A Black cheerleader that attends Ottawa University claims that her head coach booted her off the squad following a racist rant about her hair.
Talyn Jefferson took to Twitter a few days ago to state how her coach told her to remove her bonnet during practice, but she told her she couldn’t because she didn’t want to hit her teammates with her long braids.
After refusing to remove her bonnet, the 20-year-old says the cheer coach launched into a tirade about her hair before kicking Jefferson out of practice and removing her from the squad, according to the Kansas City Star.
“I got kicked off because I was standing up for myself against microaggressive comments that the coach made toward me, that made me and others very uncomfortable,” Jefferson told the Star.
In response to the viral post, officials from the school released a statement claiming Jefferson’s removal “had absolutely nothing to do with her hairstyle.”
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“No student has ever been sanctioned or expelled for wearing box braids, bonnets, or any other hairstyle,” the statement read.
“Instead of the university addressing the fact that the comments were out of line and made me uncomfortable and the coach should have apologized, their solution was to kick me off instead,” Jefferson said of the university’s response. “They claim I got kicked off because I defy authority and I have anger issues, but like I’ve said, that is not true. I have no type of misconduct issues at that school.”
It appears that she won’t be getting her spot back on the squad at this point.
