During a recent board meeting, Oxford High School senior Leah Vandecar and her parents, Jeanne and Rick Vandecar, accused Former Head Cheer Coach Erynn Pauli and Head Cheer Coach Christie Desano of “bullying” Leah for the past two years.

According to Rick Vandecar, he had spoken out against the coaches approximately two years ago at a Board of Education meeting, when the coaches were first hired, and had stated at that time that he believed the coaches were too “inexperienced” to qualify for the positions.

Rick believes his daughter was punished because of this.

Her parents added that the coaches would not let Leah cheer during rounds throughout last year’s competitive cheer season, contending that targeting the high schooler qualifies as a form of “harassment and bullying.”

Jeanne Vandecar, Leah’s mother, told the board that Leah was not allowed by the coaches to participate in sideline cheer in the fall, even though she performed well.

“It’s amazing to me that Leah, when she tried out for cheer for competitive last year she received the number one score… If you look at any of the videos (of the cheer team) you can hear Leah over the top of everyone else cheering ‘Tighten your butts, girls!’ because you have to tighten your buttocks in order to stay strong and stay tight. You can hear Leah cheering them on and you can hear Leah over everybody else. Even though she’s the best cheerleader, she’s sitting on the sideline,” Jeanne told the board.

Additionally, Leah told the Oxford Board of Education that the coaches have allegedly “bullied” her off the mat and that Desano has spoken negatively about her to other students, adding that she had allegedly slammed a door in her face.

During cheer camp, Leah added that Pauli had allegedly moved her to the back of a cheer formation, telling her that she “wasn’t supposed to be seen.”

On March 8, Leah posted a video of her senior speech on Facebook which she had made during the OHS cheer program’s banquet dinner.

In that video, Leah told the audience that she had been “bullied” by the coaches and lists the names of 12 other former cheer students which she claimed had quit the cheer program because they had suffered similar incidents of “bullying.”

“I ended up crying every night because of the bullying that was inflicted on me by the coaches,” Leah said in the video.

By the time the Leader went to press, the video had 1,400 views on Facebook.

Six members and former members of the cheer program, along with parents, spoke in support of the two coaches.

Skylar Enyart, junior co-captain of the OHS competitive cheer team, told the board that the coaches were only doing “what was best for the team” and said that she had never seen the coaches treat Leah poorly.

“Due to the fact that Coach Christie and Erynn did what was best for their team, Leah developed resentment (towards) them. Since when is doing what’s in the team’s best interest considered bullying? Coaches are hired to lead a team and during that time they are going to be faced with tough decisions. However, there’s an appropriate way to express opinions when these decisions are being made. Voicing disagreements during a team banquet is not the right forum. The night of our banquet was to celebrate the team as a whole, not one specific individual. Leah Vandecar chose to take the cohesive atmosphere and individualize it,” Enyart told the board.

Brenna Maurer, junior co-captain of the OHS competitive cheer team, echoed Enyart’s sentiment.

“Any players that were sitting on the benches at the start never complained to the coach just because they weren’t in the starting lineup. I was not in a round of competition last year but I did not let that cause me to be infuriated at the coach… I knew I had to work hard to get the position (of captain) if I wanted it that badly and I eventually did gain that position… Being coachable means accepting coach’s opinions and listening to their advice, not thinking of it as harm or wrongdoing,” said Mower.

Angela Matz, the mother of a cheer athlete, told the board that Desano has shown nothing but support to her daughter, who is a sophomore on the OHS competitive cheer team.

“No human being . . . should be publicly shamed in the manner that Coach Christie DeSano was at (the) athletes banquet award (ceremony and) on Facebook . . . Over 1,000 times the (cheer) program (has been) defamed all over social media (because of the video),” Matz said.

When asked for comment by this reporter, Pauli and Desano both stated they were “unable to respond to questions regarding the allegations.”

Although the Board of Education does not participate in the hiring or firing of staff, the Vandecar family’s allegations will be investigated by school administration, according to Assistant Supervisor of Human Resources Nancy Latowski,

“We take every single concern very seriously and it’s important to us that we handle everything in a fair and unbiased manner… Once we get all of the information, we will handle it appropriately,” said Latowski.