Sexually harassed as a student-athlete? Here’s what you can do

Cheerleading association and sports lawyer outline concrete steps
Mar 8, 2021

WHEN IT comes to protecting its student athletes, the sports association for cheer is beginning to take more action.

In an episode of their weekly livestreamed podcast Pep Talk, Carlos Valdes III, head of both the National Cheerleading Competition and the Philippine Cheerleading Alliance, said, “For all those listening here, the NCC and the PCA, as the [de facto] national governing body, is always here to help you as an athlete.”

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Earlier in the episode, Valdes related that after a highly publicized arrest of a cheer coach in 2019 on accusations of sexual harassment, “Since then, personally, I’ve been approached by several [others], narrating their own experiences of exactly that.”

When this happens, he admitted that he was often at a loss about what advice he could give to these student-athletes.

Many cheer athletes, Valdes explained, were from the provinces, with a sports scholarship their one chance to study in Manila. It’s this vulnerability — for both female and male cheerleaders — that can make them a target for predatory coaches, who, in the cases that Valdes has heard about, often threaten that they would take their scholarship away if the sexual abuse or harassment is reported.

The show’s guest for that night, sports lawyer and Spin.ph columnist Mickey Ingles, said that it would help to give athletes a wider perspective.

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“The coach isn't the highest person in the school. May mga boss yan e. The school should have a mechanism that would allow reporting of these kinds of instances. If the school doesn't have, they should have, because it's part of the law,” said the attorney.

As a former student-athlete himself, Ingles understood the outsized influence of a coach on a varsity player’s life.

“When I was a college athlete, pinaka-authority nun was our coach. We didn't really care about the athletic director, kasi he wouldn't go to our practices,” he said. “So for you, pinaka-boss mo talaga yung coach mo. Syempre takot ka. Boss mo yan e.”

But the coach, Ingles added, doesn’t have the final authority on whether a scholarship is retained. “Tell the student, look, yung coach mo na yan, may boss pa yan e.”

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The school also bears a clear responsibility to create these spaces where athletes can feel safe and protected.

“The school shouldn't do a hands-off [approach],” said Ingles. “I don't know why some schools do that, but they should be more proactive and offer the students, because students need help. That's the whole point of the sexual harassment act. There's someone in a moral ascendancy over you, tapos hina-harass ka.”

The attorney also noted that schools could also be held liable for the actions of coaches.

“As a school, you are responsible for your employees vicariously,” he said. “If your employee does something, you're liable for that under the Article 218 of the Civil Code. And under the sexual harassment act, if the school doesn't do anything based on a reported sexual harassment report, the school can be sued for damages as well.”

As the episode winded down, Ingles assured the cheer association that these are issues of sexual harassment, safe spaces, and abuse are also being faced by many other sports.

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For cheer’s part, Valdes felt grateful for the legal advice, not just for the cheer organization, but for the cheer community as a whole.

To its athletes, Valdes promised: “We’re here to protect them because that’s our community. Do not think na wala kayong laban.”

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