A Texas school district issued a bizarre ruling to overturn the initial results of a school's varsity cheerleading tryout, eventually deciding that the 19 girls who were approved to be the varsity cheerleaders for the 2012-13 school year were too few for the school and forcing the school's program to incorporate all 39 girls who passed the tryout's tumbling certification and attended tryouts in the program.
The diplomatic cheerleading melee occurred at Colleyville (Texas) High, where only 19 girls were picked to serve as cheerleaders for a school with a massive 2,400 student population. According to ABC News and Dallas Fort Worth network WFAA, the severe numbers cutback was the result of tougher tryouts for the 2012 squad, leading to some existing varsity cheerleaders being dropped from the squad.
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Those dropped cheerleaders and their parents in turn argued vociferously against the tryouts at school board meetings, leading to further discussion of the school's tryout standards and comparisons with the tryouts at other area schools. After comparing Colleyville's standards, the school board eventually agreed with the parents and ousted cheerleaders, stepping in to overrule the original results of the tryouts and more than double the size of the incoming 2012-13 squad.
"The district administration made the decision to place all of the candidates who passed the required tumbling certification and participated in tryouts onto the Colleyville Heritage High School cheer squad for 2012-2013," a statement released by the district read. "The administration's decision allows for more student participation at both the freshman and junior varsity levels, and provides the ability to field three squads at CHHS as we traditionally have offered."
Incredibly, the changes ushered in by the divisive tryouts don't stop there, either. The Colleyville school district said it was establishing a district committee to investigate the current tryout process and attempt to overhaul it going forward.
That move has received further appreciation from the Colleyville parents, who cited vast differences in the number of rejected cheerleaders from tryouts at Colleyville and Grapevine (Texas) High -- despite the same judges presiding at both schools' tryouts -- as proof that Colleyville's standards need to be changed.
"This is a sport and the girls are athletes," Colleyville cheerleading parents Crissie Tatum told ABC News. "It's changing for the better and looked at like a sport to make it more fair for the girls that are involved.
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"They did a really good job of really working to look at the big picture and trying to see what would be the right thing. We are happy that they decided to make that change."
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