An athletic athlete of the high school faces a minor crime of assault and aggression after a viral video showed him that she hit a competitor’s head with his cane during a retransmission event.
Alaila Everett, a last year student at IC NORCOM High School in Portsmouth, was running the second stage of 4×200 meters when her cane hit Kaelen Tucker, a young woman from Brookville High School, in her head. It happened on March 4 during the Championships of the Virginia State High School League at Liberty University in Lynchburg.
Bethany Harrison, the lawyer of the Commonwealth for the city of Lynchburg, confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that a minor crime of assault and aggression against Everett was issued in the matter.
Additional details about the case were not available immediately.
Still a video of the 4×200 meters relay in the Virginia State Secondary School League Championship on March 4, 2025, when the Baton incident occurred.
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The incident video showed Tucker astonished and reaching his head after being beaten before leaving the track. She dropped her cane and was treated by medical staff shortly after the incident. He would later be diagnosed with a brain shock, he told ABC Affiliate WVEC In Hampton, Virginia.
“I was so incredulous,” Tucker told WveC. “I didn’t know what happened.”
Everett said Baton Strike was an accident in an interview that was broadcast on Tuesday in “Good Morning America.”
“I would never do that on purpose,” Everett said. “That is not in my character.”
The 18 -year -old said that during the race, her arm stuck and her baton inadvertently hit Tucker when they approached the corner of the track.
“His arm was literally hitting the cane, until he advanced a little, and my arm stuck like this,” he said while holding a cane to emphasize the movement.
Alaila Everett, last year student at IC NORCOM High School in Portsmouth, Virginia, talks to ABC News in an interview that was broadcast on March 11, 2025 in “Good Morning America”.
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Everetts say they believe that their video shows that Tucker’s proximity to his daughter led to an accidental collision. According to the family, Tucker was running too close to Everett when he tried to cut, which caused Everett to lose his balance and the cane got in touch with Tucker.
After the incident, the ICRcom High School director 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 the incident is reviewing.
“The VHSL membership has always made a priority to provide athletes with a safe environment for competition,” the League said in a statement.
Portsmouth Naacp said it is also reviewing the incident, as well as the “racial insults and death threats” towards the Everett family.
“We are collectively committed to ensuring that the criminal justice system, which we believe is not justified in this situation, is executed fairly and is based on due process,” the organization said in a statement on Wednesday while asking that Everett is “without criminal procedures.”
“According to all reports, she is an exceptional young leader and scholarly whose athletic talent has been well documented and recognized throughout our state,” said Portsmouth Naacp. “It has been taken with integrity both inside and outside the field and any narrative that judges its guilt of any criminal activity is a violation of its due process.”
ABC News Victoria Parancio contributed to this report.
