Rozina Edwards Branham took to her Facebook to call out her town for blaming cheerleader skirts while fugitive coach Travis Turner, charged with child porn and soliciting minors, remains on the run.
She finally let it all out after staying quiet for seven days.
Rozina was sick over what she kept reading in the local comment sections about Travis Turner, the Virginia high school coach now on the run with 10 warrants out for his arrest: 5 for child pornography and 5 for trying to get minors into sexual acts.
Police had enough evidence against him to charge him, but he skipped town, leaving his wife and kids behind.
Instead of anger at a grown man, half of the town jumped straight to blaming teenage girls and their cheer uniforms.
Furious Rozina copied real comments word-for-word from supporters of the coach and posted them alongside screenshots.
People said stuff like, “Innocent until proven guilty,” “Team is undefeated this season because of Travis..how well he has built their football team this year.“
If not, they targeted girls and their attire, saying, “If people taught their girls how to dress appropriately!” “Its been said she was a promiscuous cheerleader.” “The schools need to change the cheerleaders outfits.“
“Why are we putting our girls in tramp suits”? “Its not Hooters or a strip club, tone it down (cheerleaders uniforms) or stop it!“
Rozina even shared the screenshot of the real comments where one wrote:
If anything, the schools need to change the cheerleaders’ outfits, I mean, come on, they are too short. Any clothing that’s gonna have these kids’ butts hanging out is going to have these crazy men to look at them.
Rozina Edwards Branham
Likewise, another added:
It isn’t like these girls choose to dress that way. I don’t blame them at all. I blame the adults and school staff in charge of choosing these outfits. These girls are young and are easily manipulative and us allowing them to wear skirts that show all their stuff… is part of the problem.
Rozina Edwards Branham
One man even wrote that perverts and pedophiles are “praying and stacking these babys” because of how cheerleaders dress.
Seeing all these comments, Rozina couldn’t believe her eyes. She boldly questioned those people writing:
Are some of you people serious?!?! He’s convicted himself by fleeing!
Rozina Edwards Branham
Rozina put it this way: imagine someone accused you of something this awful, but you knew you were completely innocent and had nothing to hide. Would you just disappear and leave your spouse and kids to face the storm alone? Or would you walk straight into the police station and fight to clear your name?
That was her question to everyone, still making excuses for the coach who ran. Most of the answers probably would be no, to which she said:
Not me! I would head straight to the police station, demand a lie detector test, hand over my phone, my computer, and the passwords to every email and social media account I owned! Especially if I was such a “beloved dedicated coach” and my team was undefeated and counting on me
Rozina Edwards Branham
Rozina looked around at all the posts and wondered out loud why almost nobody was speaking up for the girl or girls Turner had hurt.
She hardly saw anyone even say the victim’s name or stand up for her.
Frustated over the entire chaos, she wrote:
Stop blaming the kids! Stop blaming cheerleading uniforms that have looked the same for fifty years. The blame is one hundred percent on a forty-something-year-old man who could not control himself.
Rozina Edwards Branham
She pointed out that Turner is over forty years old, yet his brain finished growing a long time ago. He knew right from wrong, yet just chose wrong.
Rozina ended with a plea that has now been shared thousands of times. She shed light on the comments, saying this is exactly the reason why kids never tell when an adult grooms or hurts them.
While the coach is gone, police say more charges are coming, and a small Virginia town argues about skirt length, the teenagers he is accused of harming have to walk back into that same school and see the same people who called them “promiscuous” and said they “wanted it” or dressed too sexy.
She added, “If he’s still alive, he needs to turn himself in and face what he did.”
