High School Track Star Says Viral Baton Attack Was Accidental, Social Media Weighs In

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But Everett, who has since become the subject of intense social media backlash, claims it was, in fact, an accident, and that people are passing judgment after only seeing video footage of the incident from “one angle.”“I just felt a bang on my head, and then I fell off the track immediately,” Tucker said.
Tucker was seen on camera dropping her baton and reaching for her head.
“The whole coliseum pretty much gasped,” said Tamarro Tucker, Kaelen’s mother. “I just jumped up out of the bleachers immediately and ran to her on the main floor.”
The 16-year-old was diagnosed with a concussion.
The family said neither the athlete who struck Kaelen nor the other team’s coaches checked on her or reached out afterward.
“To see that they kept running and she not stop and check on my daughter. That was the part I was like, it couldn’t have been an accident,” Tamarro Tucker said.
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The I.C. Norcom High School team was ultimately disqualified, which Vincent Pugh, former Citywide Athletic Director at Portsmouth Public Schools, found questionable. He said a play-by-play showed that Turner was running closely to Everett. “If a person comes up on the outside, they got to be a full stride ahead of me before they can cut in front of me,” Pugh said. The Tuckers spoke with WSLS in Roanoke and said they are seeking an apology from Everett. She revealed she has made efforts to get in contact with Tucker but has been blocked by her on social media. Moreover, the Everett family was served with court papers as the Tuckers want a protective order. “It doesn’t seem right that this would happen and now we have to go to a city three hours away that everyone hates our guts already,” Genoa Everett, her father said. “They are assuming my character, calling me ghetto and racial slurs, death threats… all of this off of a nine second video,” Alaila Everett said.Yeah — I mean, we all know how social media instantly turns into a cesspool of unbridled misogynoir whenever there’s a trending story about a Black woman or girl even being accused of any form of misconduct. If the incident had involved two white student-athletes, the one who allegedly hit the other with her baton certainly would have been well-criticized, but the word “ghetto” or any other anti-Black slur would not come up.
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High School Track Star Says Viral Baton Attack Was Accidental, Social Media Weighs In was originally published on cassiuslife.com
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