Strasburger v. Board of Educ., Hardin County Community Unit School Dist. No. 1

• Decision Date: 26 June 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-1302,97-1302
• Citation: 143 F.3d 351
• Parties: 126 Ed. Law Rep. 577, 13 IER Cases 1687 Charles R. STRASBURGER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION, HARDIN COUNTY COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, Hardin County Education Association of the Illinois Education Association/National Education Association, Dan Austin, Dennis Austin, Dan Bridges, and Gerald Miller, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 351

143 F.3d 351

126 Ed. Law Rep. 577, 13 IER Cases 1687

Charles R. STRASBURGER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION, HARDIN COUNTY COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL

DISTRICT NO. 1, Hardin County Education Association of the

Illinois Education Association/National Education

Association, Dan Austin, Dennis Austin, Dan Bridges, and

Gerald Miller, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 97-1302.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Oct. 31, 1997.

Decided May 4, 1998.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied June 26, 1998.

Douglas N. Dorris (argued), Harris, Lambert, Howerton & Dorris, Marion, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Nancy F. Krent (argued), Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick & Kohn, Arlington Heights, IL, for Defendant-Appellee Board of Education, board of Education, Hardin County Community School District No. 1.

Charles A. Werner, Schuchat, Cook & Werner, St. Louis, MO, for Defendants-Appellees Hardin County education Association of the Illinois Education Association/National Education Association, Dan Austin, Dennis Austin, Dan Bridges, Gerald Miller.

Before FLAUM, EASTERBROOK, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

The Hardin County Board of Education ("School Board") terminated a teacher, Charles R. Strasburger ("Strasburger"), using a reduction-in-force procedure. Strasburger insists the reduction-in-force was pretextual and the School Board engaged in a conspiracy to dismiss him for illegitimate reasons. He sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming violations of his substantive due process liberty and property interest in employment, a violation of procedural due process, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and breach by the Hardin County Education Association ("Union") of the duty of fair representation. The district court dismissed the claim against the Union and granted summary judgment for the remaining defendants on all other claims. We affirm.

I. HISTORY

We recount the facts in the light most favorable to Strasburger. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2513-14, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The School Board hired Strasburger in 1991 as Hardin County's industrial arts teacher, athletic director, and basketball coach. Strasburger had an impressive record as a high school basketball coach. By 1991 he had coached a team to the Illinois boys' basketball championship and two other teams to the finals. He was Illinois Basketball Coach of the Year in 1988 and district coach of the year five times. His overall winning percentage was 71%. Everything seemed to be going smoothly at Hardin County until Strasburger's second year, when he disciplined one of his basketball players, angering the boy's father, Gerald Miller ("Miller"). Shortly thereafter, Miller ran for a School Board position and won. Also on the School Board were individual defendants Dan Austin, Dennis Austin, and Dan Bridges. Some of the School Board members voiced their opinion that Strasburger should be dismissed.

Around the same time, the School Board became aware that Strasburger had a criminal record. He had been charged in Kentucky some fifteen years prior with burglary, sexual abuse, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct; he was convicted only of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct and served one year in jail. After that he was not convicted of any other crimes. Accurate copies of Strasburger's criminal record began to circulate in the community. A letter derogatory to Strasburger appeared on car windshields. Rumors began to fly that Strasburger was a rapist and a danger to girls. Parents expressed their concern about Strasburger teaching their children.

On November 9, 1993, the new School Board held its first meeting. Their first official action, done in executive session, was to suspend Strasburger with pay from his coaching and athletic director duties but to allow him to continue teaching. Strasburger received no notice or opportunity to be heard regarding his suspension. The School Board's stated reason for suspending Strasburger was to investigate allegations that Strasburger was accepting illegal kickbacks from a tennis shoe company that supplied shoes to the county's athletic teams and allegations that he had entered into a contract without authorization from the School Board. The School Board also wanted to look into Strasburger's criminal past to discover whether he had any additional criminal history. During the suspension Strasburger was ordered to leave the school grounds every day at 1 p.m. and to turn in his keys. At the conclusion of the investigation, however, on December 20, 1993, the School Board reinstated Strasburger to his coaching and athletic director duties.

