Couture v. Board of Educ. of Albuquerque Pub. Sch.

• Decision Date: 07 August 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-2133.,07-2133.
• Citation: 535 F.3d 1243
• Parties: Jennifer COUTURE, individually and as mother and next friend of M.C., a minor child, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Pat Willis, Joe Flippo and Jacqueline Brady, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

535 F.3d 1243

Jennifer COUTURE, individually and as mother and next friend of M.C., a minor child, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the ALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Pat Willis, Joe Flippo and Jacqueline Brady, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 07-2133.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

August 7, 2008.

Brian K. Nichols, (Michael L. Carrico, with him on the briefs), Modrall, Sperling, Roehl, Harris & Sisk, P.A., Albuquerque, NM, for Defendants-Appellants.

Gail Stewart, (Laurel Nesbitt, with her on the briefs), Steven Granberg, P.A., Albuquerque, NM, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before McCONNELL, SEYMOUR and GORSUCH, Circuit Judges.

McCONNELL, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff in this case, M.C.,¹ is a young child who suffers from severe emotional and mental health problems. During the relevant time period these problems manifested themselves in repeated outbursts in which he threatened, and at times assaulted, teachers and students. In 2002, when he was six years old, he was placed in a special education program at the Governor Bent Elementary School. School officials worked with his mother, Jennifer Couture, to develop an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The plan included a "behavior management system" designed to teach M.C. to control his dangerous outbursts. In addition to implementing clear and strict rules, the system permitted teachers to place M.C. in supervised timeouts when his behavior became disruptive.

Despite the small class size and personal attention M.C. received, his behavior did not improve, and, at times, it deteriorated. M.C. frequently interrupted class and often made it impossible for the teachers to instruct the other students. When they could not control his behavior, the teachers placed him in timeout until he calmed down for a period of at least five minutes. The appropriateness of these timeouts, and the characteristics of the timeout room, are the central issues in this suit.

Ms. Couture brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, individually and on behalf of M.C., against the Board of Education of Albuquerque Public Schools (APS), Ms. Brady (the teacher), Mr. Flippo (the principal), and Ms. Willis, (the school psychologist). In addition to other claims not before us today, she argued that the defendants' use of the timeout room violated M.C.'s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures and his Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural and substantive due process. The three individual defendants filed a motion contending that they were entitled to qualified immunity, which the district court denied. We disagree with the district court and find that qualified immunity protects all three individuals from liability. We reverse the decision of the district court and remand for dismissal on the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claims.

I. Facts

Following a difficult turn in a public school kindergarten classroom and a rocky start to first grade, the Albuquerque Public School system determined that M.C. was "emotionally disturbed" and therefore eligible for special educational services. In October of 2002, his mother, Ms. Jennifer Couture, met with a multidisciplinary team composed of APS officials to develop M.C.'s Individualized Educational Plan (IEP). This document, a product of consultation between the student's family and experienced professionals at the school, established the blueprint for his education, and must be followed by the student's teachers and educational assistants. At the meeting, the team identified some of the problematic behavior he displayed:

M.C. is defiant, uncooperative, argumentative, and aggressive. He throws things, does not do what is asked of him, sits under the table, plays with inappropriate things, isolates himself, and cuts up things.... M.C. is inattentive, has poor peer relations, argues, and is oppositional. M.C. is continually defiant; he tries his best to be oppositional.... M.C.'s first grade teacher reports the following specific behaviors of concern: defiance, angry aggression, lack of attention, lack of interest, and unhappiness ... The children stay away from him with some children being scared. He cannot sit at tables with other children because he talks, bothers them, and threatens other children.

Id. at 466. To address these concerns and to "help [M.C.] receive an appropriate education," the team formulated a "Behavior Intervention Plan" IEP targeted toward improving M.C.'s behavior, social skills, and academics. Id. The teachers were to establish "clear rules with consistent implementation of consequences, home/school communication, supervised time out, and therapeutic deescalation techniques by trained personnel." Id. (emphasis added). The teachers also agreed to report home to Ms. Couture daily. Ms. Couture signed that she "agree[d] with the recommendations of the Individualized Education Program Team and [gave] permission for [her] child to receive the recommended services." Id. at 473.

