Bud Kennedy: Cheerleader will be flying high again

Jamie Burns is no longer the world’s only grounded cheerleader.

Three weeks after officials at Southern Methodist University told the Colleyville sophomore to stop jumping during football games, Burns and her heart pacemaker will be high-kicking for the Mustangs again Saturday when SMU plays a team from Oklahoma.

No, not that team from Oklahoma. (Thank goodness.)

The Mustangs will play the University of Tulsa. But one 19-year-old on the SMU sideline will be happy, win or lose.

Burns, a former L.D. Bell High School cheerleader, was told Sept. 12 not to jump or even kick, one game into her SMU career. She transferred there this fall after a freshman year at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls.

An SMU official told WFAA/Channel 8 that cheerleaders with pacemakers weren’t covered under the university’s insurance and that it was risky to include her in jumps, flips or stunts.

"They were talking about me fainting," Burns said Tuesday, getting ready for another TV interview after national news networks picked up on the story. "But there isn’t a chance of that. They wanted me to stop doing everything that cheerleaders do."

Originally, Burns says, she was told to stand to the side and clap. Because she wasn’t allowed to do stunts or tumble, she also missed three weeks of workouts.

After the first news report, SMU officials agreed to seek more opinions. Burns’ cardiologist, Dr. Paul Gillette of Fort Worth, had originally sent his OK for her to cheer. In a statement, Lori White, vice president for student affairs, said this week that Burns was cleared after an "important medical review process."

White’s statement thanked Burns for her "patience and understanding."

Burns’ mother, Marge, a nursing director at a Fort Worth rehabilitation hospital, had originally told a TV reporter that SMU was being unfair to an athlete with a pacemaker.

Now, she’s happy.

"Jamie wants to be at SMU," Marge Burns said. "She loves the coach. We are thrilled that she can cheer for SMU."

Burns developed a heart condition in fifth grade, her mother said. Doctors implanted a pacemaker in 2003.

Jamie Burns said her mother and father, Robert, have imagined her as a cheerleader ever since she was 3 and taking ballet at Doubletake Dance Studio in Bedford.

Or it was supposed to be ballet.

"When my turn came in the recital, I just did cartwheels all the way down the stage," she said. "They said, 'That girl is going to be a cheerleader.’ "

She went on to Bedford Junior High, the Bell team and SMU. She hopes to someday go to medical school.

She wants to be a family-practice doctor.

She has a heart for helping other little cheerleaders.