Go, Fight, Win: Ex-Cheerleader Gives Self a ‘V’ : Bias: Former Irvine student says victory is sweet after long court battle and bitter lessons about high school life.

After four years, the news of Melissa Fontes’ victory arrived Friday by fax to her college apartment.

“I got home from school and my mom called and said turn on your fax machine, but she didn’t tell me what it was,” said Fontes, 20, now a sophomore at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore. “I had to read through the whole decision--it was pages and pages--and finally I said ‘Yes!’ It was incredible. It felt great.”

Fontes learned that a state appeals court ruled that she had been wrongly dismissed from the cheerleading squad as a 16-year-old junior at Irvine’s Woodbridge High School for failing a chemistry class.

She would not have been dismissed from a sports team, but at Woodbridge and Irvine’s other two high schools, cheerleaders are held to a higher standard. Athletes were required to only maintain a 2.0 average out of 4.0 and pass at least four courses the previous quarter. Cheerleaders had a “No Fs” rule, which was terms for dismissal.

With the support of her mother, Fontes sued the district. When a Superior Court judge ruled against her, she continued to maintain what the appellate judges ultimately decided last week that the Irvine school policy was unfair and discriminatory.

In an interview Saturday, Fontes said she felt vindicated--for all her troubles, for all the embarrassing media attention, for all the lonely days of feeling ostracized at school.

“This definitely has been one of the biggest learning experiences of my life,” Fontes said Saturday from her family’s China Cove home, where she is visiting for the Memorial Day weekend. “It was difficult, but I would certainly go through it all again. I have learned so much about people in positions of power, about the press and about friends.”

The lesson, Fontes said, is that you must stand up for yourself, no matter what the consequences.

“I think integrity is a rare thing,” Fontes said. “No one is interested in standing up for what they believe in. It’s not a popular thing to do. Not only do people not support you, but they are hostile when you challenge things.”

Fontes’ mother, Patricia Passy, seconded her daughter’s thoughts. A self-described feminist, Passy had questioned why her daughter had wanted to be a cheerleader in the first place, but she vowed to see the fight through.

“I am just incredibly proud of Melissa,” Passy said. “I watched her go through a very difficult year because of this . . . a very difficult experience at a young age. We supported her but she had to walk that path.”

Until that spring, Fontes had been a popular member of the cheerleading squad for two years at Woodbridge, a sports-crazy campus, and had maintained a 2.9 average. Her boyfriend was the captain of the football team.

But then she flunked chemistry in the fall. She said she was unaware of the “No Fs” rule, although she should have known about it because the policy was spelled out in the cheerleaders handbook.

Just days before the cheerleader tryouts for her senior year, Fontes got the word--she was out. At first, she said, friends were behind her as she appealed to her chemistry teacher, then to the principal, then to the school board.

But the administration would not budge. Stricter rules for cheerleaders are justified because “they’re out in front of 3,000 people at a football game with a microphone in their hands. They command respect,” Principal Greg Cops said at the time.

As the battle became more difficult, many of the more than 500 students who signed a petition in her support, some of them her closest friends, began to disappear. “There was a growing hostility on campus,” Fontes recalled, and by the time football season began in the fall, she did not want to attend a game.

“My whole attitude toward school was different. I wasn’t as spirited. I was disillusioned about the whole school experience,” Fontes said.

Her mother could see what was happening.

“She had been very popular, a model girl on campus,” Passy said. “But because she had chosen to question and challenge, which is what our system should teach is the appropriate thing to do, she was ostracized and her support system gave way to their needs. . . . The process became very political.”

Two years later, Fontes suffered another setback when Superior Court Judge Robert Gardner rejected her lawsuit.

The decision stood until last week when the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana ruled that “the distinction between cheerleading and athletics cannot pass.” Fontes had not asked for any monetary gain but the court did award her legal fees.

The Irvine school board has threatened to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. The board is scheduled to discuss that appeal Tuesday night.

Fontes’ attorney, Bonnie K. Lawley, called the appellate court ruling a victory for young people nationwide.

“This whole case was about bigotry in every form, about discrimination in every form,” Lawley said. “Young people in our schools across the state have to be subjected to the same rules. You can’t hold one group of young people to a higher standard than another--and that was our whole purpose for pursuing this.”

Now, Fontes said, her “cheerleading days are over.” But her days of learning continue. She is currently a philosophy major and spent last week reading the works of Friedrich Nietzsche.

“I was brought up to question authority and be free thinking,” Fontes said. “If you think something is wrong, don’t just sit back and let it happen. I always knew this was a thing I had to do, but it got hard sometimes.”