Denver police are investigating an incident at a local high school after video emerged of a cheerleader being forced into the splits, screaming in pain.
During the first week of cheer camp in June, incoming freshman Ally Wakefield was held down by her East High School teammates and coach as they pushed her body into the splits. In the video footage shared with Denver NBC affiliate KUSA, Wakefield screams “please, stop” 9 times in under 24 seconds and she cries out for help.
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The station says it received other videos shot by two cheer team members which show a total of eight cheerleaders being forced into the splits by recently hired cheer coach Ozell Williams. As he pressed their shoulders down, other girls held the cheerleaders’ arms and legs so they couldn’t move from the painful position.
This would have been Williams’ first year coaching the cheer squad, but he was placed on leave during the first week of school while an investigation is carried out.
KUSA says the videos were sent anonymously to the station in August, but Wakefield’s mother Kirsten sent the same disturbing video to school administrators in June.
“I 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’s note. This is how Ally injured her leg,” Kirsten said in a June 15 email to East High School Athletic Director, Lisa Porter.
“My husband and I would like to know what the administration is going to do about my daughter’s injury and how it happened,” the email continued. The family says the incident caused the tissue in her leg to tear.
Kirsten says school administrators did not investigate the incident, but when KUSA requested records of the complaints made about the coach on August 22, Denver police launched an investigation the following day.
Williams—who has cheered and tumbled during Colorado University and Denver Broncos games—only briefly responded to allegations. He told KUSA that he learned the stretching technique growing up, mentioning Chicago and New Orleans as places he’s trained in the past.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg issued a statement Wednesday, August 23, that read, in part: ” We absolutely prohibit any practices that place our students’ physical and mental health in jeopardy. We do not and will not allow any situation in which a student is forced to perform an activity or exercise beyond the point at which they express their desire to stop.”
“With regards to certain videos, I cannot state strongly enough—as the superintendent of the school district and as the father of two high school-aged daughters—that the images and actions depicted are extremely distressing and absolutely contrary to our core values as a public school community.”
He said the cheer coach, assistant cheer coach, high school principal, assistant principal and Denver Public Schools deputy general counsel have all been placed on leave as the investigation is carried out. This, he says, is standard practice for the schools and not a pre-judgment of their actions.
