ST. LOUIS, Missouri — The family of Kaylee Gain said she's started speaking again and is starting to walk with medical assistance.
"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 through their lawyer. "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. However, Kaylee does not have any recollection of the altercation that led to her hospitalization."
Reports of her incremental recovery comes three weeks after another 15-year-old teenage girl was charged with assaulting her in north St. Louis County about half a mile from where they attended school at Hazelwood East High School. The entire incident between the two girls lasted just 12 seconds after the first punch was thrown.
Now, after viral videos and a political firestorm attracted floods of misinformation online, both families are going public to provide more context around the violent incident and what it means for the teens involved.
Gain's family says they want 15-year-old Maurnice DeClue charged as an adult "given the particularly violent nature of this assault, and also taking into account the devastating injuries that Kaylee has incurred...."
Officials had not publicly identified DeClue before now, but her family issued an open letter on Thursday night "to address the misconceptions surrounding Maurnice's character," highlighting her honor roll status, proficiency in four languages, and that she played volleyball and violin in school orchestra.
Gain's parents say they "take issue" with those public comments, and call for DeClue to be charged as an adult, citing screenshots of deleted social media posts they were unable to verify.
Similar images reviewed by 5 On Your Side in recent weeks appeared to come from social media accounts that do not currently exist. Bryan Kaemmerer, the attorney for Gain's family, acknowledged he wasn't sure if the inflammatory posts were legitimate, but still published them in a letter under his law firm's letterhead and attributed them to DeClue. Such accusations would not be welcome in a court of law without verifiable evidence.
Meanwhile, DeClue's mom and dad, 66-year-old Consuella and 67-year-old Ronald DeClue, have been making visits to see her while she's being held in juvenile custody.
In a Friday phone call, they tell 5 On Your Side their daughter was "dismayed to hear" Gain was in a coma for so long, and relieved to hear about her recent improvements because, "she wants to apologize."
"I just feel for my daughter," DeClue's mother said. "She's not a troublemaker, she's not a bully."
"Maurnice was not the aggressor," she said. "This had manifested over a three-month period. My daughter was focused on her education, and I don't know... maybe they thought she was a nerd."
According to DeClue, police investigators have compiled copies of Instagram messages that included menacing threats to Maurnice.
"My daughter said she blacked out during the fight. I didn't know she was being bullied," Consuella DeClue said. "I would have pulled her out of school."
Media literacy experts said viral videos and posts on social media fueled a "rush to judgment," and likely contributed to this unusual circumstance where the families of teenage girls are going public with letters that are either loaded with innuendo and accusation, or read much like a character reference letter someone might write to a judge before sentencing.
"Social media platforms can cause people to rush to judgment," communications professor Julie Smith said.
Smith teaches media literacy in the digital age at Webster University, where she instructs students to be aware of the profit motives inherent in social media platforms.
"Careful, methodical and thorough do not exist on social media platforms," Smith said. "One of the things that I think is an issue is that we all move so fast. We are not only quick to judge, but we are constantly scrolling. Patience makes nobody any money."
She said the desire to drive clicks and views can also dull someone's judgment or alter their behavior in the real world.
"Their first reaction was to get out their phone and film it, rather than try to help," Smith said about the March 8 incident where at least eight other teens have also been charged. "What does that say about us as a society, that we're more likely to film something rather than actually help?"
She also explained why things can spread so quickly, especially when consumers feel an urge to show their online followers what they discovered before someone else did. She called that "performative sharing."
"When you're in that frame of mind, that performative sharing frame of mind, you're less likely to check things for authenticity, you're less likely to critically evaluate the message because you just want to push it out there," she said.
She said when you only have fragments of a story, shocking snippets or unverified clues, there's a lot you can get wrong. She pointed to recent hysteria and wild speculation about Princess Kate Middleton as a prime example.
"There's this vacuum of information, and so that's where the conspiracy theories fill in."
DeClue's mother seemed confused about one of those errant claims from Missouri's Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who incorrectly assumed no security guards were present inside the school, and wrongly tried to link their absence and the subsequent fight to the school board's embrace of a diversity, equity, and inclusion program.
"You know, I never even heard about it," she said about DEI. "This is not about racism. This is about two girls having a fight."