Teens outraged: ‘All my hard work has been thrown out the window’

A cheer squad in East Hanover, New Jersey, is about to get very crowded because one mother complained that her teenage daughter didn’t make the cut.

So now everyone who has an interest in cheerleading will make the team, say coaches at Hanover Park High School.

“All my hard work has been thrown out the window,” complained cheerleader Stephanie Krueger, according to the New York Post. “I tried my hardest. Now everything is going away because of one child who did not make the team, and their parent complained.”

There will be no more tryouts or cuts. The high-school athletic director said the mother’s complaint is the reason for the policy change.

When they received complaints about the new, “inclusive” rule, school officials said the squad would be open to everybody or nobody at all. They threatened to totally disband the 10-member team.

The Post reported that the local board of education is now examining the policy.

Several cheerleaders, including Krueger, expressed their concern about the new policy at a board meeting on Wednesday.

“I came up here to state that I did not put in 18 months of work to lead up to this moment, just to be told it didn’t matter anymore,” said sophomore Jada Alcontara.

The school board released the following statement: “In order to facilitate a more inclusive program, the alignment between the various cheerleading squads would be modified to allow all interested students to be able to participate. This decision was made in the best interest of all students and was made to be as inclusive as possible.”