Doe v. Rains County Independent School Dist.

• Decision Date: 03 October 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-41113,94-41113
• Citation: 66 F.3d 1402
• Parties: , 103 Ed. Law Rep. 918 John DOE and Jane Doe, as Next Friend of Sarah Doe, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. RAINS COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants, Dana White, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1402

66 F.3d 1402

64 USLW 2218, 103 Ed. Law Rep. 918

John DOE and Jane Doe, as Next Friend of Sarah Doe Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. RAINS COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants Dana White, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 94-41113.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Oct. 3, 1995.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 31, 1995.

Thomas P. Brandt, Sharis L. Hauder, Fanning, Harper & Martinson, Dallas, TX, Paul M. Boyd, Foley & Boyd, P.C., Tyler, TX, for appellants.

Derrell Anthony Coleman, Austin, TX, for amicus curiae, Texas Classroom Teachers "TCTA".

David M. Feldman, Richard A. Morris, Feldman & Associates, Houston, TX, for amicus, the Texas Association of School Boards, et al.

Pam Parker Knight, Austin, TX, for amicus, Association of Texas Professional Educators.

Deboron B. Junek, Augustus William Arnold, III, Benton Barton, Gwin & Roby, Dallas, TX, for appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Before REYNALDO G. GARZA, KING and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges.

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from yet another tragic instance of a high school coach's alleged sexual abuse of a student. It brings a difficult issue testing limits of federal judicial authority: whether a school teacher's breach of a state-law duty to report child abuse can, by itself, give rise to a federal claim against the teacher under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. The parents of Sarah Doe allege that Dana White, a school teacher, caused Sarah to be deprived of rights protected under state law and the federal constitution when White failed to report her discovery of Sarah's sexual abuse within forty-eight hours as required by Texas law. See Tex.Fam.Code Ann. Sec. 34.01-34.02. White appeals from the district court's denial of her motion for summary judgment, in which she asserted qualified immunity. We do not reach the issue of qualified immunity. We conclude that because White's breach of her duty under Texas law to report child abuse was not under color of state law, the Does failed to state a claim under Sec. 1983 against White. We reverse and order dismissal of the suit against White.

I.

A.

The Does argue that the sole issue before us is the district court's denial of White's motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds, and that we therefore lack authority to review the ruling below that the Does have stated a claim against White. This argument is without merit. When reviewing a district court's rejection of a defendant's assertion of qualified immunity, we start by asking whether plaintiffs have alleged a violation of a clearly established constitutional right. Blackwell v. Barton, 34 F.3d 298, 301 (5th Cir.1994). Thus, before reaching the qualified immunity question, we "first resolve the constitutional question--that is, whether [plaintiffs have] stated a claim for a violation of a right secured to [them] under the United States Constitution." Duckett v. City of Cedar Park, 950 F.2d 272, 278 (5th Cir.1992) (citing Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 1793, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991)). In deciding whether the Does have stated a claim against White, we accept as true the facts as alleged by the Does.

B.

In September 1990, David Siepert resigned from his teaching and coaching position with the Lake Dallas Independent School District, amid allegations that he was sexually involved with a student of his who had been babysitting for him. In August 1991, with the help of Arthur Talkington, a former Lake Dallas colleague who was employed with RISD, Siepert obtained a coaching position at Rains High School in RISD. From the start of his employment with RISD, Siepert developed a reputation for acting inappropriately toward female students. Reports of his misbehavior indicated, for example, that Siepert summoned female students from class early to wrap ankles or wrists for athletics, talked in front of students about dating high school students, and massaged a female student while alone with her in the gym.

During the fall of 1991, while fifteen-year-old Sarah Doe was a student in Siepert's physical education class, Siepert contacted Sarah at school about babysitting for him. Not long after Sarah began babysitting for Siepert's two children, Siepert began making sexual advances toward her. Siepert eventually began having sexual intercourse with Sarah on a regular basis throughout the 1991-1992 school year, typically at his home while Sarah was "babysitting." ¹ Siepert, though, did not limit his interaction with Sarah to his home. He often discussed babysitting arrangements with Sarah at school, drove Sarah from school to his home when she was scheduled to babysit, and gave gifts to her while in his car or at school. In addition, Siepert had physical contact with Sarah during his physical education class; for example, he would request Sarah's assistance in putting away athletic equipment, then grab her hands and buttocks while they were alone in the equipment room. Although this in-school contact ended with the arrival of summer vacation, Siepert's requests for babysitting assistance did not.

