Cheer!

"And with a score of 97.5 the West Philadelphia Speedteam are your National Cheerleading Champions! Now here to present their trophy is the Vice-president of the National Cheerleading Association Mrs. Angela Baker."

Mrs. Baker comes up to the podium with a box wrapped in brown paper with a big red bow on it. She sits it down right next to the trophy and begins her speech.

"First of all I would like to congratulate all of the young men and women that competed here this weekend. I personally know the hard work and dedication that it takes to get here. All of the long days and late nights. Trying to practice and excercise enough to get everything right, all the while still trying to maintain your grades. A special congratulations goes out to the West Philadelphia Speedteam for winning the championship. Enjoy this moment. You deserve it. I also want to commend the coaches. You all have a hard enough job as teachers and counselors as it is. So for you to devote the extra time it takes to train and prepare these young champions is above and beyond your duty. So I want to congratulate you also and let you know you are appreciated. Now last but not least are the parents. The money for uniforms, haircuts, hairdos, nails, I know how expensive it can get. Also the rides, dropping off and picking up from school to practice to home and all over again. Not to mention the travel to each tournament across the country. And of course the teenage drama we all deal with. All of you parents deserve a pat on the back. Now that I have gotten that out of the way let's get to the presentation. I know you noticed the box that I brought up here."

She picks up the box and sits it on the podium.

"Now I know you all are probably wondering what's in the box. Now I assure you that what's in the box is important but the box itself is a metaphor. You see many of you might be thinking that this is a gift or something nice. That's because I put this nice big red bow on it."

She then rips the bow off.

"Now what does it look like? That brown wrapper isn't so appealing now is it? Doesn't look like a gift anymore now does it? Well that's exactly how I feel about West Philadelphia's coach Danielle Tyler. Ms. Tyler has been bringing young men and women to this competition for ten years. This is her third time winning. Nice bow isn't it. She's winning for the kids, the parents, and the school. She's a coach, teacher, mentor and a winner. That's her big red bow on her ugly brown box. Now I've had numerous conversations with Ms. Tyler over the years. Almost enough to consider her a friend. I definitely thought of her as a colleague. So I must say she wore her bow well. Now I've taken the bow off of my box and as I remove the brown paper that covers it I'll also be removing the bow off of Ms. Tyler."

She carefully removes the brown paper from the box and turns it around for the audience to see. There are a bunch of names written on the other side of the paper.

"Monica Brown, Nicole Hill, Jennifer Hunt, Sharell Cooper. These are just some of the names of the girls whose letters are in this box."

She opens the box and pulls out a large stack of papers. She pulls one from the stack.

"Let's read this one from Lisa Thompson. Ms. Tyler was like a second mother to me. I never thought she'd violate my trust like this. Let's grab another one. This one is from Tammy Jones. She had convinced me that it was normal. That all of the other girls were doing it. What about this one from Jennifer Hunt. I was devastated. I went from being so proud of who I was to wanting to kill myself! She wanted to kill herself. This whole stack of papers are letters just like these with statements from girls who were victims of sexual assault perpetrated by Ms.Tyler. Ladies would you please stand up."

About forty women and teenage girls stand up in the audience.

"I will not be presenting this trophy to Ms. Tyler today. This trophy belongs to those students. That is their bow. Now look around and see all of these victims. Look at all of these letters in this box. This is what I'm presenting to you all about Ms. Tyler. This is her ugly brown truth! Thank you!"

Ms. Tyler is looked at in disgust as she gets up and tries to leave the ceremony. That's when Mrs. Baker notices and grabs the mic again.

"Oh now you want to leave. Well here let me give you some escorts."

Just then two police officers come in and arrest Ms. Tyler. The crowed cheers as she is taken away in cuffs.

Ms. Baker returns to her office where Shannon Carter and her mother await.

Shannon's mother was estatic.

"That was awesome! How the hell did you pull that off?"

"Listen, everyone in the association is a teacher, a coach and a parent. Once they heard Shannon's story they were willing to do anything to bring this horrific behavior to light."

"How did you find all of those other women?"

"Once I told the president, he made some calls and they just came pouring in. And just think Shannon it all started with you. What I did was the easy part. Shannon you are the real hero. Because of you all of those women will get closure and justice. Ms. Tyler will get what she deserves and she'll never be able to hurt anyone else ever again.

Ten years of abuse. Forty different women and girls living with that horrible secret. A woman who was supposed to be a mother away from home. A woman who was supposed to be a teacher, a coach, a role model and mentor, turned out to be a monster. All it took was the courage of one girl to remove the red bow of lies and reveal the truth. One girl to reveal the ugly brown box. One girl that just wanted to cheer. Then thirty-nine other girls that proudly stood up and said cheer for me too!