A high school relay runner in Virginia has been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery after viral video emerged of her striking a rival with a baton during a race, reports NBC News. Lynchburg Commonwealth Attorney Bethany Harrison says the charges were filed this week. The teen, however, says the contact was accidental. Per USA Today, Alaila Everett competed March 4 in the Virginia High School League's indoor state championship in Lynchburg, running in the 4x200 race for IC Norcom High School in Portsmouth. Footage shows Everett sprinting around the bend during the second leg of her race and appearing to smack junior Kaelen Tucker of Brookville High School right in the head multiple times.
Tucker can be seen dropping her baton and stumbling off to the side. "As I was coming up on her, she ... made me get cut off a little bit, so I backed away," Tucker tells WSLS 10. "Then, as we got around the curve, she kept bumping me in my arm." Finally, Tucker says, as they ran around the corner, Tucker "slowly started passing [Everett] and then that's when she just hit me with the baton and I fell off the track." Tucker says she was diagnosed afterward with a concussion and possible fractured skull. Everett's team, meanwhile, was disqualified from the race.
IC Norcom's athletic director has apologized to Tucker and her family on behalf of the Everett family, but Everett herself is now making the rounds to defend herself, insisting that the hits on Tucker were accidental. "I would never do that on purpose," she told Good Morning America on Tuesday. "That's not in my character." She tells ABC13 she simply stumbled during the runners' jostling for track position: "I catch my balance and pump my arms. She's cutting in, and so when I pumped my arms, she got hit. I'm sorry she got hit, but I didn't do it intentionally."
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The Liberty University Police Department tells the news outlet that a protective order was filed in Lynchburg after the incident, though details are unclear. The Tuckers tell WSLS 10 they've yet to receive an apology directly from Everett or Everett's coach, though Everett tells ABC13 she tried to reach out to Tucker via social media but had been blocked. Everett, meanwhile, says she's been harassed online and has been receiving death threats as a result of the incident. Her dad says the two girls are supposed to have a Zoom chat soon to clear things up. (More track and field stories.)
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