Neal v. Fulton County Board of Educ., No. 98-9612

• Decision Date: 06 October 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-9612
• Citation: 229 F.3d 1069
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2000) Durante NEAL, a minor by his next friends; Eugene NEAL, et al., Plaintiffs- Appellants, v. FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Stephen Dolinger, Superintendent, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1069

229 F.3d 1069 (11th Cir. 2000)

Durante NEAL, a minor by his next friends; Eugene NEAL, et al., Plaintiffs- Appellants, v. FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Stephen Dolinger, Superintendent, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-9612.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Oct. 6, 2000.

Oct. 18, 2000.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. (No. 98-01474-1-CV-GET), G. Ernest Tidwell, Judge.

Before EDMONDSON and MARCUS, Circuit Judges, and HANCOCK^*, District Judge.

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Durante Neal, a high school freshman and member of the varsity football team, appeals from the district court's dismissal of his complaint alleging that Tommy Ector, a high school teacher and football coach, violated his right under the Due Process Clause to be free from excessive corporal punishment. Ector allegedly struck Plaintiff with a metal weight lock, blinding him in one eye, as a form of punishment for Plaintiff's involvement in a fight with another student. The vast majority of Circuits have concluded that substantive due process principles established by the Supreme Court protect a student from corporal punishment that is intentional, obviously excessive, and creates a foreseeable risk of serious injury. Because we conclude that, on the facts alleged in this case, Plaintiff has stated a claim, we vacate the dismissal and remand for further proceedings.

I.

According to the complaint, Plaintiff was a 14-year-old freshman at Tri-Cities High School and was a member of the varsity football team. During football practice, Royonte Griffin, another player, slapped Plaintiff in the face. Plaintiff reported this incident to Coach Ector, who told Plaintiff "you need to learn how to handle your own business." Plaintiff then picked up a weight lock and put it in his gym bag. After practice was over, Griffin again approached Plaintiff. Plaintiff pulled the weight lock out of his bag, hit Griffin in the head with it, and then placed it back in his bag. The two students then began to fight.

While the two were fighting, Coach Ector and Principal Herschel Robinson were in the immediate area. Neither of them stopped the fight. Ector came over and began dumping the contents of Plaintiff's bag on the ground, shouting repeatedly "what did you hit him with; if you hit him with it, I am going to hit you with it." Ector then, in the presence of Robinson, took the weight lock and struck Plaintiff in the left eye. As a result of the blow, Plaintiff's eye "was knocked completely out of its socket," leaving it "destroyed and dismembered." According to Plaintiff, even after this blow, as Plaintiff's eye "was hanging out of his head, and as he was in severe pain," neither Coach Ector nor Principal Robinson stopped the fight.

Based on these alleged facts, Plaintiff sued Ector, Robinson, Superintendent Stephen Dolinger, and the Fulton County School Board under 42 U.S.C. 1983. Plaintiff claimed that Ector's use of corporal punishment was so excessive as to shock the conscience and violate his Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process rights. Plaintiff also claimed that the School Board, Superintendent, and Principal were liable for failing to train, instruct properly, and supervise Ector, and that this failure established a custom within the school district which resulted in the violation of Plaintiff's rights.

Defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim and lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The district court granted Defendants' motion for two reasons. The court first said that under Eleventh Circuit precedent, Ingraham v. Wright, 525 F.2d 909 (5th Cir.1976) (en banc), aff'd on other grounds, 430 U.S. 651, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977), corporal punishment does not give rise to a substantive due process claim. Moreover, said the district court, Ector's "reactive and spontaneous" conduct during a fight between students, while perhaps an assault under state law, was not corporal punishment.

II.

We review de novo the district court's order granting the Defendants' motion to dismiss. See Harper v. Blockbuster Entertainment Corp., 139 F.3d 1385, 1387 (11th Cir.1998). We accept as true the factual allegations in Plaintiff's complaint, and construe the facts in the light most favorable to the Plaintiff. See Parr v. Woodmen of World Life Ins. Co., 791 F.2d 888, 889 (11th Cir.1986). A motion to dismiss may be granted only when the defendant demonstrates " 'beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.' " Harper, 139 F.3d at 1387 (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957)).

A.

We turn first to the question of whether Ector's conduct constitutes corporal punishment. The answer to this question dictates the kind of analysis we must adopt for Plaintiff's claim.

