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 Update: U.S. District Judge John Ross denied a request by a parent in the Ladue School District for a Temporary Restraining Order that would allow their child to play soccer on the high school Junior Varsity team. 
 
 ST. LOUIS, MO — The mother of a Ladue High School student took her case to the federal courthouse after her son, called John Doe in legal documents, did not make the varsity soccer team and was not allowed to play on the J.V. team. 
 
 The woman’s attorney said the issue is age and sex discrimination. Friday morning Ladue school officials said if a junior does not make the varsity team, the boy cannot play again on the junior varsity team. The school said this is to allow lower grade students a chance to develop their skills so that they will be prepared to try out for varsity. 
 
 The mother of a Ladue junior who did not make the varsity cut does not think that’s fair. She believes her son, who already played on the J.V soccer team, is good enough to play again on the same team. 
 
 The coach sent the family an email that said their son was on the bubble when it came to picking varsity team members. He wrote the boy has holes in his technical ability and game decision making. 
 
 The family appealed the coach’s ruling to the superintendent who decided the family’s complaint was unsubstantiated. 
 
 The mother’s suit claims her son is the victim of age and gender discrimination because she says the rules are different for the girls’ soccer team. 
 
 In the courtroom testimony from the coach indicated the seven juniors cut from the varsity team were not good enough to play with on the J.V. team. He said the reason he said nice things about John Doe was to build his self-esteem and not punch him in the gut after being cut from the varsity team. 
 
 The lawyer for John Doe also introduced documents that he said show players performance ratings given by coaches show that John Doe is better than some of the boys who made varsity. 
 
 Also in courtroom testimony, it was revealed that Ladue does not have a policy keeping juniors from playing J.V. sports. It depends on how many kids go out for a certain sport and how many spots are on the team. The coach said this applied to both girls and boys team. 
 
 The judge did not decide today if John Doe will be put on the junior varsity team as his mother wants. The judge plans to decide on Monday. 
 
 The lawyer for John Doe said the boy wanted to take this case to the federal courthouse, that he wants to play soccer. 
 
 Update: U.S. District Judge John Ross denied a request by a parent in the Ladue School District for a Temporary Restraining Order that would allow their child to play soccer on the high school Junior Varsity team. ||||| As one of her school's basketball stars approached the free-throw line to hit a shot during a 2009 playoff game, a cheerleader stepped away from her squad, folded her arms and stood in silence, refusing to root for the athlete she says raped her at a party in this Texas town. 
 
 Now, two years later, her silent protest is drawing new attention as the result of an unusual series of events: Suspended as a cheerleader but later reinstated, the 16-year-old and her family sued over her punishment, lost and ended up with $40,000 in penalties from the legal proceedings. Meanwhile, the basketball player settled the criminal case against him by pleading guilty to reduced charges. 
 
 An online campaign to help the former cheerleader's family with the legal costs has gained momentum on Facebook and Twitter and collected more than $23,000. The family also has appealed in federal court the judge's order for them to pay the school district's legal costs after their lawsuit was dismissed. 
 
 "It's really an awful statement to send on how you treat a teenage sexual assault victim," said Alex DiBranco, whose petition on Change.org has gathered more than 94,000 signatures asking the school district to not to make the family pay the fees. DiBranco, a New York-based women's rights advocate, got involved after reading about the case. 
 
 The controversy is renewing debate about how the school and courts handled a sensitive matter involving teenagers, sexual assault and allegations made but not yet proven. 
 
 Silsbee Mayor Herbert Muckleroy, a former school superintendent in the town of 7,000, said he thinks the criminal case was handled appropriately but has doubts about making the girl's family pay the school district $40,000. "I just wish it could have been settled and over with and let the community settle back in," he said. 
 
 The father of the girl, who is now 19, said he cannot accept that a rape victim and her family are being punished. 
 
 "I will never give up hope that in some form or fashion there will be justice, (and) hope that our story will help another family, another girl that's been through this," said Craig S., 44, whose last name is being withheld to protect his daughter's identity. The Associated Press does not identify sexual assault victims. 
 
