Disabled Cheerleader Not Allowed to Bring It

Edith Zimmerman
The Hairpin
Published in
1 min readJul 13, 2011

Well, this is complicated. A rising high-school junior who was “born without legs and with arms that stop short of her elbows” tried out to be a cheerleader but didn’t make the team.

In the performance portion, Julia received her lowest score in the jumps/kicks category and her highest marks in the communication skills and enthusiasm/spirit categories.

Her family and their attorney are now beefing with the school district, which stands by the squad’s rejection. Girl, cheerleading is just for evil sluts who’ll flirt with the guy you like and tell people you smell weird. Throw parties and sell your parents’ prescription medicine instead. (Just kidding.)

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Edith Zimmerman
The Hairpin

Spiralbound editor. Formerly at The Hairpin. Also now making a newsletter: https://drawinglinks.substack.com