The recent incident at Ardrey Kell High School, where a male and a female student, both aged 15, were involved in a physical altercation, has been surrounded by conflicting narratives from the respective families. The girl's family holds that the assault was the result of her wearing a hijab and follows a series of anti-Muslim bullying. This allegation led to a press conference on March 12 with the family and the Islamic Center of Charlotte, where they urged for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime, as reported by QC News.

However, the boy’s family refutes these claims. They argue that their son attempted to peacefully de-escalate the threats from the female student for nearly ten minutes before being forced to defend himself. “Despite his witnessed attempts to de-escalate her threatening actions for nearly ten minutes, she still chose violence — making it necessary for him to defend himself,” said the boy's family in a statement obtained by The Charlotte Observer. They emphatically deny any racial or religious factors played a part in the confrontation and insist no derogatory terms were used during the encounter.

In response to the fight that occurred on March 7, which required paramedics at the scene and resulted in the girl needing surgery for broken bones in her face, the family of the girl contested the portrayal of the event. Her family’s representative, Jibril Hough, emphasized the extent of her injuries, yet her family statement conveyed by WBTV denies that the fight had racial motivations.

Amidst this complex narrative, the male student's family maintains their stance that the altercation was solely a matter of self-defense. “While we don’t condone physical violence, we also don’t condone our son being physically assaulted by anyone,” the family shared with QC News.