HUNTINGTON -- The Marshall University Board of Govenrors was ordered to pay $25,000 in compensatory damages to a 22-year-old former Marshall cheerleader, who sued the university.

The verdict was handed down Friday evening in Cabell Circuit Court.

The woman testified in Cabell Circuit Court Thursday about sexual harassment she suffered on the squad, but much of her testimony was denied by two cheerleaders at the time, as well as the head cheerleading coach Donna Dunn.

Kacie Chambers, who graduated from Marshall this spring, said that at cheer events prior to MU cheerleading tryouts in 2005, as well as at a few practices and one public relations function she attended, she experienced a pervasive environment of sexual harassment. She also testified about several months of health issues following, mostly involving stress-induced panic attacks that manifested themselves as seizures, as well as nightmares. Ambulances were called, and doctor visits included trips to the ER, a neurologist as well as a therapist.

Chambers has sued Marshall, seeking out-of-pocket losses with interest, as well as compensatory and punitive damages, according to the suit, originally filed in June 2006 in Kanawha County. Chambers lost a scholarship after leaving the squad in 2005.

From the stand, Chambers testified that male cheerleader Richard Edmunds had twice called her name, and when she turned toward him, would expose his penis to her. She said he also pulled her sports bra down to reveal her breasts, along with asking sexual questions and making comments about sexual things he wanted to do to her.

She said that Dunn was present for some of these occurrences and Chambers was troubled about the coach's apparent lack of concern about them.

Dunn thoroughly denied ever being a witness to the improper acts Chambers described during the trial. She also testified that while improper behavior could have gone on, she was never present during the incidents.

Dunn, who has taught elementary and Sunday school for over 30 years, blamed her own naivete when she allowed the squad to name a cheerleading formation. The squad chose a slang expression for female genitalia and she continued to use the name until she found out what the phrase really meant, Dunn said.

When she found out, Dunn said she renamed the formation immediately.

Chambers also said that at the tryouts, male cheerleaders were rubbing their exposed genitals near the female cheerleaders' heads, referred to as "teabagging," while they were on the floor stretching. She said that some of the cheers were given call names that referred to sexual acts.

"I wasn't shocked at the language; I was shocked at where the language was being said," Chambers said. "...It scared me that the coach couldn't control the language. It scared me that she couldn't control the harassment, either."

Defense attorney Ed Kowal submitted evidence from Chambers' Facebook page. He had copied posts from her page including foul language, asking her why she was offended by the language from the cheerleaders and not the people who make posts on her Facebook page.

"There is a time and a place for profanity," Chambers said. "You don't go to work and use profanity. You don't go to cheerleading practice and use profanity."

Edmunds denied the allegations. An older cheerleader, who Chambers said was about 32 in 2005, Edmunds had two jobs as well as cheering and attending nursing school. He said he would work a job as a lab tech at Cabell Huntington Hospital from midnight to 7 a.m., then go to another job in the lab at Mildred Mitchell Bateman Hospital in Huntington until about 2 before his classes. After classes, he'd sleep for a while, then go to cheerleading practice and back to work, he said.

He said that he had tutored some of his fellow cheerleaders in science, and that because he was more financially stable than some of the others, he helped them out financially with loans and such.

Not in relation to Edmunds, Chambers also testified that at a public relations function that female cheerleaders attended in June 2005 -- a golf fundraiser at Edgewood Country Club in Charleston -- one golfer had a putter in the shape of a penis and was asking the cheerleaders to kiss it for luck. Some did, but she did not. She added that other women on the squad were "blessing" the golf balls by putting them in their cleavage or down their skirts, an act in which she did not participate.

Fellow cheerleader Brittaney Bailey McGhee, said that those events did not happen the year that Chambers was present, but at least one previous year. She said she did not see Edmunds expose himself to Chambers. She acknowledged the "teabagging" but said her definition of it was different from Chambers'.

 Mary Downey, Chambers' attorney, asked McGhee if she had suffered concussions, and McGhee said that she had, both from a car accident and from being dropped in cheerleading. She said she sometimes had trouble with her memory, but said although some bad language was used among the cheerleaders, the more severe of Chambers' accusations are unfounded.

Therapist Elizabeth Evans testified Thursday in court as well, and neurologist Dr. Carl McComas spoke via video-taped testimony. Both said that Chambers' seizures were stress related.

However, Chambers had some history of depression that started before her time at Marshall, and she had been taking Paxil for it. Her panic-induced seizures started after her brief time on the cheerleading squad at Marshall. They often occurred after she had been discussing what happened or after an encounter with a cheerleader or being to a game where cheerleaders were.

Edmunds was asked to leave the squad in summer 2005, but Chambers said she never wanted to return because she didn't think she'd feel safe.

Though she was never technically asked to leave the squad, she said she feels she was forced off the squad, and she said her college experience was a disappointment because of it. She had wanted to be a Marshall cheerleader since she was a kid, and had gone to Marshall football games with her family since she was young.

"I love sports and enjoyed going to basketball and football games, but I couldn't go anymore," she said. She said cheerleaders would find her in a crowd, point and laugh.

"I felt like that was part of my life taken from me, something I had worked so hard for," she said.

Her mother, Rebecca Chambers, testified that their family had spent much time and tens of thousands of dollars on Kacie's cheerleading up through high school. Chambers cheered in Buddy League, at Ceredo-Kenova Middle School and Spring Valley High School, as well as competitive cheer squads over the years.

Her mother said that Chambers and some of her family members met with some school officials following her daughter's departure from the squad, including former Athletic Director Bob Marcum.

"Mr. Marcum started laughing when she was talking about teabagging and being harassed," Rebecca Chambers said.

She said in court Thursday that when someone asked if he thought that was funny, he said, "Next time you see me, I'll have my lawyer with me."

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