On October 28, 2002, M.C. was placed in Ms. Jacqueline Brady's special education classroom in the Governor Bent Elementary School. The classroom had no more than eight students in it at a time, but M.C. still received special, one-on-one attention from educational assistant Wendy Orr. Despite the instructors' use of both positive reinforcement techniques and intervention tools such as rewards, "ignoring misbehavior, visual contact, verbal comments, warnings, physical proximity, talking with [M.C.], and touching," M.C. continued to struggle with his anger management problems. App. 589. Ms. Brady reported that "[e]very day [M.C.] would mock and mimic other children." Id. He frequently used profanity. He threatened to kill other children, "hit or kicked his chair," and "regularly shoved his desk against the wall." Id. at 590. He also threatened his teachers, yelling things such as: "You're dead. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to throw hot oil on you and kill you." App. 596; District Ct. Op. at 3. Occasionally, he engaged in physical violence, for example punching the assistant in the stomach and kicking her in the shin. App. 597. Unsurprisingly, this behavior had an adverse effect on the rest of the students.

Because the interventions and positive reinforcement techniques failed, and in accordance with the prescription of "supervised time out" as part of M.C.'s Behavioral Intervention Plan, Ms. Brady used timeouts to help M.C. calm down. When M.C.'s behavior became disruptive, Ms. Brady or Ms. Orr would ask him whether he needed a timeout at his desk, in the timeout chair, or in the timeout room. These strategies sometimes worked. Self-timeouts was not always effective, however, and the teachers often had to force M.C. into the timeout room if he "bec[a]me violent, a threat to himself or to others," or if he demonstrated "[a]ggressive behavior either to himself ... or aggressiveness toward other children...." Dist. Ct. Op. at 4. In addition to using the timeout room as a deescalation technique, the teachers occasionally placed M.C. in it when he was not "following directions to begin work...." Id. To be released from the timeout room, M.C. had to remain calm and silent for five minutes. Sometimes M.C. immediately calmed down, but often his behavior grew worse in the timeout room, and he would scream and kick or throw himself against the door. Dist. Ct. Op. at 7. The teachers often had to hold the door shut. Ms. Couture received daily reports documenting M.C.'s day; these reports contained some, but not all, of the factual details of the timeouts.

Ms. Couture eventually saw the timeout room while visiting the classroom. She described it as "very small" with "carpeting, but no padding on the walls. Nothing in it. Just carpet on the floor. It had a very dim light. There was black construction paper over the window, completely covering the window. You could not see in there unless you either moved the paper or took it off the window." App. 259. The district court's summary of the factual record is more nuanced: while at times, the teachers covered the window so that M.C. could not "antagonize" teachers and students through it and barricaded the door to prevent M.C. from shoving his way out of the room, generally, the timeout room complied with the standards set forth by the Albuquerque Public Schools. Dist. Ct. Op. at 5-6. "The room was lighted and empty, the room did not have a lock on the door, and teaching staff were able to see into the room through a shatter-proof window in the door." Id. at 5.

On November 19, 2004, Ms. Couture initiated an administrative action pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) against the Albuquerque Public Schools and the defendants, in both their official and individual capacities.² The complaint is not entirely clear as to which claims applied to which defendants, but it asserted violations under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794, the IDEA, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1400-1482, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12132. Ms. Couture claimed that M.C. was denied a free appropriate education (FAPE), and was discriminated against on the basis of a disability, because the defendants failed to: (1) consider M.C.'s eligibility as a student with a specific learning disability; (2) document the decision not to classify him as a student with a learning disability; (3) provide special education consistent with the existence of a learning disability; and (4) write or implement an IEP reasonably calculated to meet M.C.'s needs as a child with a disability. Pertinent to this appeal, she also claimed that the district discriminated against M.C. by "[s]anctioning or ignoring ongoing inappropriate reliance upon timeouts and physical restraint as strategies in an educational setting when such strategies would not be tolerated if directed at non-disabled children." App. 484. Because she was moving out of the district, the hearing officer limited...