A staffer at Westside Elementary School is suing Park County School District 1 over injuries she suffered in a fall more than two years ago, with a trial set for January 2024.

Paraeducator Katie Powell says she suffered permanent injuries after slipping on a wet floor and is seeking compensation from the district. Powell — who’s being represented by attorneys Jason Johnson and Justin Kallal of Cheyenne — filed her complaint in Park County District Court in July. The school district has denied any liability for the Oct. 6, 2020 incident.

According to Powell’s complaint, “It was ‘taco day’ at Westside Elementary School and several bits of food had fallen on the floor.” She helped clean up the mess with a broom and dustpan, the complaint says, but when she returned to the spot to finish the work, she slipped on a wet floor.

The floor had been mopped by a fellow paraeducator, “but there was not a wet floor sign to be seen,” according to the suit. “Because there was not a wet floor sign, Powell was unaware that the floor had been mopped.”

The complaint charges that PCSD1 breached its duty to provide a safe facility when it failed “to warn of the wet floor and the slip hazard that it created.”

Powell says she suffered serious injuries that required surgery and “extensive” rehabilitation. She’s seeking damages for pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, permanent disability and/or disfigurement, lost wages and medical expenses.

In its answer to the complaint, filed in August, the school district generally denied each of Powell’s allegations or said it was “without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth or falsity of the allegations.”

The district’s attorney, Kevin Kessner of Sheridan, also listed six potential defenses. They include the possibility that the claim against the district was filed incorrectly and that “some, or all, of Plaintiff’s claimed injuries and/or damages may be the natural consequences of her actions or her other medical conditions and she may not receive a recovery for any such damages.”

Last week, District Court Judge Bill Simpson issued a scheduling order for the case, pencling in a four-day jury trial to start on Jan. 16, 2024.

It’s the second personal injury lawsuit to be filed against the district in recent years. In February 2021, Jennifer Morrison of Powell sued PCSD1 over a 2018 crash, in which a district school bus failed to yield the right of way on a rural road and crashed into her truck. Morrison’s vehicle went into a ditch and she reported suffering traumatic injuries to her spine, neck, shoulders and knees. That suit was settled in November 2021, before a trial was scheduled.