Photo: Getty Images
The mother of a Knoxville, Tennessee teen has blasted a local high school cheer squad for sexualizing her daughter's TikTok dance routine and kicking her off the team. Meanwhile, her daughter's white teammate performed a similar routine online and reportedly face no disciplinary action.
The dispute between the Boyles, a Black family in Knoxville, and the cheerleading squad at Hardin Valley Academy began earlier this month. Tosky Boyle's 15-year-old daughter, Te’Shauria, posted a video of herself dancing while "From Tha Back" by lil.Eaarl played in the background. Atlanta Black Star reports that Te'Shauria went on to post several other videos to her TikTok and Instagram accounts before a cheerleading coach messaged her.
“Can you please remove the video you posted? It is not an appropriate representation of a Hardin Valley Academy Cheerleader," Boyle said the message read.
Te'Shauria Boyle did as her coach requested, but it was too late. Hardin Valley Academy had issues with many of the videos that Boyle posted to social media and began the process of removing her from the team.
“They called her and told her she was dismissed from the team because of those videos,” Tosky Boyle reportedly told Inside Edition.
“They said they were sexually explicit, or sexually inappropriate, her motions that she was doing, they talked about her clothing.”
Tosky Boyle was frustrated by the decision to remove her from her daughter from the team and believes race was a factor in the school's decision. Tosky pointed out that two of her daughter's classmates had also posted videos of themselves performing similar dance moves, but they were not removed from the team.
"Te’shauria has a more developed body with a fuller derrière therefore her body moves a little differently than that of her caucasian teammate. Te’shauria was dismissed from her high school cheer team for this [Instagram] post as they deemed her clothing [and] dance moves [to be] 'sexual' and inappropriate. However, this was not the case in her fellow Caucasian teammate's Tik Tok post. Although you can clearly see her derrière hanging out of her shorts, mind you, she is still on the high school cheer team," Tosky Boyle wrote in a lengthy Instagram post.
"Te’shauria’s high school cheer coach(es) took it upon themselves to report her mother to DCS for sexual exploitation of a child because of her daughter's [Instagram] dance post [Those claims were] investigated, unfounded and dismissed. However, her fellow Caucasian teammate's mother was not."
Hardin Valley Academy has not issued a public statement regarding the decision to remove Boyle from the team.
Get the latest news 24/7 on The Black Information Network. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app or click HERE to tune in live.