We have not precisely defined "corporal punishment." Black's Law Dictionary 235-36 (6th ed.1991) defines it simply as "[p]hysical punishment as distinguished from pecuniary punishment or a fine; any kind of punishment inflicted on the body." The touchstone of corporal punishment in schools appears to be the application of physical force by a teacher to punish a student for some kind of school-related misconduct. See Ingraham, 430 U.S. at 661, 97 S.Ct. at 1407.

Many corporal punishment cases involve what might be called traditional applications of physical force, such as where school officials, subject to an official policy or in a more formal disciplinary setting, mete out spankings or paddlings to a disruptive student. See Saylor v. Board of Educ., 118 F.3d 507, 511 (6th Cir.1997); Fee v. Herndon, 900 F.2d 804, 806 (5th Cir.1990); Wise v. Pea Ridge Sch. Dist., 855 F.2d 560, 562 (8th Cir.1988); Garcia v. Miera, 817 F.2d 650, 653 (10th Cir.1987); Hall v. Tawney, 621 F.2d 607, 609 (4th Cir.1980). Not all corporal punishment cases arise under those circumstances, however, and may involve less traditional, more informally-administered, and more severe punishments. See London v. Directors of DeWitt Pub. Schs., 194 F.3d 873, 875 (8th Cir.1999) (school official's acts of dragging student across room and banging student's head against metal pole described as corporal punishment); P.B. v. Koch, 96 F.3d 1298, 1300 (9th Cir.1996) (school principal's conduct in hitting student in mouth, grabbing and squeezing student's neck, punching student in chest, and throwing student headfirst into lockers was corporal punishment actionable as a constitutional violation); Metzger v. Osbeck, 841 F.2d 518, 519-20 (3d Cir.1988) (school official's conduct consisting of grabbing student in chokehold and causing student to lose consciousness and fall to the pavement resulting in student breaking his nose and fracturing teeth analyzed under corporal punishment framework); Carestio v. School Bd. of Broward County, 79 F.Supp.2d 1347, 1348 (S.D.Fla.1999) (school employees' conduct in ganging up on student and beating him described as corporal punishment); Gaither v. Barron, 924 F.Supp. 134, 135-36 (M.D.Ala.1996) (teacher's head-butting of student described as corporal punishment).

With those decisions in mind, we think that, in the circumstances of this case, Ector's conduct-as alleged by Plaintiff-does amount to corporal punishment. Ector was spurred to act by Plaintiff's misconduct on school premises. Ector's intent to discipline Plaintiff for that act is evidenced by his statement to Plaintiff that "If you hit him with it, I'll hit you with it." And Ector ultimately did use physical force against Plaintiff. This case is not one where a teacher used reasonable force to restore order in the face of a school disturbance and merely shoved or grabbed fighting students to separate them. On the contrary, Ector never attempted to break up the fight between Plaintiff and Reyonte Griffin. Reading the complaint in the light most favorable to the Plaintiff, the force allegedly used by Ector was related to Plaintiff's misconduct at school and was for the purpose of discipline. As such, it constitutes corporal punishment.

B.

Having determined that Ector's conduct was corporal punishment, we turn next to the question of whether Ingraham v. Wright-the leading corporal punishment case in this Circuit-dictates the outcome of this appeal. Defendants argue, and the district court agreed, that under the former Fifth Circuit's decision in Ingraham, corporal punishment, regardless of its severity, may never give rise to a substantive due process claim. Although the former Fifth Circuit's opinion is binding precedent, we do not agree with the district court's interpretation of that case. The former Fifth Circuit's opinion does not foreclose a substantive due process claim in the circumstances alleged here.

In Ingraham, two students had been paddled and spanked by school administrators pursuant to a school policy authorizing corporal punishment. The students brought suit claiming, among other things, that the school's application of corporal punishment violated their substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The former Fifth Circuit rejected that claim, explaining that "the plaintiffs' right to substantive due process is a guaranty against arbitrary legislation, demanding that the law not be unreasonable and that the means selected shall have a real and substantial relation to the object sought to be attained." 525 F.2d at 916.

In support of its ruling, the former Fifth Circuit said that corporal punishment was not, either in concept or as authorized by the school board, "arbitrary, capricious, or wholly unrelated to the legitimate state purpose of determining its educational policy," and that "corporal punishment, as one of the means used to achieve an atmosphere which facilitates the effective transmittal of knowledge, has [a] 'real and substantial relation to the object sought to be attained'." Id. at...