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Alabama Cheerleading Coach Dismissed After Reporting Racist Shirts At Practice

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 02:22 PST, Aug 27, 2015

An Alabama youth cheerleading squad has lost two coaches after one of them wore a racist shirt to an August practice alongside a friend, igniting a strange drama behind the scenes of the team.

According to WAFF, Brian McCracken (Boaz cheerleading’s assistant vice president) and his friend Brian McDowell were the pair who showed up to the practice wearing offensive shirts. McCracken’s shirt reportedly said “The original boys in the hood,” while showing a picture of a burning cross and a KKK member, while McDowell’s said “White Pride.” Volunteer cheerleading coach Kayleigh Tipton described the shirts as “awful,” noting that she didn’t want her children to be exposed to the racist iconography.

“I mean, I don’t stand for it, I don’t want my kids around it. No one I know wants their kids around anything like that.”

Though both men claim that the racist shirts were worn as a joke, Tipton complained about the incident to Kenny Jones, the commissioner of the North Alabama Youth Football & Cheerleading League, according to the Huffington Post. Jones responded to Tipton’s concerns by contacting McCracken and banning him from wearing any racially-inflammatory clothing to the squad’s events.

“We have zero tolerance for any kind of discriminatory apparel or anything,” Jones asserted.

The situation didn’t end there, however, as the next time Tipton showed up for practice, Brian’s wife, Melynnda McCracken, who also happens to be Boaz cheerleading’s vice president, informed Tipton that her volunteer efforts were no longer needed. According to Jones, the decision had nothing to do with Tipton’s complaint but instead “parent concerns of some drama that was going on.” As far as Tipton is concerned, however, she is the one being unfairly punished.

“I’m just disgusted because I feel like I didn’t do anything wrong besides make a complaint that should have been kept private to begin with… I asked why and she could not give me any reason.”

Both Brian and Melynnda McCracken have resigned from their positions with the cheerleading squad, yet the Tipton family says that the damage has already been done. While they say that the resignations needed to happen, the Tiptons point to the children involved, saying that their exposure to the racist shirts and the drama surrounding them is the real issue at hand.

[Image: WAFF-TV via the New York Daily News]

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