Cheerleaders

Cheerleaders in a small Texas town can continue to display their Bible verse banners at football games, after a district judge ruled Wednesday that their actions did not violate the Constitution. The cheerleaders in the football-dominated town of Kountze garnered national attention when they sued the school district in a case that pitted free-speech rights and religious freedom against the doctrine of separation of church and state. Hardin County 365th Judicial District Court Judge Stephen Thomas said the banners that included religious messages - such as "If God is for us, who can be against us?

Cheerleaders in a small Texas town can continue to display their Bible verse banners at football games, after a district judge ruled Wednesday that their actions did not violate the Constitution. The cheerleaders in the football-dominated town of Kountze garnered national attention when they sued the school district in a case that pitted free-speech rights and religious freedom against the doctrine of separation of church and state. Hardin County 365th Judicial District Court Judge Stephen Thomas said the banners that included religious messages - such as "If God is for us, who can be against us?

HOUSTON -- Texas is football country, and in the small town of Kountze, about 85 miles north of Houston, that means many of the roughly 2,000 residents gather at the public high school on Friday nights to watch the show: the coaches, the players and of course the cheerleaders toting their homemade Biblical banners, or “spirit signs.” “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens! Phil  4:13.” “If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31.” “But thanks be to God which gives us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Classmates and administrators at a Palmdale middle school struggled Tuesday to make sense of the death of a 13-year-old boy with the "million-dollar smile" who apparently left a suicide note before his body was found at a restaurant 20 miles outside town. Authorities said it appeared that the youth - who was new to the school and despondent over his recent suspension - killed himself. The boy's father alerted authorities Monday when he found a suicide note in his son's room and discovered his gun was missing, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.

A group of 12 Saddleback Valley cheerleaders, headed by longtime coach Gail Wright, took first place recently in a competition organized by the Pop Warner Football League. "We did pretty well for our little group," said parent Kate Charles-Howe. The Orange Empire Conference, held in Long Beach, was special, parents say, because the girls showed extra team spirit. One 12-year-old team member was holding an extended "A mount" position when she slipped.

The high school football season has come to a close, but there is no rest for the cheerleading squad at Van Nuys High School. The 15-member squad still practices five days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day to perfect their tumbles, flips and tosses. Is this some kind of punishment? No, it's a reward for being so good. Last month the squad took first place for the second straight year in the citywide Universal Cheerleading Assn.'s regional competition.

Cheerleaders are rare in professional ice hockey. Ice-skating cheerleaders, unheard of. So imagine our surprise when we bumped into the figure-skating cheerleaders for Disney's Mighty Ducks practicing at the Culver City Ice Arena this week. What a wholesome contrast to the game's occasional slug fests, we thought. Wonder what they'll wear? "Uh, I can't tell you anything about the Decoys," said a young woman in the Anaheim team's marketing department.

Gimme an I-R-O-N-Y!! The upcoming Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium, home of the world's most famous cheerleaders and monument to all things poufy and glittering, will make history for a different reason. There will be no cheerleaders. The Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers are two of the six NFL teams that do not employ cheerleaders, and the NFL said Thursday that they have no plans to bring in ringers. It will be the first time in the Super Bowl's 45 years that the game will contain no sis, no boom and no bah. "No cheerleaders this year," read the e-mailed answer from a league spokesman Thursday, bringing me to my feet.

It's happened again. Two colleagues, a parent and a student, have broken down in tears over the same issue. And because the issue is not a classroom problem but an extracurricular activity, I can't help being perplexed. Clearly, many of the concerns these people have expressed can be applied equally to school athletics, but their immediate experience has been with a spinoff of the sports program: cheerleading.

Patty Phommanyvong, a cheerleader for Marshall High School in Los Angeles, was thrust into the air while performing a stunt at a football game two years ago. The next thing anyone knew, she was limp. Her heart had stopped beating. Paramedics were called, but by the time they got her heart restarted, her brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long and she was in a coma. Experts say she may have been inadvertently struck in the chest on her descent from the stunt. Confined to a nursing home, Phommanyvong, now 19, can't eat or speak.

Students at a Palmdale middle school are struggling to make sense of the apparent suicide of a 13-year-old classmate, who is believed to have shot himself with his father's gun. Grief counselors were sent to Hillview Middle School on Tuesday to help the students. Nigel Hardy's father alerted authorities Monday when he found a suicide note in his son's room and discovered his gun was missing, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said. A gun was found near his body, which was discovered at a restaurant 20 miles outside town, a Kern County sheriff's official said.

