BY EMILIE WEINBECK, FEATURES EDITOR
By now, most people have heard of the hit Netflix show “Cheer.” The first season of the show came out on Jan. 8, 2020 and quickly became a hit. The show follows a junior college cheer team at Navarro College, located in the small town of Corsicana, Texas. After the cheer team started winning national championship after national championship, they quickly were put on the map as one of the best colleges to go to if you wanted to be a collegiate cheerleader.
Monica Aldama is the head coach of the famed cheer team and like most of the cheerleaders on the team she has reached star status since the show took off. But, once the second season of “Cheer” was released, Aldama started to face backlash from fans as there was a darker side revealed to one of the main cheerleaders featured on the show.
Jeremiah Harris was born on July 14, 1999, in Hinsdale, Illinois, where he grew up and attended high school. Harris’s mother passed away when he was just 16, which led him to become extremely involved at the gym that he was cheerleading at to try and fill this new void in his life. This eventually led Harris to finding a spot on the Navarro cheer team with Aldama, who gave him a sense of belonging and family which he had not felt since his mother passed away.
Unfortunately, in September of 2020 Harris was arrested and charged with child pornography charges which is played out throughout season two of “Cheer.” Harris’s arrest came as a shock to many fans and his teammates as he quickly became a fan-favorite during season one of the show and was well liked by everyone on the team.
The charges being brought against Harris come from a lawsuit filed by a set of 14-year old twin boys, named Charlie and Sam. The boys accuse Harris of sending them sexually explicit messages, asking repeatedly for nude messages and about a time one of the boys was cornered in a public bathroom and asked to perform oral sex. The boys do appear in episode five of season two of “Cheer” where they detail their experiences with Harris.
In December of 2020, the FBI decided to file additional charges against Harris including sexual explotation of children, receiving pornography, traveling with the attempt to engage in sexual conduct with a minor, and enticement. Harris pleaded not guilty on all seven counts on Dec. 17, 2020. But on Feb. 10, 2022 Harris decided to change his plea, pleading guilty to one count of receiving child pornography and one count of engaging in sexual acts with a minor.
The judge on Harris’s case said that he could face a maximum of 30 years in prison on just one of the charges against him. Since his arrest Harris has been held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. In October 2020, a judge denied Harris bond, citing that he is a danger to the community. Harris will remain in prison until his sentencing, which is set for June 28 of this year. Harris’s lawyers have decided to decline commenting on his new plea and on the new season of the Netflix series.
