In a report this week about the investigation, KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Denver<\/a>, said that video and others that were sent anonymously to the station show eight cheerleaders being forced into the splits position.<\/p>\n
This is Mr. Williams\u2019s first year coaching for East High School, according to KUSA, and this week was the first of East High\u2019s academic year. He is also somewhat of a local celebrity, with thousands of Instagram followers<\/a>, and is often seen tumbling across the field at both Denver Broncos and University of Colorado football games.<\/p>\n
KUSA said it spoke to Mr. Williams on the phone this week, and that he said he had learned the technique growing up, but he declined to say more.<\/p>\n
Mr. Williams did not immediately respond to email messages sent on Thursday and could not be reached by phone.<\/p>\n
On June 15, Kirstin Wakefield, the mother of the girl seen the video, sent an email to the assistant principal who was put on leave this week, asking what the administration planned to do about the incidents, according to KUSA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have attached a video of the forced splits she and her other team members were forced to do at cheerleading camp and practices; unless they had a doctor\u2019s note,\u201d it read. “My husband and I would like to know what the administration is going to do about my daughter\u2019s injury and how it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an on-camera interview with KUSA, Ms. Wakefield said: \u201cThis is a grown man pushing my 13-year-old girl so hard against her will, while she\u2019s crying and screaming for him to stop, that he\u2019s ripping tissues in her body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n
Ms. Wakefield and her husband, Eric, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. It was not clear how seriously their daughter was injured.<\/p>\n
The Denver Board of Education addressed the matter in a statement<\/a> on Thursday: \u201cAs the elected representatives for Denver Public Schools \u2014 and as the moms, dads and family members of D.P.S. students ourselves \u2014 we are deeply disturbed by the videos of cheer practices at East High School that came to our attention yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the investigation continues,\u2019\u2019 it states, \u201cour focus must be entirely on our students, families and educators.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Mr. Boasberg, the superintendent, released a second statement, saying that counselors at East High School had worked with the cheerleading team and other students to address concerns that morning.<\/p>\n
He also said: \u201cWe have sent notification to our athletic directors emphasizing that D.P.S. does not allow the use of \u2018forced splits\u2019 or any other activity that puts a student\u2019s physical or mental health<\/a> at risk, or in which a student is forced to perform an exercise beyond the point at which they express their desire to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a report this week about the investigation, KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Denver, said that video and others that were sent anonymously to the station show eight cheerleaders being forced into the splits position. This is Mr. Williams\u2019s first year coaching for East High School, according to KUSA, and this week was the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}