Mom says daughter kicked off cheerleading squad over hair

Jenny Fallaw told ABC station KTRK-TV in Houston that she was surprised when she saw the requirement that her daughter, Makayla straighten her hair for competition after joining the Woodlands Elite Cheer center.

– A mother in Tomball, Texas is speaking out, claiming her daughter was kicked off the cheerleading squad because of her curly hair.

Makayla is biracial, and her mother says all-star cheer director Kevin Tonner told her, “I know other mixed kids and you can put relaxer in her hair”.

But Tonner argues the real reason Makayla was kicked off the team wasn’t because of her hair, but because of her mother’s alleged bad attitude and refusal to discuss a compromise.

For the record, Makayla’s hair is gorgeous and I’d (maybe literally?) kill for it. The thought of an entirely uniform team is creepy to me, and maybe the people who are shaping young mind’s should be celebrating diversity and not trying to push it into submission? She’s been practicing since April with this team. “It would destroy her hair, so I wanted to explain to them my reasoning”, said Fallaw. “She’s such a good athlete”.

“When you come into the sport, you understand there is make up to it. There’s hair to it”, he said. He said the cheer teams choose their own style to comply with, which they wear only for a few hours during competitions and that the 11-year-old girl would be able to keep her naturally curly hair during practices.

‘We were trying to make the exception.

‘And she [Jenny Fallaw] wasn’t willing to have a compromise. Tonner told KTRK that the mother was “very defensive”.

“Long story short, it got heated, we respectfully asked her leave”, Tonner told ABC News. It wasn’t about hair.

Fallaw said Makayla is still upset about the decision. It was about we don’t want this negativity on our team’.