Published in WordSmiths: Teen Voices
By Casey Capachi
“Death of a Cheerleader has returned” blares the TV as I sit down onthe couch to watch the reenactment of an event that changed my high school forever. The docudrama “Death of a Cheerleader” is based on the single most shocking criminal event that Miramonte High School has ever been through.
1984… the year Miramonte sophomore, Bernadette was convicted of second-degree murder for stabbing to death her classmate and acquaintance, Kirsten. To me, the reason Bernadette was driven to kill Kirsten, the Queen Bee at Miramonte, was frustration. She was tired of not earning Kirsten’s friendship and devastated that she did not make the school’s cheerleading squad and that Kirsten did.
So one summer evening, soon after Bernadette had found out that she would not be a cheerleader for Miramonte, she gave Kirsten a ride, acting as her friend. Bernadette and Kirsten had an argument which resulted in Kirsten getting out of Bernadette’s car. After Kirsten found another ride and arrived at her house, an angry Bernadette waited at Kirsten’s door for an answer to her knock. The answer was met with death.
Throughout the movie, I found myself relating more to Angela, the character who played Bernadette than Stacey, who mirrored Kirsten. Stacey seemed like such a mean person who cared nothing for her friends, only herself. And Angela, who had tried so hard to be Stacey’s friend, was treated like dirt by Stacey, despite her desperate efforts to befriend Stacey. As a Miramonte High School sophomore girl myself, Bernadette’s crime is understandable but terrible; terribly understandable.
Along with Kirsten, our cheerleading squad has died too, figuratively speaking. No longer do cheerleaders rule the school. Anybody who wants to be a cheerleader can be one. Since the murder, there are no cuts for the cheerleading team. Being a part of the cheerleading squad is not as competitive as it was in ‘84. It is sad to think that a once successful and talented cheerleading squad has now become something teenage boys will sign up for on registration day just to receive a cookie, and never show up to one
practice.
Many cheerleaders do not know the moves of their routine for rallies, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Whether you can do a cartwheel or not, you make the team. The cheerleaders are made up of students who hang out with different people at lunch. The squad is no longer the vicious elite clique that it was in the 80’s.
The forgotten cheerleading trophies from the 80’s, now dusty and laying on their sides, are in an overcrowded trophy case full of awards from numerous sports in the gym. They are an eerie reminder of what used to be.
The point I am coming to is this. Even now, 20 years after the tragedy, girls are being even more catty and malicious than ever. Although, there hasn’t been a recent murder or suicide it isn’t because Miramonte students are less emotional than 20 years ago, no, we’re just used to the backstabbing, jealousy, and angst that is a part of every teenager’s life.
Although, the death of Kirsten is not something I have ever heard brought up at Miramonte, the tragedy has left a scar on the community that will never fully heal. My parents were the ones who told me about the event. Hopefully, teens can take Bernadette’s actions as an extreme and learn how far one should go to make people like you.