Among The Times' letter writers, perhaps no other issue inspires more pessimism than the drama over the downtown L.A. stadium deal . That's saying something. But given the cast of characters (the NFL, which has burned L.A. more than once; entertainment giant AEG, the mega-developer slated to build the downtown football stadium with support from the city; and City Hall, whose support of this project hasn't exactly won over the public), this isn't surprising. From the moment the deal was announced in 2011, the reader reaction sent to letters@latimes.com has been overwhelmingly negative . And with the latest development in the story -- AEG's sale that never was -- the pessimism has continued.

Paris Jackson, the daughter of late music legend Michael Jackson, has been offered a chance to become an NFL cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles. Jackson is currently a cheerleader for Buckley High in Sherman Oaks and has drawn the eye of Eagles cheer director Barbara Zaun. “We think Paris will make a great Eagle cheerleader,” Zaun told TMZ.com. “We thought that she had a lot of poise, confidence and enthusiasm in her cheer performance. Paris has that 'wow factor' that makes a great cheerleader.” There's one catch though.

  I think we've figured out a new event for next year's NBA All-Star game. Forget the slam dunk contest. How about "Half-court shot while doing a front flip?" If that happens, the NBA would have to invite cheerleader Ashlee Arnau to show them how it is done. Arnau, 21, a cheerleader at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Miss., made the incredible shot at halftime of her school's game against Auburn-Montgomery. One caveat: She has tried to make the shot at halftime of every home game since Christmas.

On Monday evening, a photo of a former Green Bay Packers cheerleader named Kaitlyn Collins was posted to the Chicago Bears Facebook fan page. The photo was captioned: “Like If You Agree The Packers Have The Worst Cheerleaders In The NFL!” Some of the fan page's 90,000 subscribers decided to disparage Collins, writing nasty comments about her appearance. Collins fired back. She made a silent video that she posted to YouTube on Wednesday in which she held up signs that mentioned some of the mean things that were written about her. "Most comments were too horrible to repeat, but had the same theme," she wrote.

  Baltimore Ravens cheerleader Courtney Lenz, 23, says she has been barred from the Super Bowl because she weighs too much. Lenz made the comments during an interview on "Access Hollywood" on Wednesday evening. "They said that I had quote, unquote, a rough year," Lenz said. "I'd been benched earlier in the season for a little bit of a weight gain. We do get weighed every week during the season, and you can't fluctuate at all. I gained, I think it was 1.8 pounds. I had been consistent and they let me cheer previously and then I gained 1.8 or 1.6 pounds and they said because I had gained weight and they wanted me to be consistent or they wanted me to lose, they benched me for a game and because it was a disciplinary action, that was the reason.

This small city's namesake military base was decommissioned after World War II, but over the years Fort Oglethorpe, population 7,000, has retained its utilitarian, base-town ambience. Public life here unfolds on two busy four-lane thoroughfares clogged with used-car lots, fast-food joints and pawnshops. All that's missing are the troops. What Fort Oglethorpe does not lack is churches -- enough churches, in an array of Protestant flavors, to deliver salvation to brigades of sinners.

Mission Viejo High cheerleader Adrienne Beck, who injured her neck Friday when she fell during a routine at halftime of the Diablos' football game against El Toro at Trabuco Hills High, was released late Friday from Saddleback Hospital. As the family left the hospital, her mother said she was fine. The game was delayed 25 minutes while the paramedics removed the cheerleader from the middle of the field.

So, American women can now serve in combat, but fat women can't be cheerleaders? Talk about one step forward and two steps and -- all together now, ladies, and keep smiling -- a high leg kick back! Honestly, how much social upheaval can one country take? And on the eve of the Super Bowl, no less, that stirring celebration of all things American: food, football, funny beer commercials, pretty girls and halftime wardrobe malfunctions. Like most Americans -- at least judging from recent polls -- I'm OK with the women-in-combat deal.

Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders Megan M. and Crystal Ann went above and beyond the call of duty Sunday to back their team. They shaved their heads in support of Colts Coach Chuck Pagano, who was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this season. Megan M. said two weeks ago that she would shave her head if Blue, the team mascot, could raise $10,000 for the Colts' "ChuckStrong" charity. Crystal Ann later said she would join her. Well, Blue raised $22,670 and Sunday, between the third and fourth quarter of the Colts' 20-13 victory over the Buffalo Bills at Indianapolis, their hair came off. Well done, ladies.