First, I again assert the strong likelihood that, per usual, the media is getting it wrong. See this post featured on the town's subreddit. This is obviously written by someone in the know who has a child who goes to the school, works there, etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Layton/comments/o20cbl/utah_teen_with_down_syndrome_devastated_to_be/h23nr6s?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Excerpted quote here:

The problem is that this story is not accurate. Despite what the sister said, this girl was not on the team nor was she even an official team manager. Like many kids, these cheerleaders unofficially adopted her into their group. The girl did not do competitions with them nor cheer in any official capacity with them. My guess is that the school administration wasn’t even aware of the relationship that these girls had built with her and her unofficial involvement as an “honorary” team manager as this is a big school like all secondary schools in Davis County. (All schools have an official process to be a team manager.)

This doesn’t mean there aren’t issues here, but the outrage is misplaced. We can have debates about tokenism…but seriously, how many of us here knew what the hell that was when we were 13, 14, or 15 year olds?

Although cheerleading squads don’t generally have team managers, in this case they probably should have just made her an official squad manager. I’m sure it didn’t even cross their minds as they were just trying to include her and make her feel loved. The separate photo with her in it was so she could have a photo with them. But the official school photo didn’t have her in it because she wasn’t officially a member of the group. The advisors also weren’t in the photos…which again, shows that they took the photo with her to specifically give it to her.

Tokenism is absolutely a great way to describe it.

I will also address this particular contention of yours and refer you to the trend of fluff stories where some popular kid asks out the down syndrome child to Prom, Homecoming:

There is a wide range of disability that Downs syndrome people can experience, from barely any at all to needing permanent full time care. If she is going to a regular school, she's closer to the first end than the second.

To the extent I see no evidence that any of these down syndrome kids understand they are being condescended to, they are not just like other kids. It is the worst sort of tokenism. Being patronized, condescended in over the top fashion best describes that. And they are unable to grapsp that fully.