Hoeppner v. Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center, Inc.
| Citation | 31 F.3d 9 |
| Decision Date | 04 April 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-2201,93-2201 |
| Parties | 65 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 841, 65 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,267, 93 Ed. Law Rep. 481 Donna HOEPPNER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CROTCHED MOUNTAIN REHABILITATION CENTER, INC., Defendant-Appellee. . Heard |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit) |
Vincent C. Martina, Amherst, NH, for appellant.
James W. Donchess, with whom Wiggin & Nourie P.A., Manchester, NH, was on brief, for appellee.
Before TORRUELLA, CYR and BOUDIN, Circuit Judges.
This action involves a retaliatory discharge claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2. Plaintiff-Appellant, Donna Hoeppner, alleges that she was fired because she reported several incidents of sexual harassment to her employer. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Hoeppner's employer and we affirm.
Defendant-Appellee, Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center, Inc. ("CMRC"), is a nonprofit school for the instruction and rehabilitation of multiply handicapped children and young adults. Hoeppner was employed as a special education teacher at CMRC from September 1989 until November 9, 1990. Hoeppner was in charge of a classroom at the school throughout her term of employment. She was aided by several teacher assistants ("TAs"), who normally rotated through different classrooms over periods of three to six months.
Beginning in December of 1989, several TAs complained to CMRC administrators about Hoeppner's management of her classroom and about Hoeppner's poor communication with, and supervision of, the TAs. Hoeppner contests the validity and genuineness of some of these complaints, and questions the existence of others, but does not dispute that some complaints were made about her prior to her discharge and prior to her report of sexual harassment. There is also no dispute that CMRC placed Hoeppner on probation for ninety days in August of 1990. Subsequently, on November 1, 1990, Hoeppner reported several incidents of sexual harassment by one of her TAs. On November 9, 1990, three days after the expiration of her probationary period, CMRC discharged Hoeppner on the ground that Hoeppner had allegedly failed to make suggested improvements in her classroom during the probationary period. Hoeppner maintains that this ground is merely a pretext for the real reason underlying her termination: Hoeppner's report of sexual harassment. Before we address whether this allegation can survive summary judgment, we briefly recount the evidence concerning these events in more detail.
CMRC's Principal, Barbara Cohen, and its Assistant Principal, Archibald Campbell, state in affidavits that they received complaints about Hoeppner's supervision of her classroom on several occasions. Cohen attests that in December of 1989, she met with Hoeppner's TAs to discuss problems between the TAs and Hoeppner. Cohen claims that TAs Diana Velez and Jennifer Roy complained to her in January about the way Hoeppner was treating them in the classroom.
A meeting between Hoeppner, Cohen, and Hoeppner's TAs was held on January 20, 1990. Cohen maintains that the meeting was specifically scheduled for the purpose of discussing the TAs' concerns about Hoeppner. In her affidavit, Hoeppner claims that the meeting was a routine afterschool discussion of classroom matters at which Cohen solicited corrective suggestions from the TAs. Even according to Hoeppner's account, however, the TAs "talked basically at me" and TA Velez stated at the meeting that Hoeppner was not providing Velez with sufficient feedback.
Hoeppner's first performance evaluation for the period of September 11, 1989, through December 11, 1989, was completed on February 12, 1990. Cohen met with Hoeppner on February 24 to discuss the evaluation. The evaluation rated Hoeppner's overall performance as fully satisfactory, although it noted several problems with her classroom management abilities. Under a category entitled "Developing and Motivating Subordinates," for example, the evaluation stated that Hoeppner's "personal relationships with teacher assistants have been strained" and that Hoeppner needed to be more open to input from the TAs. Hoeppner signed the evaluation and remembers discussing it with Cohen. She alleges, however, that the negative comments were untrue and fabricated.
Meanwhile, Assistant Principal Campbell claims that TAs Heidi Beetcher and James LaBelle complained sometime in July of 1990 about the way Hoeppner was treating them. Campbell and Cohen subsequently scheduled a meeting for July 31, 1990, to discuss the problems. Sometime prior to this meeting, Hoeppner alleges that she reported both Beetcher and LaBelle to CMRC for a variety of inappropriate conduct, including physical abuse of students, administering unauthorized medications, and tardiness.