 The girl claimed she was pulled into a darkened room with basketball player Rakheem Bolton and several others during an October 2008 party and raped under a pool table while she was drunk. Bolton and two others were arrested after the party. A grand jury declined to indict him in January 2009. A second grand jury indicted him 10 months later. Bolton eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser assault charge in a plea deal and received a suspended one-year sentence. Charges were dropped against the two others indicted in the incident. 
 
 The girl, who was suspended from the cheerleading squad but reinstated two weeks later, filed a federal lawsuit in May 2009, claiming the school district violated her First Amendment free speech rights as well as her rights to liberty, property and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. 
 
 In court documents, school officials said they were justified in punishing her because Bolton was not facing any charges during the playoff game. Her conduct violated school rules and her allegations appeared to be "the story of a girl who became angry with a boy about something that may or may not have happened at a private party," the schools' attorneys said. 
 
 Silsbee school district officials and their attorney have declined further comment on the case. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield in Beaumont ruled the girl's lawsuit was "without foundation." 
 
 "There are no facts to support a finding that the school, or its officials, owed her any additional process," Heartfield wrote, and ordered the family to pay the district's legal costs. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in May declined to review it, leaving the legal fees the only issue pending. 
 
 The girl's father acknowledged that his daughter did not object to Bolton's plea deal. He said she wanted some admission of guilt from him. 
 
 David Barlow, the special prosecutor who handled the case, said, "This was the best outcome that could have resulted, given the law and the facts." 
 
 Bolton's grandmother, who declined to give her name, said her grandson is now in college and just wants to be left alone. The former cheerleader, who graduated from high school last year, also declined to be interviewed, her father said. 
 
 The school district remains unwilling to give the girl's family a break on the payment. "I think the district has a fiduciary responsibility and obligation to the taxpayers to try to collect on any money that is due them," school board President John Griffin said. 
 
 But news on the case reached sympathetic ears in others parts of America. After reading about it, Jessica Mills, an actress and writer in Los Angeles, started an online fundraising campaign to help pay the costs. 
 
 "I just thought this girl, she's been through so much already, regardless of the right and wrongs and legalities of it," said Mills, who with her friend set up the "Help the Cheerleader" web site, which lets people donate money to a bank account set up by the cheerleader's attorney. 
 
 The girl's father said he is humbled by the rising balance, mostly from donations of less than $20. He runs a landscaping business and said paying the money would be a financial hardship. He said his daughter has had her ups and downs. After graduating in 2010, she took a year off and plans to attend Lamar University in Beaumont in the fall. 
 
 Around Silsbee, the incident continues to produce mixed feelings. Resident Terrell McArthur said he agrees with the girl's decision not to cheer for the person she believed raped her. However, the costs are a separate matter. 
 
 "It went through the judicial process," McArthur said. "I don't feel like anybody here in Silsbee needs to start taking up donations."
– After her 16-year-old son failed to make the varsity soccer team, a disappointed mother went a step or two further than most parents might. She filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that the teen is a victim of age and gender discrimination, Fox 2 reports. The family says the rules at Missouri's Ladue High School state that if a junior doesn't make it onto the varsity team, he can't play again on the junior varsity team; that way, students in lower grades can use the JV team to develop the skills they need to try out for varsity. The family wants the boy placed on the JV team, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. They first appealed the coach's decision to district administrators and the superintendent, both of whom sided with the coach; they then complained to the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, but ultimately sued because the office had no power to force the school to place the boy on a team. The boy reportedly wanted to take the case to federal court. The family's lawsuit claims that the girls' soccer team does allow juniors to play on JV, which is where the sex discrimination comes in. "There are many schools across the country that have this policy that you either make varsity as a junior or you're out of the program," says the boy's stepfather, who is also one of the lawyers handling the case. "If someone said 'Cut all the blacks,' that would be illegal. And it's illegal for age too." He adds that per stats and rankings, the boy should have made varsity. But the coach testified in court that the only reason he said positive things about the boy's skills was to build up his self-esteem rather than making him feel worse after he had already failed to make the team, and he also testified that the school doesn't actually have a policy preventing juniors from playing on JV teams. He said it depends how many spots there are on the team and how many kids want to play. The judge is set to decide Monday.