ST. LOUIS – The family of Kaylee Gain, a 16-year-old girl hospitalized after a fight near Hazelwood East High School earlier this month, wants another teenager accused in the fight to be charged as an adult.

The family’s attorney, Bryan M. Kaemmerer of the law firm McCarthy, Leonard & Kaemmerer, released a statement Friday to FOX 2 that addresses more information around the fight and Gain’s condition.

One part of the statement near the end reads as follows: “Given these circumstances, the family believes trying the accused as an adult is the most appropriate way to provide the justice that Kaylee deserves.”

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A viral video shows Gain and other students fighting near Hazelwood East High School in early-March, prompting an investigation from the St. Louis County Police Department. Due to its graphic nature, FOX 2 is not showing the video.

According to a St. Louis County police spokesperson, the assault took place on Friday, March 8. Officers received word of a fight in progress just after 2:30 p.m. near the intersection of Norgate and Claudine drives, just north of the high school campus.

During the fight, Gain suffered a severe head injury. She was hospitalized and treated in an intensive care unit for nearly two weeks.

One day after the fight, police arrested a 15-year-old girl in connection with the fight. She’s being held on assault charges. She is currently charged as a juvenile.

Eight other teenagers have since been referred to the St. Louis County Family Court for their alleged involvement in the fight. The viral video shows that more than a dozen people may have witnessed it or been involved.

The statement from Gain’s family attorney confirms that she was suspended over an altercation with a different female student on March 7, one day before the off-campus fight.

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The last paragraph from the statement reads as follows: “In closing, the family wants to reiterate that they do not want any retaliation of any kind to occur toward anyone that was either directly or indirectly involved in this incident.”

The fight has been subject to national attention, recently in the form of a controversy between Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and the Hazelwood School District.

On March 22, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sent a letter to Dr. Nettie Collins-Hart, superintendent of the Hazelwood School District, and local media to notify them that his office had begun an investigation into the district’s mandated training of Hazelwood East school resource officers.

The school district is calling out Bailey for inaccuracies in the letter. An attorney for the school district is accusing the state’s top law enforcement official of using the fight between a Black student and a white student for political gain.

Authorities will not release the names of any juveniles involved in the fight unless they are certified as adults.

NOTE: Video is from FOX 2’s coverage on March 23.

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