(05-02) 17:12 PDT WASHINGTON -- A Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the name of a basketball player - the same athlete she said had raped her four months earlier - lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal Monday. 
 
 A federal appeals court ruled in September that the cheerleader was speaking for the school, not herself, and had no right to remain silent when called on to cheer the athlete by name. 
 
 The Supreme Court denied review of the case Monday without comment. 
 
 The girl, identified by her initials H.S., was 16 when she said she was raped at a party in her southeast Texas hometown of Silsbee in October 2008. She identified the assailant as Rakheem Bolton, a star on the Silsbee High School football team. 
 
 Bolton ultimately pleaded guilty in September 2010 to a misdemeanor assault charge and received a suspended sentence. 
 
 At a February 2009 basketball game in Huntsville, Texas, H.S. joined in leading cheers for the Silsbee team, which included Bolton. But when Bolton went to the foul line to shoot a free throw, H.S. folded her arms and was silent. 
 
 H.S. said the district superintendent, his assistant and the school principal told her she had to cheer for Bolton or go home. She refused and was dismissed from the squad. 
 
 H.S., joined by her parents, sued school officials and the district. They claimed the school had punished her for exercising her right of free expression. 
 
 An appeals court in New Orleans ruled against her, saying a cheerleader acts as a "mouthpiece" for the school. 
 
 Federal courts have also ordered H.S. and her parents to reimburse the district more than $45,000 for the costs of defending against a frivolous suit. 
 
 The family's lawyer, Laurence Watts, said the ruling means students who try to exercise their right of free speech can be punished for refusing to follow "insensitive and unreasonable directions." 
 
 This article appeared on page AA - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle ||||| The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of a Texas high school cheerleader who was dismissed from the squad after she refused to cheer for a basketball player accused of sexually assaulting her. 
 
 The cheerleader and her parents had sued the Silsbee Independent School District near Beaumont, Texas, on grounds that officials violated her right to equal protection and her free-speech right not to cheer in symbolic protest. 
 
 The case drew headlines after the cheerleader, identified in court papers as H.S., alleged that she was sexually assaulted at a 2008 party by the basketball player and two other young men. A state grand jury declined to indict the three defendants, and the basketball player was permitted to return to the Silsbee High team. 
 
 When the player went to the free-throw line during a 2009 game, H.S. silently refused to cheer for him along with her fellow cheerleaders. According to court papers filed by the school district, the cheerleader's refusal caused a disruption in the stands, and officials told her she had to participate in the cheers or else go home. H.S. went home, and she was removed from the cheerleading squad the next day. (She later rejoined the squad.) 
 
 A federal district court dismissed the family's claims against the school district and school officials, as well as additional claims filed against the local prosecutor. In a unanimous ruling last September, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, affirmed the dismissal. 
 
 "In her capacity as a cheerleader, H.S. served as a mouthpiece through which [the school district] could disseminate speech—namely, support for its athletic teams," the 5th Circuit panel said. "Insofar as the First Amendment does not require schools to promote particular student speech, [the district] had no duty to promote H.S.'s message by allowing her to cheer or not cheer, as she saw fit. Moreover, this act constituted substantial interference with the work of the school because, as a cheerleader, H.S. was at the basketball game for the purpose of cheering, a position she undertook voluntarily." 
 
 The family's Supreme Court appeal in Doe v. Silsbee Independent School District (Case No. 10-1056) was declined without comment from the justices.
– A cheerleader in Texas who folded her hands rather than root for the player she accused of rape has lost her bid to have the Supreme Court hear her case, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The girl sued the school after it kicked her off the cheerleading squad over her protest, but a federal appellate court ruled in the school's favor. The Supreme Court yesterday refused to consider the case. The girl accused a star player on the school team of raping her at a party in 2008, and he subsequently pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and got a suspended sentence. When the girl refused to root for him during a 2009 game, the school told her to cheer or go home; she did neither, and was booted from the squad. The appellate court ruled in favor of the school because as a cheerleader, she served as a "mouthpiece for the school," notes Education Week. It also ordered her family to pay $45,000 to cover the school's legal fees.