High School Track Star Who Evoked Tonya Harding Charged With Assault

The high school track star at the center of a viral baton attack has formally been charged. 

Alaila Everett, a senior at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, Virginia, faces a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery stemming from the March 4 incident, according to ABC News. 

The alleged attack happened during the 4x200m relay at the Virginia High School League Class 3 State Indoor Championships, held at Liberty University in Lynchburg. 

Video showed Everett allegedly taking her baton and hitting another runner, Kaelen Tucker, over the head with it. Tucker, a junior at Brookville High School in Lynchburg, reportedly suffered a concussion and was treated for a potential skull fracture. 

The incident invoked the name of former figure skater Tonya Harding, who trended on social media after video of the attack spread. Harding’s name is infamously linked to the 1994 attack of Nancy Kerrigan, during which the beloved figure skater was was struck in the knee with a baton by a hitman hired by Harding’s then-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and Harding’s then-bodyguard, Shawn Eckardt.

In the aftermath of the recent baton attack, Everett, the alleged instigator, attempted to explain it was all a big misunderstanding.

“I would never do that on purpose,” Everett said Tuesday, March 11 on Good Morning America. “That’s not in my character.”

Everett placed some of the blame for the incident on Tucker, claiming she was running so close that her arm was impeding Everett’s motion. 

“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 her point. 

Everett said she and her family have received death threats since the incident occurred. 

Tucker, who was allegedly hit by Everett, also spoke to Good Morning America to give her perspective of the reported attack. 

“I just felt a bang on my head and then I fell off the track immediately,” Tucker recalled. 

The Everett family has also been served court papers and must appear before a judge, which Everett’s father, Genoa, criticized during an interview with WAVY TV 10 (an ABC affiliate in Norfolk, Virginia) on Sunday, March 9.

“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,” he said.

The Virginia High School League told ABC News that it is reviewing the incident. A statement read, “The VHSL membership has always made it a priority to provide student-athletes with a safe environment for competition.”