Website CCU cheerleaders used is for dating, not escorts, company says
One day after Coastal Carolina University released an investigative report that revealed details behind its cheerleading team’s suspension, the website officials said the girls were using for dating services has offered to pay the team’s legal fees.
The public relations manager for SeekingArrangement.com told The Sun News Friday afternoon its site is “a little disappointed in the claims that the school is making against these young women.”
Their site is a dating site, the manager said, and not a site for escorts.
“To portray these women as ‘prostitutes’ just because you do not understand or agree with their dating choice is bullying,” Founder and CEO Brandon Wade said in a statement. “We will not stand for slut shaming, and find it wildly inappropriate for a public university to comment and pass judgment on the dating habits of their students. Sugar Babies are not escorts they are ambitious, goal oriented individuals who is looking for a specific kind of relationship. If we were talking about a football player would we be having this conversation?”
According to a criminal investigation report CCU released Thursday afternoon, cheerleaders were paid between $100 and $1,500 per date. The investigator specifically called it an “escort service” and later says “the escorts also received payment in the form of gifts such as clothes, shoes and designer handbags.”
The team has been suspended since March 30, but are still allowed to attend class.
On March 13, CCU officials including President David DeCenzo, university counsel Timothy Meacham and cheer coaches Marla Sage and Kelly Moore, met to discuss a letter mailed anonymously to DeCenzo’s office that sparked the investigation.
The letter alleged the cheerleaders were engaged in prostitution, stripping, drinking and forcing younger cheerleaders to partake in underage drinking. They were not “accepted” into the team unless they took part, according to the letter.
Investigators were able to get a picture of the person who sent the letter and signed it “a concerned parent.”
The cheerleaders did not engage in sexual favors, according to the investigation.
“SeekingArrangement.com does not allow and specifically prohibits any kind of pay-per-meet or transactional type relationship,” Welp said in an email. “Our intention for SeekingArrangement.com is to provide a dating platform for like-minded individuals who are interested in mutually beneficial relationships to connect and find meaningful arrangements.
“On a final note we will be reaching out to their legal counsel to offer to foot the bill for this case.”
Five of the cheerleaders are being represented by Amy S. Lawrence with The Lovely Law Firm. Lawrence released a lengthy statement Thursday night saying she’s “disgusted and angered” that the university released the report.
Lawrence said Thursday her clients gave full statements to an investigator, and it was confirmed “that the ‘prostitution’ allegations involved five women, one of which was not a student, nor a cheerleader, that was participating in a dating website where men paid them for just that, dating.”
No one has been charged, no arrests have been made, Lawrence said.
“ … And a lot of really wonderful, kind, smart women have been smeared in the public eye yet again, at the hand of the University they love and their parents entrusted their wellbeing.”
Lawrence said CCU made another “knee jerk reaction” and said the website the girls were using is completely legal. Four of the 26 members of the cheerleading team participated in the site, she said.
“Would this ever happen to a Male Sports Team?” Lawrence wrote in a news release. “… Coastal Carolina needs to take a very long hard look at how they inappropriately treat women across the board.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Website CCU cheerleaders used is for dating, not escorts, company says."