Virginia High School athlete, Alaila Everett, was charged with battery after striking her competitor with her baton at VHSL state championship.

A video that went viral online shows Everett, a senior at I.C Norcom High School, alongside Kaelen Tucker, a junior at Brookville High School, running in a 4×200 meter relay. As they are coming through the curve, Tucker passes Everett and is hit by her baton, stumbling off of the track and unable to complete the race.

Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney, Bethany Harrison, said this past week that an assault and battery misdemeanor charge has been filed.

“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,” Tucker told WSLS.

According to WSLS, Tucker was also diagnosed with a concussion. After the event concluded, Brookeville declined an offer to re-run the race, and I.C Norcom was disqualified.

Everett told WAVY that the incident was an accident, and simply a result of the girls being too close together during their race. She explained that she would never purposefully hit somebody.

“Eventually after a couple times of hitting her, my baton got stuck behind her back like this, and it rolled up her back. I lost my balance. When I pumped my arms again she got hit,’ said Everett.

She added that after the meet, she attempted to apologize to Tucker via social media to find out she had been blocked. When asked how she felt about comments on the video circulating around social media, Everett got emotional and began to cry.

“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 said to WAVY.

Before any charges were confirmed, on Wednesday morning, Portsmouth NAACP issued a statement in Everett’s defense. 

“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.”

Whether or not the situation was purposeful remains up to speculation, however Track and Field officials, such as Virginia Davis, have encouraged people to consider the fact that both of the girls involved are only high school students.

Both athletes hope to recover and move on from the incident despite the chaos and drama that evolved online.