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Cheer was a Netflix sensation.
The documentary series, which followed the elite cheerleading team of Texas’ Navarro College, thrilled audiences with the team’s personal stories, high-flying acrobatics and journey to the national championship.
Earning rave reviews for its compelling portrayal of a collegiate subculture, Cheer won multiple Emmys and catapulted some of its cheerleaders and coaches to fame.
“This isn’t traditional cheerleading,” The Dallas Morning News wrote in 2020. “Navarro’s displays of high-risk acrobatics and tumbling combine the best of professional gymnastics, Broadway theatre and Cirque du Soleil – all with a peppy, charming, sideline flair.”
READ MORE:
* Coach Monica Aldama from Netflix’s Cheer accused of covering up sex assault
* Former Cheer star pleads guilty in child pornography case
* Morgan Simianer weighs in on Cheer’s decision to address the Jerry Harris Scandal
Yet the show has been engulfed in controversy, including a federal lawsuit filed last week in Dallas by a former cheerleader accusing the college of covering up her sexual assault.
Here’s a look at how the show and controversies have unfolded:
It’s a hit
Cheer debuted in 2020, chronicling the Navarro College cheerleading team on its journey to defend its national title.
The college in Corsicana, about 50 miles southeast of Dallas, is a cheerleading powerhouse that performs jaw-dropping stunt work and captured its 16th national title since 2000 earlier this month.
Throughout its six-episode first season, Cheer connected with audiences showing that many of its team members overcame difficult circumstances and childhoods filled with abuse and neglect to find community in cheerleading.
Cheerleaders are shown practising gruelling routines as they fight through pain, including bruised ribs and concussions – “a hardcore, intense, borderline-psychotic business,” The News characterised it in 2020.
Head coach Monica Aldama, who encourages members to think of her as “a mom,” is the driving force behind the team. Aldama emerged as one of the series’ stars, even as she faced criticism for injuries and sometimes questionable safety.
Aldama went on to appear on Dancing with the Stars, recorded video podcasts and posted sponsorship content for brands including Samsung and Robitussin.
AP
Jerry Harris was arrested in September 2020 and accused of soliciting nude photos and videos from a 13-year-old boy.
Jerry Harris
Jerry Harris became a breakout star of Cheer, known for his upbeat attitude and encouraging “mat talk.” He even interviewed celebrities on the red carpet at the Academy Awards for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
He was arrested in September 2020 and accused of soliciting nude photos and videos from a 13-year-old Fort Worth boy. Harris was eventually charged with seven counts related to child sexual abuse and pornography.
As part of a plea agreement in 2022, Harris pleaded guilty to two of the charges – one for persuading a 17-year-old to send him sexually explicit photographs for money and the other stemming from a trip he took to Florida for the purpose of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct” with a 15-year-old. He was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.
The second season of Cheer, which was released in 2022, addressed the case and featured interviews with teenage brothers who accused Harris of misconduct.
More sexual assault accusations
Five months after accusations surfaced against Harris, two more cast members were accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
Mitchell Ryan was arrested in 2021 and accused of sexually assaulting a child in Coppell.
Ryan, a cheerleader, later worked as a coach at Cheer Athletics, a Plano gym. A Dallas County grand jury declined to indict him, which means jurors found insufficient evidence to justify prosecution.
Also in 2021, Robert Joseph Scianna Jr., a coach and choreographer in the series, was arrested in Virginia and pleaded guilty to a solicitation charge.
Both men were well-known in the cheerleading world, according to USA Today, which first reported on the arrests.
Netflix
Coach Monica Aldama in Cheer.
New lawsuit
Navarro College is once again the centre of controversy.
A former cheerleader says coach Aldama and others discouraged her from reporting her sexual assault, according to a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Dallas. It says Aldama told the woman she would help advance her career if she kept quiet about the assault.
The former student and cheerleader said she was sexually assaulted by a male cheerleader in her dorm room during her first semester at Navarro in September 2021.
The next day, the woman reported the incident to several other cheerleaders, who persuaded her to go to a party that night, according to court filings. One cheerleader told the plaintiff she needed to “drink it off.”
“That’s what Navarro girls do – they drink,” the other cheerleader said, according to the lawsuit. “We don’t tell anyone. We just keep it to ourself.”
The lawsuit, which also names Navarro’s athletic director Michael Landers and Title IX coordinator Elizabeth Pillans as defendants, accuses the college, coach and administrators of fostering “a campus condition rife with sexual assault and lacking the basic standards of support for victims as required by state and federal law.”
In a statement to The News, Navarro College said it is aware of the lawsuit and “denies any allegations of wrongdoing and is prepared to vigorously defend itself in court.”
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