A Virginia high school track runner who was seen hitting her opponent in the back of the head with a baton last week now faces a misdemeanour charge of assault and battery.
The incident took place when Brookville High School junior Kaelen Tucker was competing in the 4×200-metre relay at a track meet at Liberty University in Lynchburg on March 4.
A video of the incident shared on Facebook shows Tucker grabbing a metal baton from her teammate and taking off. As she begins to overtake another runner, Alaila Everett of IC Norcom High School appears to raise her own baton and hit Tucker across the head with it, the video shows.
Bethany Harrison, the commonwealth’s lawyer for the city of Lynchburg, confirmed to ABC News that the charge of assault and battery was issued against Everett.
Following the incident, Tucker was assessed by a doctor and told she had a concussion and a possible skull fracture.
Everett spoke out following the incident, telling outlet WAVY TV 10 that she didn’t mean to hit Tucker and struck her accidentally due to losing her balance.
“I can admit from the video that it does look purposeful, but I know my intention is that I would never hit somebody on purpose,” she told the outlet.
Everett claims that people are judging the incident “off one angle” of the video.
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“After a couple times of hitting her, my baton got stuck behind her back like this,” Everett said, making an upwards gesture. “And it rolled up her back. I lost my balance and when I pumped my arms again, she got hit.”
Everett revealed that she’s received a lot of hate on social media since the video of the incident spread online.
“I’ve never been in a fight, I’ve always been on honour roll, I never get calls home. So just people making, off a nine-second video, they’re assuming my character, calling me ‘ghetto,’ racist slurs, death threats, all of this because of a nine-second video,” she said.
The Portsmouth NAACP said it is reviewing the incident and the “racial slurs and death threats” toward Everett and her family.
“We are committed collectively to ensuring that the criminal justice system, which we feel is not warranted in this situation, is executed fairly and based on due process,” the organization said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Alaila is NOT AN ATTACKER and media headlines that allude towards that in any way is shameful,” the Portsmouth NAACP said. “We understand the sensitivity of the circumstances for both athletes and their families involved but this narrative must not go unaddressed.
“Alaila is an honor student and a star athlete at the historic I.C. Norcom High School. From all accounts, she is an exceptional young leader and scholar whose athletic talent has been well documented and recognized across our state. She has carried herself with integrity both on and off the field and any narrative that adjudicates her guilty of any criminal activity is a violation of her due process rights.”
On Monday, the Tucker family said they reached out to the Virginia High School League (VHSL) and said they were told there was an investigation underway and both high schools were co-operating.
The VHSL also issued a statement with regard to the incident.
“The VHSL does not comment on individuals or disciplinary actions due to FERPA,” the league said. “The actions taken by the meet director to disqualify the runner were appropriate and correct. We thoroughly review every instance like this that involves player safety with the participating schools. The VHSL membership has always made it a priority to provide student-athletes with a safe environment for competition.”
When Tucker’s family was asked earlier this week if they planned to press criminal charges, Tucker’s mother, Tamarrow, said, “Of course, everybody gives their opinion on what they think you should do, but that’s also somebody else’s child. I want to take that into account as well. Yes, she definitely struck my daughter more than once, but she is somebody else’s child as well.”
Everett’s family revealed that they were served with court papers because the Tuckers want a protective order.
“It doesn’t seem right that this would happen and now we have to go to a city three hours away that everyone hates our guts already,” Everett’s father, Genoa, said.
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