen boys from each class have painted their faces, dressed as cheerleaders and performed at a pep rally, which this year will take place Oct. 21. In four skits, the groups compete to see who can win the most audience response.

In some years, girls have also dressed up as football players for the rally. Educators say this sort of cross-dressing skit is common in high schools.

But, at last year’s rally, many of the Woodbridge High boys stuck balloons in bikini tops or under their football jerseys, and included pelvic thrusts and other sexual gestures in their performances.

This summer, several social science teachers, who were revamping the curriculum to include lessons on multicultural respect, decided the pep rally was inappropriate and drafted a letter of protest to the 23-member student council. It was signed by 45 of the school’s 111 staff members and called for an end to the tradition.

Two weeks later, after discussions in political science classes, debate at council meetings and chatter in campus courtyards, the student government said the spoof wasn’t worth the controversy.

“I wasn’t offended, (but) if it’s going to cause a stink, then we don’t want to do it,” said Junior Class President Aimee Surovy.

Under a state law that went into effect Jan. 1, students in fourth through 12th grades can be suspended or expelled for engaging in sexual harassment, which is defined in the state education code as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal, visual or physical conduct of a sexual nature” that has a negative impact on academic performance or creates a hostile educational environment.

The law’s author, Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara), focused on incidents of teasing, boys flipping up girls’ skirts and inappropriate touching. But a member of his staff said Thursday that the Woodbridge spoof was an example of in-school sexual harassment.

Dana Duenzen, who heads the school’s social science department and advises the cheerleading squad, said teachers found the skits degrading to cheerleaders as well as women.

In their letter to the student council, the teachers compared the traditional cheerleader parody to old-time minstrel shows in which white actors wore blackface and mimicked African-Americans.