On March 10, 1994, the School Board conducted a reduction-in-force in accordance with Illinois procedures. Strasburger was honorably dismissed for the stated reasons that the School Board needed to conserve funds and the enrollments for his industrial arts classes were too low to justify the position. From 1981 to 1994 only one other teacher was dismissed after a reduction-in-force, and she was subsequently rehired.

Strasburger finished the year at Hardin County. In the 1994-1995 year he taught at the Carmi High School some distance from his home for lesser pay. In 1995-1996 he taught at the Shawnee Correctional Center, which is closer to his home and pays about the same as he was making in Hardin County (although the job is year-round rather than only nine months). Neither job involved athletics. He applied for six high school coaching jobs in Southern Illinois but he was not called for any interviews. He filed this suit in 1994.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review

We review a district court's decision to grant summary judgment de novo, drawing our own conclusions of law and fact from the record before us. See Thiele v. Norfolk & Western Ry. Co., 68 F.3d 179, 181 (7th Cir.1995). Summary judgment is proper where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); see also Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552-53, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). In determining whether a genuine issue of material fact exists, courts must construe all facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and draw all reasonable and justifiable inferences in favor of that party. See Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. at 2513-14. However, neither "the mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties," id. at 247, 106 S.Ct. at 2510, nor the existence of "some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts," Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1355-56, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986), is sufficient to defeat a motion for summary judgment. ¹

B. Liberty Cause of Action

To make out a violation of § 1983, a plaintiff must show that "the conduct complained of was committed by a person acting under color of state law" and "this conduct deprived a person of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States." Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 1913, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981). Although the Constitution guarantees neither liberty of occupation, Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 573, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2707, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972), nor liberty of reputation, Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 708, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 1164, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976), the Supreme Court suggested in Roth that the state infringes on an employee's liberty interests if it discharges an employee while making false charges against him, so damaging the employee that he is precluded as a practical matter from finding other government employment. Since then, we have held many times that state employees have a liberty interest in not being discharged from their employment while being defamed such that they cannot get other government employment. See, e.g., Olivieri v. Rodriguez, 122 F.3d 406, 408 (7th Cir.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 1040, 140 L.Ed.2d 106 (1998); Lashbrook v. Oerkfitz, 65 F.3d 1339, 1349 (7th Cir.1995); Wallace v. Tilley, 41 F.3d 296, 299 (7th Cir.1994); McMath v. City of Gary, 976 F.2d 1026, 1031-32 (7th Cir.1992); Johnson v. Martin, 943 F.2d 15, 16 (7th Cir.1991); Ratliff v. City of Milwaukee, 795 F.2d 612, 625 (7th Cir.1986). To prevail on this liberty cause of action, a discharged state employee must show that "(1) he was stigmatized by the defendant's conduct, (2) the stigmatizing information was publicly disclosed, and (3) he suffered a tangible loss of other employment opportunities as a result of public disclosure." Johnson, 943 F.2d at 16. Strasburger has not shown a genuine issue of material fact as to the first element. We will not address the second and third elements because the first is dispositive. Since Strasburger cannot make out a constitutional violation, he has no cause of action under § 1983.

The first element requires the employee to show that a public official made defamatory statements about him. These statements must be false assertions of fact. See, e.g., Ratliff, 795 F.2d at 625. True but stigmatizing statements that preclude further government employment do not support this type of claim. Nor do statements of opinion, even stigmatizing ones, if they do not imply false facts. We also require the statements to come from the mouth of a public official. See McMath, 976 F.2d at 1031. Rumors and statements made to public officials do not suffice. Since the remedy available to a discharged employee who proves all the elements of the cause of action is a name-clearing hearing, Codd v. Velger, 429 U.S. 624, 627, 97 S.Ct. 882, 883-84, 51 L.Ed.2d 92 (1977), the statements must be of a kind such that the discharged...