Cheerleader’s Mom Files Wrongful Death Suit

Medford cheerleader Ashley Burns. Photo courtesy Ashleyburns.memory-of.com.

East Elite Cheer Gym, Others Named in Lawsuit

– Allison Goldsberry

Ruth Burns has filed a wrongful death lawsuit three years after her daughter, 14-year-old Medford cheerleader Ashley Burns, tragically and unexpectedly died while practicing routines with her teammates.

Burns is suing the East Elite Cheer Gym in Tewksbury, where the girls were practicing, as well as the U.S. All Star Federation for Cheer and Dance Teams and the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators, according to the Boston Herald.

It does not appears any coaches or teammates have been named in the suit.

Burns died in the summer of 2005, just before she was to become a freshman at Medford High School.  The petite Burns was often used as a flyer during cheering stunts.  She was practicing an arabesque double-twist dismount when she fell, resulting in a lacerated spleen.

Burns told the Herald she would like to “get to the bottom of” what happened that day, and that she hopes the lawsuit will lead to increased safety standards for cheerleaders, who Burns said are under increasing pressure from a profit-driven cheerleading industry to perform difficult stunts.

Burns’ attorney, Robert Bonsignore, called the cheerleading industry “out of control,” and said it was profiting by putting cheerleaders at risk of injury and death.

Ashley moved to Medford from Malden when she was three.  She took karate and figure-skating lessons before moving onto gymnastics and cheerleading.  On a memorial website created by friend Kali Welch, Burns said her daughter loved cheering and wanted to go to college.