The student cheerleader who was kicked off her high school squad for refusing to cheer for the basketball player who had raped her just lost her last shot at an appeal.

Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the name of a basketball player – the same athlete she said had raped her four months earlier – lost a U.S. Supreme Court appeal Monday. A federal appeals court ruled in September that the cheerleader was speaking for the school, not herself, and had no right to remain silent when called on to cheer the athlete by name. The Supreme Court denied review of the case Monday without comment.

I think it’s appalling that a student, actually an entire cheerleading squad can be considered “the mouthpiece” of the school. They are actually people, not machines who spit out rhetoric blindly. Mostly I feel sympathy for this young woman who has had to suffer this kind of treatment and humiliation for not wanting to cheer on her rapist. Why is it that survivors always seem to get punished the most?