A Pasco High cheerleader will ask a judge for an injunction to stop the School Board from punishing him.
By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published December 3, 2003
LAND O'LAKES - Johnathan Madison's suspension stands. But the Pasco High School cheerleader is not going to stand for it.
Just after the School Board voted 5-0 Tuesday morning to uphold Madison's punishment for allegedly bringing vodka to a cheering camp, Madison and his mother told television cameras they're headed to court.
"It's got to be done," Madison attorney Brad Tobin said. "Due process has eluded my client throughout this process."
Tobin promised to file an injunction today in Circuit Court to stop the School Board from punishing his client. The family also threatened to sue some of Madison's former squad mates for slander and libel related to the incident.
Madison and his parents, Diana and John, maintain the 17-year-old is innocent of charges that he brought alcohol to a University of South Florida cheerleading camp in July and shared it.
The family has hired an attorney, a court reporter, and a private investigator and submitted their son for two lie detector tests, all to fight the charges.
Tuesday's meeting was their third appeal of Pasco High principal Pat Reedy's recommendation, but School Board members weren't swayed.
"I haven't seen anything to tell me that the evidence wasn't looked at and that the people who needed to be talked to weren't talked to," board member Pam Coulter said. "I can't see where the school district or the hearing officer did not have all the information."
Bob Dorn, an administrator overseeing high schools for the district, served as the hearing officer for the second appeal. He relayed to board members a confusing string of testimony by cheerleaders he identified only as "cheerleader one," "cheerleader two," and so on.
Tobin challenged the accounts, saying his client should have the right to confront his accusers. But Dorn said the district has the right to conceal students' names to protect them from retribution.
Johnathan Madison, who said he doesn't drink, suspects he was targeted and framed by his fellow cheerleaders because he is the only boy.
"I feel like I was being accused of something I didn't do, and I was being blamed for something I didn't even have a part of," he told the board.
Two other cheerleaders have been suspended in connection with the incident. Only one of those students took the matter all the way to the board level.
Dorn said it's rare for students to appeal suspensions as far as the Madisons have. But asked if he thought the family was carrying the case too far, Dorn said no.
All students have the right to due process, he said.
The Madison's case quickly attracted national attention since it was first reported in the the St. Petersburg Times on Sunday. Jim Rome, a nationally syndicated sports commentator, poked fun at the incident on his show Monday, making jokes about teenage boys' motivations.
But Johnathan Madison said he was always taught to fight for what he believes is the truth.
"Just because people are saying you are wrong, don't give up," Madison said. The teen said he's worried the suspension will mar his record and prohibit him from pursuing his dreams of going into law enforcement.
"No one's calling Johnathan a bad kid," Dorn said. "He's a student who in this case has made a mistake."
