Indiana students suffer second-degree burns after dance practice punishment

[Jilly_in_VA]

Warren Central High School parents are upset after they said multiple girls on the school's majorette team suffered burns and serious blisters after being forced to do bear crawls on the track in the heat.

"She was loving the first few weeks of high school, and now she's not," parent Travis Peagler said.

Peagler said he couldn't believe his eyes last week when he picked his 14-year-old daughter, Trinity, up from Warren Central High School and looked down and saw her hands burned and blistered. She told him she was forced to do bear crawls across the scorching hot track during majorette practice. She said she was told to do extra due to her grades.

It happened on Sept. 18 when the temperature was almost 90 degrees.

"I really just want to know what made you think that that was OK, on the 86-degree, whatever degree weather, day that it was OK to have them doing bear crawls on an asphalt track when it had to be at least over 100 degrees on the track," Trinity's mother, Stacey, said.

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/nation-world/travis-peagler-cheerleading-bear-crawls-burns-2nd-degree-majorettes-punishment-track/507-15360ef9-1b12-400a-8079-ec88baee40a1

This story is absolutely horrific. The father of the girl in the story is a veteran of the 82nd Airborne and said his training was never anything like this. This coach should be fired and arrested!

[Prairie Gates]

1. This headline kept getting worse and more unexpected as I read left-to-right

They have dance teams in Indiana?

[BluesRunTheGame]

10. Yes, we have dance teams.

Most of our roads are paved and most of our homes have electricity ( except for the Amish ).

[Prairie Gates]

21. Haaa!

[RecoveringJournalist]

16. Really?

This is the road on which you choose to travel? Really? I'm an educated Indiana native and bleed smurf blue. Yes, Eva Braun's cousin twice removed may indeed be our governor. And yes, the state generally runs Soviet era red. But we're not all rednecks. Think before you post, please.

[Dr. T]

29. Some of the radial right wing religious nut jobs in blood red states

have a dim view of dancing because they believe it leads to unwed fornication. These extremists would like to pass legislation making dancing illegal. Christian Taliban sort of stuff.

[58Sunliner]

31. Majorettes.

[Ritabert]

2. Horrible. Fire that coach.

[Dawson Leery]

3. Fire the coach.

[underpants]

4. You test the pavement with your own hand before taking your DOG for a walk for crying out loud

or as we say it in our house a w-a-l-k

[Bettie]

17. We say "W-thing"....

because dogs have learned what spelling it means.

We're on short time with W thing too.

[appleannie1]

23. We used to have a dog that learned to spell, pig latin and to spell backwards. We gave up.

[leftstreet]

25. They'll figure it out

Mine know walkies, walk, "w," and (no joke) walk in sign language

[yellowcanine]

36. Our dogs know the signs of an impending walk.

Even if we maintain radio silence they KNOW.

[chouchou]

5. Hi Coach...Guess what you're gonna be doing today? MotherFu.......!!

[stopdiggin]

6. so many of us have completely lost our minds.

and the fetishization of extreme behavior and training (sports, fitness, military, etc.) - has been normalized and met with ignorant approval for far too long. Boot camp is NOT a healthy mind set - role model - or training practice. This behavior is purely toxic - up and down the spectrum of power and rank - and in fact has been for a long, long time.

[Happy Hoosier]

7. Arrest that coach. That's child abuse, straight-up. NT

[yellowcanine]

37. Also assault.

[Emile]

8. Indiana needs to attract better teachers by upping

their pay.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

9. WTF is wrong with people? n/t

[PatSeg]

11. That is insane

[harumph]

12. It sounds like that scene from "Dazed and Confused" but not as lighthearted.

[chowder66]

13. One of the girls was still hospitalized a week later due to heat exhaustion and 2nd degree burns.

JFC. That "coach" should never be allowed to work with children again.

[twodogsbarking]

14. School is weird, the teachers can be weird, coaches can go berzerk.

[dlk]

15. The parents need to file criminal charges

The school may or may not hold the coach accountable, and this type of sadistic abuse cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.

[waterwatcher123]

18. The temperature of a brown colored Trex decking exposed to sunlight at 44 degrees north latitude is over 150 degrees.

This coach must be a moron or sadistic. I have used an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of a brown colored Trex decking we installed on our house. It is too hot to be on without shoes. So, you can imagine how hot a dark colored (asphalt track) would be if exposed to direct sunlight. This girl is lucky that she did not sustain 3rd degree burns. The school should be a little smarter too (maybe consult the science teachers) about the need to use light colors on surfaces where there are any risks humans or animals might touch it.

[maxsolomon]

19. Eastern burbs of Indy.

Physical punishment because of GRADES?

Someone nominate that Coach for a position in the Trump Admin; the Senate's sure to approve.

[catchnrelease]

22. Plus school just started

They can only be a few weeks into the school year, how bad can their grades be at this point? If they're not doing well already, give a warning or some counseling. I don't think torture is the answer to improving grades!

[maxsolomon]

28. My sister's Indiana HS (Madison Co.) starts August 6th.

I think that's absurd, but I guess Mid-Sept is early enough to know when a student's in danger of flunking?

[catchnrelease]

35. That's really early!

I know some schools start in August but the first week is extra early, imo. This incident was on Sept 18th, so that's 6 weeks in if they started at the beginning of Aug. That is probably enough time to see how the grades are trending.

[BluesRunTheGame]

20. Jane Pauley was a graduate of Warren Central.

[appleannie1]

24. If it was my daughter, I would file charges of assault against the coach.

[niyad]

27. At the very least.

[niyad]

26. "forced to do extra practice because of grades"??? What the FUCK kind

of majorette "practice" includes crawling on scorching hot asphalt??? I am not a violent person, but if I were around, regardless of whose children they are, that couch would need serious medical attention. I have suffered both second, and third, degree burns at different times, as well as several episodes of heat exposure, and I am outraged for those children.

May all involved receive everything they deserve.

[58Sunliner]

30. That is sadistic torture/abuse.

[rsdsharp]

32. If this was my daughter, I'd have a "counseling session" with the coach.

[mwmisses4289]

33. The dance coach thought this would

help these kids improve their grades? WTF?!? What happened to putting them on probation? Not letting them dance for a game or two until their grades improve? Having them write an essay about why they need good grades?
Ye gods, school district, fire that dance coach yesterday!!

[Ponietz]

34. 11th grade PE coach made us do them every class

He used the class as PT for his little high school basketball team. My hands bled. Bear crawls are cruel by themselves.