The family of a Missouri school girl who was badly beaten earlier this month says she is out of her coma — and out of the intensive care unit.
“Kaylee is now out of the intensive care unit, and in the past few days Kaylee has been able to engage in limited verbal conversations,” her parents said in a statement released by their lawyer cited by St. Louis’ KSDK.
“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,” they added. “However, Kaylee does not have any recollection of the altercation that led to her hospitalization.”
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Earlier, her mother had written on a fundraising site that her daughter “still has an incredibly long journey ahead of her,” which seemed hardly less true a week later.
“[T]he family believes trying the accused as an adult is the most appropriate way to provide the justice that Kaylee deserves,” the statement said, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
The Gain family said such a trial was appropriate “”given the particularly violent nature of this assault, and also taking into account the devastating injuries that Kaylee has incurred,” even though her accused attacker, Maurnice DeClue, was only 15.
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Because of her age, authorities had not publicly identified DeClue, KSDK noted.
However, DeClue’s parents issued what the outlet described as “an open letter” Thursday, in what seemed to be an attempt to defend DeClue’s character and reputation.
Should Kaylee Gain's attacker be tried as an adult?
“This is not about racism,” she told KSDK. “This is about two girls having a fight.”
Family friend Sarah Hall, who started a GoFundMe to support the Gain family, wrote on that site that Kaylee Gain had been admitted to a St. Louis hospital “with a skull fracture and frontal lobe damage.”
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At the time, she had been diagnosed with “major brain bleeding and swelling and is in critical condition,” Hall wrote then.
“Kaylee is fighting hard to stay alive and heal but this is only the beginning of a very uphill battle for Kaylee and her family,” she wrote.
Ten days later, mom April Gain wrote an update there, saying that Kaylee had been moved from the ICU and was considered to be in “stable” condition.
“She still has an incredibly long journey ahead of her but she is strong,” she wrote.
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The GoFundMe, started three days after the fight on March 12, crossed the $400,000 threshold early Saturday morning.
It was seeking to raise a total of half a million dollars to help cover “lost wages and piling up medical bills.”
“He is risen! He is risen indeed!”
Christians around the world will give that call and response this Sunday as we remind each other of Jesus Christ’s resurrection after his death on a cruel cross 2,000 years ago.
So why are you seeing that greeting in an email from a news and politics site? For two reasons.
First, we’re one of the only news organizations in America that is completely closed on Easter Sunday, so we want to send you Easter greetings early.
Second, the Christian beliefs that compel us to close on Easter are the same Christian beliefs that Big Tech and others hate us for and are trying to put us out of business over.
In a very real way, you our readers are the only ones standing between us and their desire to silence us for defending objective truth, traditional American values and Judeo-Christian ethics.
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Please help us to continue fulfilling that charge — help us stand strong against the world and for goodness, decency and most of all Truth.
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George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of "WJ Live," powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in English as well as a Master's in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
