Belleville School District 118 argues that a spectator caused her own injuries when she allegedly fell because a cheerleader backed into her at a basketball game.
Sheila Burnett filed the complaint on March 26 against Belleville School District 118.
According to the complaint, Burnett was attending a public event on Dec. 19, 2019, when she was a spectator at her grandson’s basketball game at Westhaven School. She claims she entered the gymnasium through a designated doorway and walked across a spectator walkway, where several cheerleaders were allowed to gather. Without warning, a cheerleader allegedly backed into the plaintiff and knocked her to the ground. Burnett claims she fractured her right ankle during the fall.
Burnett alleges the defendant owed a duty to organize, maintain and safeguard its events, including the flow of people through the gymnasium to the bleachers with reasonable care and caution.
The school district is accused of failing to provide a reasonably safe egress for spectators, failing to isolate the cheerleaders from the pedestrian walkway, permitting a dangerous crowding in the walkway, failing to protect against foreseeable harms, failing to utilize a spotter, and failing to provide necessary training to coaches and cheerleaders.
The school district answered the complaint on April 22 through attorney Amy Simkins of the Law Offices of Rouse and Cary in St. Louis, denying liability.
In its affirmative defenses, the defendant argues that the plaintiff’s own negligence was the cause of any alleged injuries.
Burnett seeks a judgment in her favor of more than $50,000, plus costs.
She is represented by Lanny Darr of Darr Law Offices in Alton.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 20-L-246