‘Big boobie,’ ‘big booty’ awards given to high school cheerleaders, ACLU charges

A Wisconsin high school has ended the practice of giving cheerleaders gag awards named for their body parts after the ACLU amplified protests by parents and a coach.

The American Civil Liberties Union spent a year investigating complaints against Tremper High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Kenosha News reported.

On Tuesday the group “notified the Kenosha Unified School District of concerns by parents and a former coach that the awards presented at last year’s banquet not only designated the most improved or hardest-working players, but also awarded girls based on their body parts,” according to the News.

The newspaper named three of the awards that raised ire: “Big Booty,” for the largest rear; “Big Boobie,” for the largest breasts, and “String Bean” for the “thinnest” squad member.

Video footage of last year’s banquet, which took place at a Kenosha restaurant in March 2018, showed that “coaches proclaimed ‘We love her butt. Everybody loves her butt’ as the recipient of the largest buttocks award made her way to the front of the crowded room,” the ACLU wrote on its website.

The cheerleaders “looked forward to the annual spring banquet as a time to celebrate their hard work in the company of over 100 friends and family members,” the ACLU wrote. “What they never expected was for the banquet to become a humiliating exercise in body shaming.”

The group claimed that awards for breasts and butts “were also handed out during the 2017 cheer banquet. Additionally, a cheerleader with brown hair received a blonde wig as an award because she was deemed a ‘ditzy girl.’”

The district “needs to take action to make the schools a safe place for all students,” Asma Kadri Keeler, staff attorney for the ACLU of Wisconsin, told Fox 6 in Milwaukee. “To say that there is no evidence of wrongdoing ignores the fact that testimonials are evidence of wrongdoing.”

Parents and a coach complained to Tremper’s principal and school district officials. The coach’s email to principal Steve Knecht, according to the ACLU’s website, said this: “‘I feel that I need to tell you this for the protection of these girls . . . . I don’t think it takes much to see that this is extremely degrading to women”

“She also directly contacted the lead cheer coach to discourage her from objectifying squad members,” the ACLU writes. “The cheer coach responded, ‘I honestly don’t feel that I need to explain myself about how we ran our banquet. Actually we have ran it this way for years and have never had a problem.’”

Parents got a similar response from administrators who dismissed the awards as just joking around, the ACLU claims.

“When you have girls as young as 14 on this team, to say that calling someone up in front of hundreds of people and calling attention to her breasts, her buttocks, her frame and saying that’s a joke is more than inappropriate. It’s likely against the law,” Keeler told Fox 6.

A memo the ACLU obtained through an open records request showed that a human resources official with the school district took the complaints seriously.

“After interviewing the head cheer coach about the incident, she instructed the coach to submit her resignation. The principal rejected the official’s recommendation and told the coach that ‘she was welcome back’ the following year,” the ACLU writes. “The coach is still leading the cheerleading team to this day.”

The New York Times reported that when Knecht brought up the concerns to cheerleading coach Patti Uttech, she said the cheer squad’s seniors created the awards in 2017.

“They are always getting butts in their faces and other body parts,” Uttech told school officials, the Times reported.

In a statement to Fox 6 on Tuesday, school officials said the awards will no longer be handed out.

“A clear expectation has been set that awards of this nature are not acceptable and are not to be given at Tremper cheerleading banquets going forward,” Tanya Ruder, chief communications officer for the Kenosha district, said. “As for the investigation, we are not at liberty to share personnel matters.”