An athlete at a Virginia high school has been charged with assault and battery after a track baton incident left another runner with a concussion and possibly a fractured skull.
The charge against high school senior Alaila Everett was announced Wednesday by Lynchburg Commonwealth's Attorney Bethany Harrison.
The incident occurred during a state championship meet last week. A video of the event, which has gone viral, shows Kaelen Tucker being hit in the head by Everett's relay baton during a race.
Everett has maintained that it was an accident.
Watch: I.C. Norcom's Everett says viral track meet incident was an accident
"She was touching me to the point where I was pumping my arm, and the baton was hitting her arm," Everett said. "I lose my balance — my whole body turns, and then I pump my arms, so she got hit."
Meanwhile, Tucker said, "As we got around the curve, she kept bumping me in my arm. When we finally got off the curve, I slowly started passing her, and she hit me with a baton."
The viral attention garnered by the track footage has led to harassment and death threats directed towards Everett.
Before the charges were announced, the Portsmouth NAACP issued a statement in defense of Everett Wednesday morning. The following is an excerpt from that statement:
"Alaila is NOT AN ATTACKER and media headlines that allude towards that in any way is shameful. 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."
Virginia Davis, a USA Track and Field official with 16 years of experience as an umpire, described the incident as tragic — but emphasized that the individuals involved are high school students.
"I think it’s tragic. They bumped into each other. Whether you think what they did was correct or not, they’re still high school students," she said.
This story was originally published by the Scripps News Group in Norfolk.
