Missouri beating victim Kaylee Gain was suspended from school the day before a fight in which her attacker repeatedly pounded her head into the pavement, according to a new report.
Gain, 16, suffered a skull fracture and a brain bleed that put her in a coma for two weeks after the March 8 incident. Gain, who is white, and her attacker, who is black, based on the video, are students at Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis; the attack took place about a mile from the school, according to the New York Post.
The stage might have been set for the confrontation the day before, the outlet said.
Gain had been involved in a fight with a student who was a friend of the 15-year-old who has since been charged with felony assault for pounding Gain’s head into the pavement until Gain was unconscious and twitching. She was suspended from school for her involvement.
🚨BREAKING: Missouri AG Andrew Bailey says he is open to bringing Hate Crime Charges against the black St. Louis student who was caught on a viral video viciously beating her white classmate, Kaylee Gain, until she was unconscious, leaving her in a coma. pic.twitter.com/KaLT9oDum3
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 26, 2024
A hearing will be held next week on trying the alleged attacker as an adult.
Kaylee Gain was suspended from school one day before brain damaging fight: sources https://t.co/3XcZYNDsUx pic.twitter.com/nJqBvEgGcD
— New York Post (@nypost) March 26, 2024
A Change.org petition calls for the girl shown in the video slamming Gain’s head into the pavement to be tried as a juvenile, saying she “is multilingual, speaking four languages including Spanish and Korean, plays the violin in the school orchestra, played on her school’s volleyball team and was recently selected for college-level AP classes due to her academic excellence.”
“Prior to an incident on March 8th where she was seen defending herself from harassment and bullying, she had never been in trouble. Her work as a scholar was tainted by the bullying she had to endure at school,” the petition said.
The petition said any effort to try her as an adult should consider her “victimhood as a bullied student who was merely defending herself under intense and flight vs fight circumstances.”
The petition claimed that the pounding of Gain’s skull into pavement “is being used to define [the alleged attacker’s] character and incite racial divisions and political strife with the MO AG calling on the courts to charge her as an adult.
“It is unjust that such an accomplished young woman should be charged as an adult for assault without considering all the facts of the case that led to the incident where harm occurred,” the petition said.
The petition called for “the Juvenile Court use a combination of Restorative Justice and Rehabilitation methods instead of only using punitive measures to address the harm that occurred” stressing that “bullying and violence is plaguing many communities across our region and country.”
A rival Change.org petition makes its case simply.
“This needs to be handled in the adult court system based on the brutality of the assault,” it said.
Hazelwood East High School, where Kaylee Gain was assaulted, removed their School Resorce Officers because they refused to participate in the schools DEI program.
Let that sink in, DEI over safety. Share this so that it never happens again. pic.twitter.com/vLkLiWOD9c
— Mad Bull America (@america_mad) March 26, 2024
On Friday, Clinton Gain said his daughter is finally making progress.
JUST IN: The family of Kaylee Gain who was beaten unconscious against the pavement in Missouri says she is stable & breathing on her own.
Great news.
Kaylee suffered a skull fracture and frontal lobe damage in the March 8 beating.
According to her family, Kaylee has been taken… pic.twitter.com/Q8vnqKxAlP
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 23, 2024
“We are happy to share that Kaylee is breathing on her own, remains stable and the best news so far is that we have been moved out of the ICU. We are truly blessed by the outpouring of support and your prayers. It means so much to us!” he wrote on a GoFundMe page set up for the family.
Her mother, April added similar thoughts on another GoFundMe set up for the family.
“I wanted to come on here to first and foremost and thank everyone for the generousity, love & support u have shown for Kaylee and our family,” she wrote.
“We are so happy and blessed to announce that Kaylee is now stable, breathing on her own , and was moved out of the ICU. She still has an incredibly long journey ahead of her but she is strong,” she wrote.
