Day on Torts
Where a cheerleader was injured while doing a shoulder sit before a football game, the ruling that there was no negligence because the supervising teacher acted with reasonable care was affirmed.
In Wherry v. Obion County Board of Education, No. W2024-00693-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. April 28, 2025), the plaintiff was a cheerleader on her school sideline cheer team. At one particular football game, the cheer coach (who was an English teacher) noticed standing water near the bleachers. She told the cheerleaders not to perform stunts in that area. The coach spoke with TSSAA officials and another adult, who confirmed that the playing surface was safe. The cheerleaders warmed up in the end zone, after which they did not report standing water and had no mud on their shoes. Nonetheless, the coach told them to limit their stunts to a shoulder sit. Immediately before the game, the cheerleaders warmed up the shoulder sit two times with no incident with the coach nearby. When it was time for the team to run onto the field, the plaintiff attempted to climb onto her base to execute a shoulder sit and fell, suffering serious injuries.
The plaintiff and her parents filed a negligence action against the county board of education, alleging that 1) the negligent acts of the coach were the cause of the plaintiff’s injuries and 2) the school district was negligent in its hiring of the coach. After a bench trial, the trial court found in favor of the defendant school board, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
While teachers “have a duty to safeguard students from reasonably foreseeable dangerous conditions,” liability does not exist for “an accident that could not have been foreseen by a reasonably prudent person.” (internal citations omitted). Considering the evidence in this case, the Court noted that the coach spoke to multiple adults about the condition of the field, did not observe any standing water or mud in the endzone, and did not see evidence of mud on the cheerleaders’ shoes. An expert testified at trial that “high school cheerleaders often perform should sits and more complicated stunts in such damp conditions.” The stunt performed was very basic, and the warmups were executed without any problems. Further, even the plaintiff testified that she “felt comfortable performing the shoulder sit prior to the accident.” Based on this evidence, the Court ruled that the plaintiff failed to establish a breach of duty by the coach. The finding for the defendant on the negligence claim was affirmed.
Regarding the negligent hiring claim, the Court pointed out that to establish such a claim, “a plaintiff must first prove all of the elements of a negligence claim.” (internal citation omitted). Because the plaintiff had not shown a breach of duty, the ruling for the defendant on this claim was also affirmed.
The evidence in this case showed that the plaintiff’s injury was quite serious. As this opinion illustrates, however, not every tragic accident will result in negligence liability.
This opinion was released 2.5 months after oral arguments in this case.