Virginia high school track star says hitting opponent in the head with baton was an accident

I.C. Norcom's Alaila Everett says the viral video doesn't tell the whole story of what actually happened

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It's been a chaotic past couple of days of I.C. Norcom's Alaila Everett since the Virginia High School League (VHSL) track and field state championships.

In a video that went viral from the state championships, Everett was shown running side-by-side with Kaelen Tucker, who is a junior at Brookville High School, in the second leg of the 4x200 relay.

It was then when Tucker is shown on video being apparently struck in the back of the head with a baton by Everett, which has sent everyone questioning the reasoning for the incident and the VHSL investigating the matter.

Girls high school track star gets bashed in the head with a baton at Virginia state championships

According to Everett, it's all one big misunderstanding and no one looking beyond the one clip that went viral.

“Nobody is going to believe me because I can admit from the video it does look purposeful. I know my intention is that I would never hit somebody on purpose. They’re going off of one angle,” Everett said in a interview with WAVY TV 10.

Tucker would end up suffering a concussion because of the hit from the baton by Everett.

“When we get onto the other side of the track we have to cross to lane one, you have to merge in, and as I was coming up on her she kind of made me get cut off a little bit so I backed away,” Tucker said in a report to WSLS. 

“When we got to the curve she kept bumping me in my arm and when we got off the curve I finally passed her and that was when she hit me with the baton.”

According to a 6 ABC News report, the unnamed runner's father and school's athletic director reached out to Tucker to apologize for the incident. 

"I definitely want the coaches and a personal apology from the actual athlete as well, because it's only you know, it's only right," Keith Tucker, father of Kaelen, said via the 6 ABC News report.

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