Suing To Make The Team

Ever try out for some club or team in school and not be selected? It's a pretty common life learning experience, or at least it used to be seen that way. Most people who try out for a team sport and aren't picked will go home, feel down for a day and hope to do better next time. The biggest benefit in failure is that it teaches us that failure is common and can teach us to try harder next time. But wait! This is the Age of Entitlement, the PC Era. Every failure is seen to be someone else's fault and the idea that any kid is rejected after a fair tryout is considered and abomination. In the "everyone gets a trophy" milieu that just won't do.

So reading today about a teenage girl's reaction to failing to make her school's cheer leading team gave me a view of how failure for kids is increasingly viewed.  An unidentified senior at Leon High School in Tallahassee, Fla., tried out for the school’s cheer leading team but didn't make the cut.  And instead of accepting the "better luck next time you aren't qualified enough" decision, she contacted the school district and said that if she wasn't put on the team, she would move forward with legal action. She is going to sue if the don't put her on the team!

The head cheer leading coach at the school, Caylen Berry, expressed her opposition to putting people on the team who don't deserve to be there. She told the media that “They should not put an athlete on the team that doesn't deserve to be on the team. A decision like this would question my integrity as a professional. It also questions the entire legitimacy of tryouts and cheer leading as a sport.”  Further, the coach said that the girl didn't make the varsity team because she “fell twice during the same tumbling routine and was ranked too low for a place on the squad.” Well, at least the coach lives in reality.

One would think that the girl's parents would have a long talk with her and explain that there are no guarantees in life, that entitlements are just gifts that politicians give to attract voters, that ...well...she needs to grow up and accept failure now or she will fail much more in the future. Not making the team because you didn't qualify is not abnormal. Suing because you didn't is. That the parents support her and sue for her is the most revealing thing of all. I can understand wanting to help your kids, but this is just pathetic. Too bad the girl can't sue her parents for irresponsible parenting.