The family of a North Texas high school cheerleader is suing three of the school’s former coaches after their extreme workouts allegedly landed the girl in hospital.
According to the lawsuit, while employed by Rockwall Heath High School, the defendants would force the students to do strenuous exercises — like 50 burpees with pushups in five minutes — as a form of punishment.
Michael Sawicki, the attorney representing the cheerleader, told NBC DFW that his client was already feeling ill and even had a doctor’s note saying she was sick, but social pressures compelled her to try to push through the workout.
A week later she was in the hospital suffering from rhabdomyolysis, according to the lawsuit.
Rhabdomyolysis is a condition in which the skeletal muscle tissue breaks down and releases its contents into the bloodstream, and it can be caused by overuse of the muscles. When the skeletal muscle material enters the bloodstream, it can potentially lead to kidney failure.
“There was pressure by the teachers that if you don’t perform you don’t get to go, you don’t get to participate in activities. You don’t get to be on the squad, and for young kids that really want to be on a team, that’s a powerful motivation to work through the pain,” Sawicki said. “And that’s exactly what happened to the boys in the football case.”
It’s not the first time the school has been linked to a case of rhabdomyolysis among its student athletes, either.
In 2023, several football players from the high school were hospitalized and reportedly diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis after being forced to do similarly grueling exercises, Sawicki, who represented a handful of players in lawsuits, said.
“This is Rockwall Heath High School. The exact same high school where the 20+ boys that we know of were hospitalized or required treatment after a football workout,” Sawicki said. “If I had gotten this call about another school in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, yeah maybe I could understand. This is the same exact school.”
One of the findings in that case was the need for better education for the teachers about the potential risks associated with extreme physical activity. Sawicki said that “in the football investigation, there were discussions about how [rhabdomyolysis] training needed to be a part of it.”
According to the cheerleader’s lawsuit, a one of the coaches allegedly admitted that she had “no rhabdomyolysis training,” and said that in hindsight “I would not assign [burpees] again.”
All three of the coaches named in the lawsuit have resigned their positions on the cheer team. A Rockwall Independent School District investigation found that the “three teachers’ actions violated at least five different district policies,” according to the report.
The investigation determined that the cheer coaches “did not follow the doctor’s orders” in its handling of the sick cheerleader, and noted that “there is a lack of knowledge and training by the coaches regarding rhabdomyolysis.”
Initially the girl’s parents just wanted the school to pay for her medical bills, but the Sawicki claims the school “dragged out” the appeals process for months and then determined that “by law, please know that the district is unable to provide compensation because such compensation would be a prohibited gift of public funds.”
After that, the parents decided to sue.
The Independent has requested comment from Rockwall ISD.
