“Cheer” and the Importance of Speaking Out

Netflix's Cheer, shines a spotlight on what happens behinds closed doors in the cheerleading world. Photo Credit: via Pexel: cottonbro

In 2018, Larry Nassar pleaded guilty to to sexually abusing 10 minors and was accused of assaulting over a hundred other girls and women. The story took the media by storm and put a spotlight right on USA Gymnastics.

While Nassar served up to 175 years in prison, many other gymnastics coaches were outed such as John Geddert, who worked closely with Nassar. Geddert took his own life after being charged with 24 felonies including human trafficking and sexual assault.

The once ever so perfect USA Gymnastics world shattered once these stories broke, and special attention has been brought forward to make sure this does not happen to any other gymnast going forward. 

However, this abuse does not stop with the gymnastics world. Netflix’s hit series Cheer, a docu-series that follows Navarro College’s cheer team as they train to win the heavily coveted national title in Daytona, Florida. The first season followed the team members through their hometowns; many relaying inspiring stories of how they got to even make it in front of Monica Adams, the head coach.

Season two took a different turn. Not only was it navigating the pandemic and team drama, but it was also presenting the story of Jerry Harris, a Navarro cheer team member that was sued by two minors for sexual abuse and arrested by the FBI on child ponography charges. This story, which came out just nine months after the release of the first season,  sent shockwaves through many young cheerleading fans who admired his infectious personality and enthusiastic “mat talk.” 

In the fifth episode of the show, titled “Jerry,” two 14-year-old boys who sued Jerry as well as their lawyer and mother were interviewed on the subject. As stated by Esquire, the boys Charlie and Sam accused Harris of, “sending them sexually explicit messages, demanding nude photos and cornering one of them to solicit oral sex in a bathroom at a cheerleading competiton in 2019.” After being arrested by the FBI, he admitted to exchanging nude photos with boys between 10 to 15-years-old,  paid a 17-year-old for explicit photos and had sex with a 15-year-old at a cheerleading competition they were both at. 

Harris is now 22-years-old and will remain in prison until his trial until his trial date, which has not been announced yet. 

However, this is not a one off story, and reports of abuse within the cheerleading world have been spoken out about for years now–unfortunately not gaining enough traction like with the Larry Nassar cases with USA Gymnastics. In July of 2021 twin cheerleaders Hannah and Jessica Gerlacher stated that their former cheerleading coach had been sexually abusing them  for years when they were 15-years-old. 

In an investigation done by USA TODAY, it was found that US All Star Federation and USA Cheer, two of the top cheerleading corporations, have not yet banned 180 individuals who are involved with cheerleading and have faced sexual misconduct. These sexual misconducts also include minors. The report states that of those 180, 74 are registered sex offenders. Many of these individuals still continue to coach and choreograph with minors, without getting in trouble by these cheerleading corporations.

Due to Cheer, abuse within the cheerleading world was able to get the spotlight it needed. Just like with USA Gymnastics, the cheerleading world is not all glittery uniforms, teased hair and pompoms. Underneath that is a world much darker and dangerous, a place that is not safe for children, if nothing is done about it.