Who is Te'shauria Akinleye? Cheerleader kicked off team after "racist" coach labels her TikTok videos sexually inappropriate

A mother of a former cheerleader at a Tennessee high school received a visit from police officials after her daughter posted a TikTok video of herself dancing which was flagged by the daughter’s cheerleading coach for being “inappropriate.”

Te’shauria Akinleye was unfairly kicked out of her cheerleading squad after uploading a video on TikTok and other social media platforms. The teenager pointed out that she was kicked off of Hardin Valley Academy’s cheer squad despite not being in school uniform.

Te’shauria’s mother, Toksy Akinleye explained that the cheerleading coach had messaged the teenager claiming that the dance routine posted on the app was not “cheerleader appropriate for Hardin Valley.”

Toksy also stated that she checks all of her daughter's TikTok videos before they are uploaded online. The mother-daughter duo modified the “inappropriate” video to make it more family- friendly to upload. Toksy said:

“The first TikTok was a full body and that’s the one they asked her to delete, the subsequent ones that she posted she cropped herself out from the waist up.”

---

Why was Te’shauria kicked out of her cheerleading squad after posting a TikTok dance video?

After the mother-daughter pair modified the "problematic" video, they received another phone call from the coach and the coach’s assistant on August 12, just a few days after the original video was posted. The high school faculty pointed out that the modified videos posted subsequently where still “sexually inappropriate or explicit.”

While revealing more information regarding the phone call, Toksy said:

“There’s certain motions that she’s doing in those videos that we’ve told the girls they can’t do.”

Toksy and Te’shauria admitted to knowing nothing about the “motions” cheerleaders were not allowed to perform. The mother stated that the phone call ended with her daughter being kicked out of the cheering squad.

Toksy then requested a meeting with school officials, which ended with a visit from a DCS worker and two Knox Country sheriff’s deputies to her home. A letter from DCS read:

“DCS and law enforcement have both investigated the allegation of sexual abuse to your daughter, Te’shauria Akinleye involving the posting/selling of inappropriate videos of your child and found the allegations to be unfounded.”

The case was then closed. However, Toksy believes that her daughter and the rest of the family are being treated unfairly because of their race. She said:

“If you look at some of the videos and compare her body and her dancing to some of the other girls and their body and their dancing, she has more of a body than they do.”

The mother mentioned that she had seen several white Hardin Valley cheerleaders post similar content on TikTok and continue to keep their spot on the team.

Amidst the TikTok video row, a spokesperson for Knox County Schools has said they are reviewing the situation. Toksy Akinleye has now hired an attorney as she reaches out to the ACLU.