ST. LOUIS COUNTY — The 16-year-old girl who suffered a skull fracture in an after-school fight that was captured on video is out of the hospital’s intensive care unit and breathing on her own two weeks after the brawl.
Kaylee Gain’s mother shared the update on her daughter’s condition in a GoFundMe post Friday.
“We are so happy and blessed to announce that Kaylee is now stable, breathing on her own and was moved out of the ICU,†April Nordstrom wrote. “She still has an incredibly long journey ahead of her but she is strong.â€
Earlier updates from her family had said Kaylee was still unconscious following the March 8 fight, and her brain was bleeding.
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The update on Friday did not say if she had regained consciousness.
Footage of Kaylee’s beating went viral after it was posted on social media. The video showed another juvenile beating Kaylee’s skull into concrete on a residential street near Hazelwood East.
Calls from the public and government officials mounted to charge the other girl as an adult. That decision will ultimately be up to a ºüÀêÊÓƵ County juvenile court judge, and the girl will not be publicly identified unless she is charged as an adult.
“Although the family would like justice to eventually be served through the legal system, their focus at this time is dedicated exclusively to Kaylee’s recovery,†a family spokesperson said in a statement last week.
Missouri’s top lawyer launched an investigation this week into diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the Hazelwood School District after the fight, which happened off school grounds.
In a letter sent to the district and riddled with errors, Attorney General Andrew Bailey said the investigation would focus on “how the school district’s DEI programs contributed to the incident.â€
It’s unclear what role Bailey thinks DEI programs played in the brutal beating of the Hazelwood East High School sophomore. Neither the school district nor police have mentioned race as a factor in the fight, and they have not confirmed the race of Kaylee or her 15-year-old attacker.
Kaylee’s GoFundMe campaign had raised just under $400,000 as of Saturday afternoon.
The fight near Hazelwood East happened just four days before a student at Rose Mary Johnson Jennings Junior High School student was stabbed and killed in a fight near the school.
Justin Brooks, 14, was a “star athlete,†according to a former coach. He died at a hospital.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday evening in Jefferson City and charged with murder in his death. He has not been certified as an adult in court, so his name was not released.