Between the Lines -- Byron de Arakal

So we begin yet another lap around the sun with fresh evidence that in

one coddled burrow of Newport Beach at least, privilege does not buy

perspective. Back East, they’re hip deep in the stuff.

In New York, braced against the season’s bone-freezing air, rescue

workers continue to pick through gruesome human remains from the

pulverized rubble of the World Trade Center towers. Scores of families

who lost loved ones there -- and who are still without a body or part of

one to say goodbye to -- spent the holidays clawing their way through

insufferable, merciless grief.

Meantime, here in Newport Beach -- where loss is measured when a

dollop of caviar topples from the sour cream on a potato skin appetizer

-- we find ourselves beset with a handful of Newport Harbor High School

families whose holidays were less than merry and bright. What tragedy

befell them? It seems their precious little lollipops failed to make the

school’s cheerleading squad.

I know. It took me a moment to get a hold of myself too. And I had a

flashing thought to take up a collection for a relief fund. But then

sanity and perspective took the reins of my thinking, and led me to

ground zero.

Yes, Virginia, this is sarcasm. It’s the only useful tool I’ve got in

my belt to ladle indignation on the inane pep squad soap opera unfolding

on the Newport Harbor campus, and which has slopped over to the

Newport-Mesa Unified administration bunker.

The details of this one will bring a bubble to your gut, so grab a

seltzer and read on.

It seems a handful of coeds who poured their hearts, souls and dreams

into their tryouts for the Newport Harbor High pep squad some weeks ago

found themselves incredulous and pompomless when news broke that they

missed the cut.

This, apparently, wasn’t an acceptable outcome to the cheerless

candidates or their parents. I mean, imagine it. There’ll be no cheer

uniform. No poster-painting parties. No football players drooling over

you like a 2-inch pork chop. No rightful claim to the top shelf of

Newport Harbor High society. Oh, golly!

Now, apart from missing out on these pep squad perks, there’s a tangle

of reasons why these girls and their folks are all in a dither. According

to Jennifer Nahin, a Harbor junior and among those not chosen, some of

the girls who made the squad allegedly fessed up that they had cheated in

their tryout routines. I’m not altogether sure how you fudge on a

cheerleading tryout. By taking a peek at your fellow candidate’s

cartwheel? Who knows?

Nevertheless, it was this purported cribbing, and what the cheer

squad’s coach, Lisa Callahan, called judging “inconsistencies” that she

observed, which bumped some cheer candidates from the squad. So I suppose

the thinking here is that had the cheerleading gods been paying attention

and interceded, these poor girls would be ordering their sweaters instead

of pouting.

Now the snub has plainly dinged the self-esteem of these kids -- and

apparently the pride of their folks -- to the extent that it has sparked

an unseemly protest. Descended upon by the also-rans, Newport Harbor

Principal Michael Vossen (fresh from needlessly prostrating himself

before the community over the school’s Confederate flag flap in October)

caved again in my estimation. He tossed out the original decision of the

judging panel and backed Callahan’s idea to give every girl who tried out

a slot on the pep squad’s roster.

Problem solved? Hardly. Chaffing at the everybody-wins solution, the

parents of six prepsters who originally made the cheerleading team

launched a counteroffensive at the doorstep of Assistant Supt. Jaime

Castellanos.

His remedy? Back down from his initial support of Vossen and Callahan

in favor of an independent committee of parents and school staff charged

with making the call. That little confab’s wisdom settled upon allowing

the spurned cheer candidates to try out a second time.

As it stands now, this juvenile tempest lingers without resolution.

Next week, the current corps of pep squaders will huddle to decide if all

the candidates should wear the coveted sweater. Following that, Vossen is

supposed to hand down the final judgment. So I guess somebody’s in charge

here.

All of this Romper Room intrigue brings me back to the astounding lack

of perspective that drips from this dopey drama.

I understand the disappointment these girls must have felt not making

the squad. But when Nina Taylor, a Harbor freshman and a member of the

junior varsity squad, muses that “no parents deserve to have their

children come home crying,” I wonder. Did she learn somewhere that

parents are not capable of coping with their children’s disappointments

and losses?

When Jennifer Nahin, one of the most vocal protesters, shares that

“when I didn’t see my name up there, it was like my dream was over and it

wasn’t going to come true,” I wonder. Did she think all the dreams of

life come true? Or that when they don’t, some grave injustice has been

perpetrated?

And when Brittany Richards, a sophomore member of the varsity cheer

squad, announces that “I think something like this could provoke a school

shooting, like the one in Santee,” I scratch my head in utter

bewilderment. How have so many kids in our community made it this far

with such a bankrupt perspective of what matters in life?

One thing’s for sure. Newport Beach Harbor High is a long way from

ground zero.

* Byron de Arakal is a writer and communications consultant. He

resides in Costa Mesa. Readers can reach him with news tips and comments

via e-mail at o7 [email protected] .