Two Clinton coaches are accused of blocking a student’s cheerleading participation despite her mental health struggles, as her family demands accountability and community attention grows.
In Clinton, a troubling situation has unfolded involving two coaches, Sarah Phillips, the head of cheer and football, and Sadie, the cheer coach.
They are accused of deliberately preventing a teenage girl named Meiah from joining the cheer team, despite knowing about her struggles with mental health.
Meiah’s mother, Rebecca Marotta, shared her frustration in a public post on social media. She has publicly called out the coaches for their actions, sharing text message screenshots to support her claims and demanding accountability.
According to Rebecca, Meiah has faced serious mental health challenges, including a recent hospitalization in June.
Cheerleading is the one activity that brings Meiah joy and gives her a sense of purpose. However, Rebecca alleges that Sarah and Sadie intentionally delayed addressing Meiah’s sign-up for the cheer team until it was too late for her to join.
In a social media post, Rebecca revealed that Sarah, who is over 40 years old, accidentally sent a message to Meiah’s father, Anthony Dugas, intended for Sadie.
The message included a screenshot of Anthony asking about cheer sign-ups, with Sarah writing, “please don’t sign her up lol.”
Rebecca says this was part of a pattern of bullying behavior from the coaches, including talking about Meiah in a group chat. Since then, Rebecca and Anthony have faced excuses and delays, leaving Meiah unable to participate in the cheer season.
She shared evidence of text exchanges between Meiah’s father and Sarah, dated June 1, June 10, and July 13, 2025, which shed more light on the situation.
Meiah’s Mother, Rebecca, Shares Screenshots as Evidence, Demanding Accountability from Coaches!
On June 1, Rebecca asked Sarah about football home games for her son Jackson and inquired about costs, mentioning Meiah’s interest in cheer. Sarah confirmed home games depend on volunteers and set a family cost limit of $400.
Then Rebecca followed up on July 10, checking on the children’s condition, writing:
Just checking in with football and cheer. Don’t want Jackson to miss conditioning or Meiah to miss anything.
Rebecca
However, she received no clear response. Instead, Rebecca later got a message from Sadie, the cheer coach, stating that Meiah’s registration was closed, suggesting she try other towns.
Rebecca countered that she had tried to sign up over a month ago and was told to pay by the last week of July, a deadline he claims he met.
Additional evidence comes from a screenshot of a message Rebecca sent to Sarah on July 13, 2025, at 2:29 PM.
In this message, Rebecca noted that Anthony had reached out multiple times, including the accidental text where Sarah spoke badly about Meiah.
She expressed her intent to involve the superintendent, highlighting Meiah’s skills and recent efforts in therapy to become a better team member.
Rebecca emphasized that she had no prior issues with Sarah, who had been helpful, but stated that the situation was now impacting her child negatively.
She urged for better communication and reaffirmed her desire to sign Meiah up, threatening further action if the issue remains unresolved.
Frustrated, Rebecca sent a stern message to Sadie on Snapchat. She warned that she would escalate the matter to the superintendent and seek the coaches’ removal, accusing them of bullying and mishandling the situation.
Just giving you a heads up! Both of you should be ashamed of yourselves and shouldn’t be around children. See you both soon because we’re going to the superintendent and making this an extremely large deal until both of you are handled or out of jobs.
Rebecca
Rebecca’s post expressed deep disappointment, emphasizing that both coaches should not be working with children.
She believes their actions were especially harmful because they knew about Meiah’s mental health struggles and how vital cheerleading is to her.
Rebecca wrote, “Both of you grown women just took that from her,” referring to Meiah’s chance to cheer this year.
The accusations have raised concerns about how adults in leadership roles treat young people, especially those dealing with mental health challenges.
The family plans to make sure the school addresses the issue and ensures that no other child faces similar treatment.
As of now, there has been no public response from Sarah Phillips, Sadie, or the Clinton school system about these allegations.
The community is watching closely to see how the school will handle the situation and whether steps will be taken to support Meiah and other students.
