After performing a cheer during a football game, one Evans Middle School coach took it the wrong way. To "teach them a lesson," she instructed thirteen cheerleaders to bear crawl and crab walk on a blazing hot outdoor track. The girls ended up with first and second-degree burns on their hands. This happened in Lubbock, Texas.
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According to Everything Lubbock, the unnamed coach found the cheerleaders's cheer incredibly disrespectful. After instructing the girls to do the near-torture ordeal, several of them were already unable to continue. After a few laps, they immediately felt pain and became sick. According to one of the parents, the outdoor track measured 125 degrees. It only takes minutes for second-degree burns and even third-degree burns to appear when touching surfaces that hot, according to Antiscad.
Angel Thompson, one of the cheerleader's mom, told the outlet how she found out her daughter's burns. "I had asked [my daughter], 'Are you okay? How was school?'," said Thomson. "She put our stuff down in the car, went to sit down and said, 'Mom, you want to know how my day was in cheer?' I said, 'Yeah.' She told me that they got a punishment, and shows me her hands."
Some of the parents said that the coach was threatening the girls's careers if they didn't comply with the punishment. The school, despite knowing about the incident, didn't call the parents. They found out about the incident from their daughters. One of the cheerleaders said: "We told her our hands are burning, and she said she didn't care, and she made us go back down on the track."
School District Addresses The Incident
The Lubbock Independent School District later addressed the situation by issuing a statement. "We are heartbroken over these events, as the safety and well-being of our students is our top priority. This type of incident does not reflect the standards or values of Lubbock ISD and Evans Middle School," reads the statement.
"We are addressing this matter with utmost urgency, and are fully committed to investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident," the statement continued. "We want to assure our community that we are addressing this issue in accordance with district protocols and applicable laws. Our goal is to maintain a safe, respectful, and supportive environment for all students"
The involved coach is on administrative leave while authorities conduct investigations.
