Kaylee Gain starts speaking as family insist Maurnice DeClue be tried as an adult as lawyer for beaten Missouri girl argues intent and no remorse after posting on social media mocking beating her opponent.
A Missouri teen girl who was viciously beaten by her school foe, and ended up in a coma has slowly begun to recover and regaining consciousness and even now speaking (tentatively). Nevertheless the teen has no recollection of the beating which went on to make national headlines.
Kaylee Gain, 16, has ‘been able to engage in limited verbal conversations’ in the days since being moved out of ICU, her family announced Friday.
‘Kaylee also recently began speech therapy, and has gone on a few short walks with the assistance of hospital staff as she is still unable to ambulate on her own,’ attorney Bryan Kaemmerer, a spokesperson for Gains, said in a statement according to KSDK.
Jokes about qualifying for MMA or WWE
‘However, Kaylee does not have any recollection of the altercation that led to her hospitalization.’
The small steps mark significant strides for the teenager, whose family held fears Kaylee would never recover from the fight that led to brain bleeding and a skull fracture and had even prepared for the worse.
Footage of the March 8 attack showed Maurnice DeClue, 15, pin Kaylee Gains down before repeatedly striking her head on the concrete just blocks from Hazelwood East High School in Spanish Lake.
DeClue was taken into custody and charged with assault and remains held at a juvenille court.
The Gains family on Friday also accused the perpetrator of sharing a series of social media posts boasting about the violent attack — including jokes that the beatdown would qualify her to ‘join MMA or WWE.’
Victim’s family demands DeClue be tried as adult
The alleged posts have since been taken down, they said.
‘Given that Kaylee began visibly convulsing within seconds after the attack, the serious nature of Kaylee’s injuries should have been immediately apparent to the accused,’ Kaemmerer said, adding that the posts indicate a ‘complete disregard for the well-being of a fellow human being and serves as further proof that the accused is an ongoing threat to the community.’
Gain’s family — as well as Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey — have been pushing for the unnamed girl to be tried as an adult following the assault. In fact the school district now finds itself in a bitter stand-off with the office of Andrew Bailey which it accused of bullying it and trying to paint the incident as an in issue of racism at the school and woke policies.
To date the school has declined to hand over documents to the AG’s office which would allow them to begin filing the process to have DeClue tried as an adult.
Kaylee Gain also an aggressor
In a since removed fundraiser and a change org petition (still active) to treat DeClue with compassion, the girl’s family defended the honor roll student, who they claimed had been ‘harassed and bullied’ before the beatdown — a detail the Gains family said points as further proof that she knew the severity of her actions and had been acting with intent.
‘If anything, the accused’s reported level of intelligence suggest that she was fully capable of understanding that violence of this nature would lead to the devastating injuries that Kaylee has sustained, and therefore provides a further reason why it is appropriate for her to be tried as an adult,’ Kaemmerer said.
Of note, Kaylee Gain was suspended the day prior for another altercation that did not result in any injuries, according to her family, who suggested the violent assault could have been in retaliation.
Video of Kaylee Gain beating the girl on school grounds has since begun making the rounds amid accusations that Gain was part of a warring tribe that partook in initiating, fighting and bullying other girls at the school.