The July 31 meeting was attended by Cohen, Campbell, Hoeppner, and TAs Beetcher and LaBelle. Cohen wrote an extensive memorandum documenting her version of the various complaints about Hoeppner that were raised at the meeting. Cohen concluded in the memorandum that Hoeppner Hoeppner does not dispute Cohen's account of the meeting, nor does she dispute that Beetcher and LaBelle complained about her supervision of the classroom. Rather, Hoeppner alleges that Beetcher and LaBelle fabricated their complaints in retaliation for Hoeppner's prior act of reporting the two TAs to CMRC administrators for misconduct and abusing students.
CMRC placed Hoeppner on probation on August 8, 1990. Cohen met with Hoeppner the next day to discuss the reasons for the probation and the applicable terms and consequences of the ninety-day probationary period. At the meeting, Cohen presented Hoeppner with the "Disciplinary Action Form" documenting the probation. The form states that the probation resulted from Hoeppner's failure to properly supervise and communicate with her TAs. The form also listed five changes involving Hoeppner's classroom management practices that "must be made" by Hoeppner to improve her behavior. The form concluded with the statement: "If behavior does not improve, further disciplinary action may/will be taken: Up to and including termination." Hoeppner signed the form but did not write anything in the space for employee comments. Hoeppner objects to the validity of the assertions contained in the form and alleges that CMRC placed her on probation as a threat to stop Hoeppner from reporting abuse of students and otherwise "making waves" at the school.
Cohen states in her affidavit that Hoeppner's performance did not improve during the probationary period. She states that another TA, Pam Flannery, complained to her about Hoeppner's classroom management and supervision on October, 31, 1990. Flannery signed a statement containing the details of her complaints, including allegations that Hoeppner's intimate relationship with another one of her TAs, Glenn Loucks, now espoused to Hoeppner, was causing trouble in the classroom. Cohen states that Flannery indicated that the classroom was in chaos. Hoeppner claims that the CMRC administration solicited Flannery's statement while it was pressuring Flannery to stay away from the union which Glenn Loucks and others were trying to organize at CMRC. Hoeppner alleges that Flannery signed the statement to save her job and the statement is thus of dubious validity. Mark Pierce, a Residential Counselor at CMRC, makes the same allegation as Hoeppner in his affidavit. 1
Meanwhile, CMRC Education Staff Development Chair, Pamela Shea, states in an affidavit that she spoke with Hoeppner in early November (Cohen indicates that Shea informed her of this conversation on November 1) and determined that the situation in Hoeppner's classroom was chaotic and out of control.
On November 1, 1990, Hoeppner first reported several incidents of sexual harassment to CMRC. Hoeppner informed Assistant Principal Campbell that one of her TAs, Shane Waters, had made several sexually inappropriate overtures toward her, including touching her breasts from behind, placing his crotch three inches from her face, and rubbing her back. Campbell and Cohen spoke with Waters on several occasions between November 2 and November 5, 1992. Waters gave a somewhat different account of the incidents and denied that any of his actions had sexual connotations. Campbell and Cohen told Waters that sexual harassment was not acceptable and that Waters should not do anything that could be interpreted by Hoeppner as sexual harassment. Neither Cohen nor Campbell took any administrative action against Waters nor did they conduct any further investigation of the incident beyond their conversations with Waters. Hoeppner claims that despite promising a full investigation, the CMRC administration did nothing and never informed her of what they would do, or had done, about the incidents.
CMRC discharged Hoeppner on November 9, 1990, three days after her probationary period ended and eight days after she reported the incidents of sexual harassment. According to the final performance evaluation written by Cohen upon Hoeppner's discharge, Hoeppner continued to have problems with her staff and did not improve her supervision and management of the classroom, as required by the terms of Hoeppner's probation. In deposition testimony, Hoeppner stated that she did not change her behavior in response to the criticisms leveled by Cohen in the Disciplinary Action Form accompanying Hoeppner's probation because Hoeppner did not feel that the criticisms were valid. Hoeppner does claim, however, that she did make changes in response to the particular needs of individual TAs and that, in general, she did improve her performance.
Hoeppner maintains that there were no significant problems...
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