{"id":35386,"date":"2022-09-02T03:36:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T03:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=35386"},"modified":"2022-09-02T03:36:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T03:36:00","slug":"south-carolina-cheerleading-gym-accused-of-sexually-abusing-minors-in-lawsuit-naming-100-plaintiffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/02\/south-carolina-cheerleading-gym-accused-of-sexually-abusing-minors-in-lawsuit-naming-100-plaintiffs\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina cheerleading gym accused of sexually abusing minors in lawsuit naming 100 plaintiffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"speechkit-wrapper\" class=\"speechkit-wrapper\">\n<p><span class=\"label-bg\">NEW<\/span>You can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"speakable\">A lawsuit filed Thursday against a South Carolina cheerleading gym names 100 &#8220;Jane Doe and John Doe&#8221; defendants accusing the gym and its parent company of facilitating <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\" rel=\"noopener\">sexual abuse against minors<\/a> across state lines for years, according to local reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Scott Foster, the co-owner of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southeast\/south-carolina\" rel=\"noopener\">Rockstar Cheer in Greenville<\/a>, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Aug. 22, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was a factory of abuse designed specifically to generate two things: a constant supply of underage victims for Scott Foster and his fellow predators and a billion dollar revenue stream to Varsity Spirit, USASF and Bain Capital,&#8221; Strom Law Firm attorney Bakari Sellers said in a Thursday statement. &#8220;Instead of protecting these young men and women, they victimized them and cashed their checks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Foster and his wife of 21 years, Kathy Foster \u2014 the co-owner of Rockstar Cheer \u2014 had recently learned of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation into their company amid allegations that Scott Foster was &#8220;sexually abusing underage athletes, as well as taking underage athletes across state lines for the purposes of engaging in sex,&#8221; the lawsuit filed in a South Carolina district court first obtained by FOX Carolina states.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/california-prison-chaplain-used-faith-abuse-female-inmates-faces-sentencing\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>CALIFORNIA PRISON CHAPLAIN WHO USED FAITH TO ABUSE FEMALE INMATES FACES SENTENCING<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit also accuses <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\" rel=\"noopener\">Varsity Spirit<\/a>, LLC; Bain Capital, LP; and the U.S. All Star Federation (USASF) of creating &#8220;a competitive environment soliciting young athletes to cross state lines with minimal parental or adult supervision, to converge at pre-scheduled locations where the athletes would then be exposed to drugs, alcohol, and predatory conduct by adults including coaches and choreographers, all while publicly representing that Defendants were providing a culture of safety at these same events.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/south-carolina-elementary-school-teacher-young-children-found-dead\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>SOUTH CAROLINA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER AND HER YOUNG CHILDREN FOUND DEAD<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit further alleges that the defendants were aware of allegations made against the Fosters.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement posted to Twitter, Varsity Spirit President Bill Seely said the allegations are &#8220;devastating to hear,&#8221; and the company&#8217;s &#8220;hearts are broken right alongside yours.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Scott Foster allegedly rented out &#8220;an apartment for his athletes where some of them would live, and where minor athletes would gather to do drugs and drink alcohol with and without Defendant Foster.&#8221; The gym owner also apparently &#8220;engaged in illicit sexual acts with underage athletes who were not old enough to provide consent,&#8221; the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/k-9-officer-killed-line-duty-charleston\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>K-9 OFFICER KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY IN CHARLESTON<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All Defendants were co-conspirators in a scheme to get as many families as possible to entrust their child athletes to these private gyms and coaches so that those coaches would bring the athletes to the moneymaking competitions throughout the United States during the year,&#8221; the complaint states, adding that defendants knew they were failing to vet coaches; investigate and report complaints; and enforce rules and ineligibility.<\/p>\n<p>On a webpage for <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/rockstarcheer.com\/greenville\/about-us\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rockstar Cheer&#8217;s Greenville location<\/a>, a biography apparently authored by Scott Foster states that the Kentucky native &#8220;graduated with a\u00a0Bachelor\u2019s Degree in Criminal Justice&#8221; and was &#8220;fully prepared to join the FBI&#8221; after completing his Master&#8217;s degree, but&#8221; life threw it\u2019s [sic] curve ball and competitive cheerleading was introduced as a\u00a0possible career.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div baseimage=\"https:\/\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg\" source=\"Getty Images\" class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><picture><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/343\/192\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1, https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/686\/384\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1 2x\"><source media=\"(min-width: 767px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/672\/378\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1, https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/1344\/756\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1 2x\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/931\/523\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1, https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/1862\/1046\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1 2x\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/720\/405\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1, https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/1440\/810\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1 2x\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/640\/320\/GettyImages-1065884392-1.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1\" alt=\"More than 100 cheerleaders are accusing Rockstar Cheer and Varsity Spirit of facilitating abuse against minors.\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>\n      More than 100 cheerleaders are accusing Rockstar Cheer and Varsity Spirit of facilitating abuse against minors.<br \/>\n      <span class=\"copyright\">(John Cordes\/Icon Sportswire\u00a0)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;I knew I could excel as an FBI agent; but I wanted a career doing something I would love each and every\u00a0day,&#8221; his biography states. &#8220;\u2026What really drove me was working with young people and making a positive impact on\u00a0their lives.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit currently details the experiences of several survivors, but additional lawsuits from other victims will be filed in other jurisdictions across the country, according to Strom Law Firm.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Scott Foster and his allies did their best to intimidate and isolate their targets, making these young people feel alone and somehow responsible,&#8221; attorney Jessica Fickling said in a statement. &#8220;Well, they\u2019re not alone anymore. We\u2019re standing with them and we stand with all of the survivors coming forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rockstar Cheer, Varsity Spirit and USASF did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<p> <!----> <\/p>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<div class=\"author-bio\">\n<p>Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for FOX Business and Fox News. Email tips to\u00a0audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/south-carolina-cheerleading-gym-accused-sexually-abusing-minors-lawsuit-naming-100-defendants\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A lawsuit filed Thursday against a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35388,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35386\/revisions\/35388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}