Dana White entered the scene during the summer of 1992. White was employed as a junior high school teacher with RISD from August 1982 until June 1993, during which time she was certified as a teacher in Texas and paid monthly pursuant to her teaching contract with RISD. On June 22, 1992, White found out that Siepert was having sexual relations with Sarah. On that date, Sarah called White from Siepert's home, where Sarah was babysitting, to ask for advice about a condom leak. White suspected that Sarah might be having problems of a sexual nature with the adult for whom she was babysitting, but did not know his identity until Sarah indicated that she was babysitting for Siepert. White immediately went to Siepert's home to talk with Sarah in person, at which time Sarah revealed the details of her ongoing sexual affair with Siepert. White chose not to report Siepert's abuse of Sarah at that time. ²

Although Sarah made efforts to terminate her involvement with Siepert, she continued to babysit for him intermittently throughout the summer and into the fall of 1992. On November 5, 1992, Sarah visited White's classroom to complain about her frustration with Siepert. Sarah told White that Siepert had been making Sarah feel guilty about turning down babysitting assignments, and that he had told Sarah that he was interested in dating her. White discussed Sarah's problem with her brother, her husband, and an attorney, but again declined to report the abuse to the proper authorities. From November 5 through November 12, 1992, White and other school teachers and officials had various conversations regarding Sarah's abuse; however, a proper report was not made until November 12. ³

Jane and John Doe brought this civil rights suit asserting state and federal claims on behalf of Sarah against Siepert, White, RISD, and certain other RISD teachers and officials. The Does allege that the defendants violated, inter alia, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by causing Sarah to be deprived of her liberty interest in bodily integrity. The Does sued White in her individual and official capacities, asserting that White, by exhibiting deliberate indifference to Sarah's constitutional rights in breaching her duty under Texas law to report Sarah's abuse, caused Sarah's deprivation under color of state law. White moved for summary judgment, arguing that the Does had failed to state a claim against her in her official capacity, and that she was entitled to qualified immunity in her individual capacity. The district court granted summary judgment for White in her official capacity, but denied her motion as to her individual capacity. White appeals this denial of summary judgment on her qualified immunity claim, asserting that the Does have failed to state a Sec. 1983 claim against her, and that in any event she is entitled to qualified immunity.

II.

A.

To state a claim under Sec. 1983, plaintiffs must allege two elements: first, that they were deprived of a right or interest secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and second, that the deprivation occurred under color of state law. See West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 2254, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988). ⁴ Where an asserted interest is protected by a constitutional provision that operates only against the State, such as those of the Fourteenth Amendment, plaintiffs must also allege state action to satisfy the first step of alleging an actionable deprivation. See Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 930, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 2750, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982). Hence, in alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the under color of state law requirement of Sec. 1983 is usually overlapped by an allegation of state action made in asserting the constitutional violation. The Fourteenth Amendment's state action requirement may be nominally distinct from Sec. 1983's under color of state law requirement, but the two inquiries are related; a showing of state action is sufficient to establish action under color of state law, id. at 935 & n. 18, 102 S.Ct. at 2752 & n. 18, and "it is clear that in a Sec. 1983 action brought against a state official, the statutory requirement of action 'under color of state law' and the 'state action' requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment are identical," id. at 929, 102 S.Ct. at 2749. Accordingly, in Sec. 1983 suits alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, we have collapsed the state action and color of state law inquiries into a single, second step: Plaintiffs must (1) assert a protected "liberty or property" interest and (2) show that they were deprived of that interest under color of state law. See Doe v. Taylor Indep. Sch. Dist., 15 F.3d 443, 450 (5th Cir.1994) (en banc), cert. denied, Lankford...