RICHMOND, Va. -- The family of a United States Postal Service worker who was injured in the fallout of a series of fights after a Highland Springs High School pep rally on Friday said he is making slow, but steady improvements.
"I'm overjoyed that the recovery is -- it's not as slow as I thought it would be, you know. Thank God," said Jazzie Young about her older brother, Marvin Young. "I'm just praying, we can just -- he can pull through and 100% recovery."
Young was in his mail truck Friday in a strip mall near Highland Springs High School when one of several fights following the pep rally, broke out. Crime Insider sources said a mother of one of the children there was rushing to the scene and hit Marvin's vehicle, knocking it on its side and tossing him out of it.
Jazzie said she then rushed to the hospital to be at her brother's side and learned of the various injuries he suffered.
"Brain injury, broken rib, collapsed lung, broken bones in his face. Two places in his spine is broken as well," said Jazzie, but she added Marvin has already shown signs of healing.
"He opened his eyes of yesterday for the first time when my mom was playing, like, a sermon just to give him encouraging words to his spirit. And he -- my mom said, he sat up, looked directly at her, turned his head to her, opened his eyes, and, like, went back down."
Jazzie said Marvin has worked for USPS for five years and is the father of two young boys whom she said are his pride and joy.
"He's a lovable guy. He loves his kids. He's definitely a father figure. Definitely a father guy. He loves his babies, he loves his family," said Jazzie. "He's the kind of guy that would do for you before he does for himself."
The driver who hit Marvin was charged with reckless driving. Jazzie said while they will follow what happens to her in court, she said the family has forgiven her and remains focused on Marvin.
"We're not mad, but we just want to take care of him and whatever consequences may come -- that's just what it is for us."
Jazzie said they have set up a GoFundMe to help with medical costs, while her church is accepting donations like clothes and diapers to help his children.
Highland Springs High School Response
As for the fights that sparked all of this, Highland Springs High School Principal Dr. Kenneth White said they have identified most of those involved in it.
"The young people who did choose to, you know, kind of, go on the physical altercation side, we have identified those young people and are issuing out consequences that we feel are appropriate for the magnitude of what this incident was," said White, who added the fights stemmed from social media beefs that spilled out into the real world. "Quite honestly, if I could be candid, it was petty. It was something that was, you know, something that did not need this level of energy and/or response."
White said he did not plan to cancel future pep rallies as a result of what happened, but they would be focused on preventing it from happening again.
"90% of my young people do exactly what you asked them to do every single day and those are the students who don't get reflected. And in situations like this, we will not make a knee-jerk reaction to not have pep rallies. We will make sure that we go back and review every piece of our logistical operations that we have when we do pep rallies," said White.
"One thing that we are looking at specifically doing is just looking at our transitions and making sure that we have proper people placement and being sure that we're in the right spots to support our young people as they leave out of our gym or wherever the pep rally may be."
But White also called on the broader community to help make the message clear to students.
"We're here to support young people to help move them across the stage. When we have our entire village behind us supporting us, that makes the difference," said White. "But, we do need all of our folks in our community -- whether you are a grandparent, father, mother, cousin, aunt -- holding young people accountable. It goes beyond the school and we have to make sure that we are working together as a family and as a village, support these young people as best as possible."
Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for in-depth coverage of this important local story. Anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
SHARE on social media to SPREAD the WORD!
