A Virginia high school track athlete faces a misdemeanor charge after a viral video emerged showing her at a meet where her competitor gets struck in the head with a baton.
Video circulating online shows high schoolers Alaila Everett and Kaelen Tucker running in a 4×200-meter relay at a state finals race March 4, neck and neck as they round a corner. As they are coming out of the curve, Tucker is hit by Everett's baton and stumbles off the field in apparent pain.
Everett continues the race.
Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison said this week that an assault and battery charge has been filed.
Both girls spoke to NBC affiliates WSLS of Roanoke and WAVY of Norfolk, offering their accounts of what happened on the track.
Tucker told WSLS she initially backed off Everett as the girls were crossing the track because Everett cut her off as they tried to merge into lane one. They were bumping arms as they rounded the curve, Tucker said.
"Then finally we got off the curve, I, like, slowly started passing her, and then that’s when she just hit me with the baton and I fell off the track," said Tucker, a junior at Brookville High School.
Tucker was diagnosed with a concussion, according to WSLS. Tucker's parents said Everett never checked on their daughter or asked whether she was OK, even after the race concluded.
Everett told WAVY the incident was an accident, which started when the girls were so close together, she said, that her baton kept hitting Tucker.
"Eventually after a couple times of hitting her, my baton got stuck behind her back like this, and it rolled up her back," said Everett, a senior at I.C. Norcom High School. "I lost my balance. When I pumped my arms again she got hit."
She said she would never hit anyone intentionally, attributing the incident to Tucker's cutting in too quickly after the girls merged into the lane. Everett looked to check on Tucker after she passed the baton off to her teammate, but she said Tucker was surrounded by people at that point.
"After the race, I went to my coach, and he said he's handling it and for me to do my cool-down, so I did my cool-down," Everett said.
Everett said that when she was finished, her coach told her that the other team had declined an offer to re-run race and that I.C. Norcom had been disqualified.
"He told me to stay around him, because he didn't want nothing else to happen," Everett said.
Everett added that when she went to find Tucker on social media to apologize, she discovered she was blocked. Everett cried when she was asked how she felt seeing the comments online after the video went viral.
"They're going off of one angle. I know what happened. ... I'm just a person by myself; nobody's going to believe me," Everett told WAVY. "I can admit from the video it does look purposeful, but I know my intentions, and I would never hit somebody on purpose because of jealousy."
In a statement obtained by WAVY, the Portsmouth NAACP chapter said it was concerning that criminal charges were considered. Everett, an honor student, is not an attacker, the organization said.
"From all accounts, she is an exceptional young leader and scholar whose athletic talent has been well documented and recognized across our state," the NAACP said. "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."
The organization also wished Tucker and her family well.
Mike McCall, communications director for the Virginia High School League, said he could not comment on specific disciplinary measures because of student privacy laws.
"The actions taken by the meet director to disqualify the runner were appropriate and correct," McCall said. "We thoroughly review every instance like this that involves player safety with the participating schools."
Portsmouth Public Schools said it was cooperating with the league's investigation.
"The division will support and follow the ruling that comes from the VHSL upon its completed investigation," it said.