'My baton kept hitting her'- Emotional high school student speaks out on controversial track incident

Emotional high school student speaks out on controversial track incident Image source: Wavy TV 10

'My baton kept hitting her'- Emotional high school student speaks out on controversial track incident

Abigael Wafula 06:00 - 11.03.2025

Alaila Everett has defended herself against accusations of intentionally hitting Kaelen Tucker with her baton during a relay race, explaining it was unavoidable.

Alaila Everett, a track star and senior at I.C. Norcom High School, has unveiled fresh details about the incident at the Class 3 State Indoor Championships.

Alaila Everett and Kaelen Tucker, a junior at Brookville High School, were competing in the 4×200m relay race before the unfortunate happened.

Everett, who was running in second, seemingly hit her rival with a baton when she tried to overtake her but she revealed that the case is more complicated.

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She explained that after receiving the baton, she wanted to merge and before her rival went near her, everything was going well.

However, after Kaelen Tucker joined her and tried to beat her, she got so close that every time she swung her hands, the baton would automatically hit her rival.

Everett explained that it was not her intention to harm her competitor but she could not avoid hitting her since she was so close.

“Then on the curve, I saw something yellow on my peripheral which was her uniform and she was so close to me that my baton kept hitting her and it was either I keep hitting her or fall into the metal railing,” Alaila Everett said in an interview with Wavy TV 10.

“I lost my balance and when I pumped my arms again, she got hit and she was cutting in when it happened but she should have waited a little longer. She got so close to me that I would hit her when I was running.”

She added that people were so quick to judge her upon seeing the video and could not reach out to her to hear the other side of the story.

Alaila Everett added that she was raised well and would never hit a rival who would beat her due to jealousy or any other malicious intentions.

Everett noted that she tried reaching out to the victim in this case and upon following her on Instagram, she got blocked and does not understand why.

She further explained that people see her as the villain and do not care whether she has grades to chase, with the incident forcing her to miss school for some time.

“They are going off of one angle, they don’t have enough information and they just went on the news. I’m just a person by myself, and I know from the video it looks purposeful but I know my intentions and I know that I would never hit somebody on purpose because of jealousy,” she added.

“I’m not that good on the track and I applaud her for doing her best. I’m sorry because I did not intentionally hit her. I was raised well and it’s just a lot because it’s the whole world against me. A lot of people just post without understanding what happened.”

Kaelen Tucker and her mother have bemoaned the act, demanding an apology from Everett who was forced to come out and give her side of the story. However, a section of some fans are still angry about the incident and have not bought her story.

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