Crying Cheerleader Forced By Coach To Do Splits That Tore Body (Video)

DENVER, CO — Several Denver school officials have been placed on leave after cell phone video surfaced showing 13-year-old cheerleader Ally Wakefield, her legs extended in opposite directions, as she cries out in excruciating pain nine times and begs her new coach to release her from an extended split position. Denver police said Thursday they will investigate the case, which the cheerleader's mother said Denver Public School officials have known about for more than two months.

The video, recorded by another cheerleader at a training camp in June and obtained by Denver television station KUSA-TV, shows coach Ozell Williams holding the East High School freshman down by the shoulder and forcing her to remain in the painful position for nearly 24 seconds. When Wakefield tried to move, Williams strengthened his grip, according to the report.

In all, eight cheerleaders were forced into the painful extended-split position and were also recruited to assist in holding their peers down, the TV station reported. (Get free newsletters and real-time news alerts from Denver Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

“It was tearing my ligament and my muscle at the same time,” Wakefield told KUSA. “He was pushing down on the back of my right leg. He was pushing like with his other knee on my back to try to keep my posture straight.”

When the video surfaced, Denver Public Schools placed Williams, an assistant cheer coach, the high school principal, assistant principal and the school’s deputy general counsel on administrative leave. But Kristen Wakefield told KUSA she attached the video in a June 15 email to the high school athletic director asking if the district planned to investigate the circumstances involving her daughter’s injury.

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“This is a grown man pushing my 13-year-old girl so hard against her will while she’s crying and screaming for him to stop that he’s ripping tissues in her body,” she said.

Denver school Superintendent Tom Boasberg said placing Williams and the others on administrative leave was routine in such situations, but also that as an administrator and father of two high school-aged daughters, “the images and actions depicted are extremely distressing and absolutely contrary to our core values as a public school community.”

“We absolutely prohibit any practices that place our students’ physical and mental health in jeopardy,” his statement said. “We do not and will not allow any situation in which a student is forced to perform an activity or exercise beyond the point at which they express their desire to stop.”

Williams is a somewhat famous local character known for his on-field backflips as a cheerleader for the Denver Broncos and Colorado University.

Warning: The video below may be difficult to watch.

Screenshot and video from KUSA via affiliate NBC LA