High school runner who hit opponent in head with baton faces assault and battery charge
A high school track athlete faces a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery after a now-viral video showed her hitting a competitor's head with her baton during a relay event.
Alaila Everett, a senior at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, was running the second leg of the 4x200-meter relay when her baton struck Kaelen Tucker, a junior from Brookville High School, in the head. It happened March 4 during the Virginia State High School League Championships at Liberty University in Lynchburg.
Bethany Harrison, the commonwealth's attorney for the city of Lynchburg, confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery was issued against Everett in the matter.
Additional details on the case were not immediately available.
Video of the incident showed Tucker staggering and reaching for her head after being hit before going off the track. She dropped her baton and was attended to by medical personnel shortly after the incident. She would later be diagnosed with a concussion, she told ABC affiliate WVEC in Hampton, Virginia.
"I was so in disbelief," Tucker told WVEC. "I didn't know what happened."
Everett contended that baton strike was an accident in an interview that aired Tuesday on "Good Morning America."
"I would never do that on purpose," Everett said. "That's not in my character."
The 18-year-old said that during the race, her arm became stuck, and her baton inadvertently struck Tucker as they neared the corner of the track.
"Her arm was literally hitting the baton -- until she got a little ahead, and my arm got stuck like this," she said while holding a baton to emphasize the movement.
The Everetts say they believe their video shows that Tucker's proximity to their daughter led to an accidental collision. According to the family, Tucker was running too close to Everett when she tried to cut ahead, which caused Everett to lose her balance and the baton to make contact with Tucker.
Following the incident, the athletic director at I.C. Norcom High School and Everett's father apologized to the Tucker family in a phone call, according to Tucker's parents.
The Virginia High School League told ABC News on Monday that it is reviewing the incident.
"The VHSL membership has always made it a priority to provide student-athletes with a safe environment for competition," the league said in a statement.
The Portsmouth NAACP said it is also reviewing the incident as well as "racial slurs and death threats" toward the Everett 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 while calling for Everett to be "void of any criminal proceedings."
"From all accounts, she is an exceptional young leader and scholar whose athletic talent has been well-documented and recognized across our state," the Portsmouth 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."
ABC News' Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
