Utah tennis coach dodges negligence claims over choking student

Coach Lani Wilcox is still facing civil assault and battery claims — alongside state criminal charges — stemming from when she put a student athlete in a chokehold after the student slapped her.(CN) — A federal judge found Monday a Utah high school tennis coach was acting within the scope of her employment when she choked and restrained a former student athlete after a physical altercation in 2022.U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball let Park City High School tennis coach Lani Wilcox off the hook for Genevieve Olson’s claims of negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.“Wilcox may have overzealously restrained a player who slapped her, but that does not take the conduct outside her scope of employment,” Kimball, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote. “The conduct alleged in the complaint is within Wilcox’s scope of employment. As a coach, Wilcox was performing her assigned duties, teaching tennis and supervising students on the team.”Wilcox, whom Olson sued in her individual capacity in 2025, had argued that she was immune from such lawsuits under the Utah Government Immunity Act. Kimball agreed.“No matter how Olson frames her argument, the injuries for each of Olson’s claims arise out of, or in connection to, the allegedly deliberate physical conduct that harmed Olson,” he wrote.Olson’s claims of battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Wilcox, however, remain intact.According to Olson, she was told in August 2022 she would be downgraded from a varsity doubles team to singles junior varsity. Upset, Olson, then a minor, says that she went to the restroom to compose herself, but when she returned, Wilcox reportedly berated her, threatened to kick her off the team and advanced at her aggressively.Olson says she feared for her safety and slapped Wilcox. The coach put the student in a chokehold — which Olson says restricted her ability to breathe, causing physical pain and emotional distress — and took her cell phone, she says in her complaint.Kimball also dismissed civil rights claims against Wilcox and the Park City School District, but allowed Olson to amend those, unlike the negligence claims, which were dismissed with prejudice.“Olson’s complaint makes sweeping claims alleging neglect, abuse and inhumane treatment along with a list of seven (now pared down to three) constitutional amendments allegedly violated,” he wrote. “But the complaint does not state which facts support which claims.”Kimball also didn’t find traction with Olson’s claim the school district engaged in pattern or policy of ignoring or downplaying misconduct.“In attempting to demonstrate a custom, policy, or practice of Park City School District, Olson must demonstrate not just a pattern of use of physical restraint by coaches and teachers, but a pattern of the use of physical restraint in a manner that was outside of that which was expressly allowed by law," he wrote. “Olson’s allegations are too vague to withstand dismissal.”The judge also noted that Utah law allowed school employees to use reasonable physical restraint to protect students or others at the time the incident occurred.Wilcox, who is partially represented by the Utah Attorney General’s Office and the Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office, is also facing state criminal charges for aggravated child abuse and interfering with the use of a communication device in Utah’s Third Judicial District.The criminal charges were initially dismissed in 2023, but the Utah Supreme Court reversed the dismissal and remanded the case last year after it found Wilcox’s belief that Olson posed an imminent threat to others was not objectively reasonable.A spokesperson for either party did not respond to requests for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads