Immediato v. Rye Neck School Dist.
| Citation | 73 F.3d 454 |
| Decision Date | 02 January 1996 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 189,189 |
| Parties | , 106 Ed. Law Rep. 85 Daniel IMMEDIATO, Diane Immediato, and Eugene Immediato, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Mario Gironda, Jr., Mario Gironda, and Sandra Gironda, Plaintiffs, v. RYE NECK SCHOOL DISTRICT, Kathleen D. Gulotta, Frank Spedafino, Beatrice Cerasoli, Alan Manocherin, Janice K. Anderson, Liz Perelstein, Peter J. Mustich, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 95-7237. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Scott G. Bullock, Institute for Justice, Washington, DC (William H. Mellor III, Clint Bolick, Institute for Justice, Washington, DC; Lance J. Gotko, New York City, of counsel), for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Phyllis S. Jaffe, Plunkett & Jaffe, White Plains, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.
Thomas A. Bowden, Baltimore, MD; Robert S. Getman, New York, NY, submitted a brief for amicus curiae The Association for Objective Law.
James F. Bendernagel, Dennis D. Hirsch, Anne K. Adams, Michael J. Raphael, Sidley
& Austin, Washington, DC; Robert Teir, The American Alliance for Rights and Responsibilities, submitted a brief for amicus curiae The American Alliance for Rights and Responsibilities.
Before: NEWMAN, Chief Judge, McLAUGHLIN and LEVAL, Circuit Judges.
Daniel Immediato is a high school student in the Rye Neck (N.Y.) School District (the "District"). He and his parents (together, the "plaintiffs") brought an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against the District, the members of the District Board of Education, and the District Superintendent (together, the "defendants"), in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Charles L. Brieant, Jr., Judge ), alleging that the District's mandatory community service program (the "program") violated their constitutional rights. The plaintiffs argued that the mandatory community service program violated: (1) Daniel's Thirteenth Amendment rights; (2) the parents' Fourteenth Amendment rights; and (3) Daniel's Fourteenth Amendment rights. The plaintiffs requested declaratory and injunctive relief. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants.
Plaintiffs now appeal, renewing the arguments raised below. We hold that the District's mandatory community service program does not violate the plaintiffs' constitutional rights, and thus affirm the judgment of the district court. 873 F.Supp. 846.
Rye Neck School District's public high school, located in Mamaroneck, New York, has an enrollment of about 275 students in grades 9-12. In 1990, the District instituted a mandatory community service program as part of the high school curriculum. Under the program, in order to earn their diplomas all students must complete forty hours of community service sometime during their four high-school years. They must also participate in a corresponding classroom discussion about their service. The program has no exceptions or "opt-out" provisions for students who object to performing community service.
There are rules regarding the organizations to which the students may donate their services, and the nature of the work they may perform. For their efforts to count towards the forty-hour requirement, students may not receive pay for their services, nor may their services displace activities performed by paid employees of the organization being served. Furthermore, while up to twenty hours of service may be provided to the school itself or to younger students at the school, at least twenty hours must be provided to an organization outside the school.
Within the boundaries of these rules, the students have a large degree of latitude to choose their organizations. Students, for example, may work for not-for-profit corporations, charities, political organizations or public agencies. Although the school furnishes an extensive list of suggested organizations and of groups that have asked for student help, students remain free to suggest their own charitable organizations. Student proposals must win the approval of the school, but approval is almost always granted. To the best recollection of school officials, only two students have ever been told that their proposed service was ineligible for credit: (1) a student who wanted to work in his father's store; and (2) a student who was to be paid for babysitting.
Students may also provide their services to religiously-affiliated institutions, so long as the students' work involves charitable assistance, and not merely promotion of the religion or organization. For example, students may assist a church in feeding or housing the homeless, but will not receive credit for proselytizing.
The organizations for which the students work are responsible for any necessary training or supervision. The organizations must document the hours worked by the students, and the students must submit this verified time sheet to the school. Students may perform their forty hours of service at any time over their four high school years, including As part of a required senior-year course ("Managing Your Future"), students must complete a short form documenting and summarizing their community service. Listing where, when, and how they performed their service, students must also state what they "gained" from their experience and whether their service had any "career connection" for them. The form does not ask why they chose the particular organization or whether they agreed with its goals. After completing the form, the students discuss their service with the teacher and other students. This discussion is limited to the information on the form. The program is graded on a pass-fail basis, and students are required to meet certain benchmarks (e.g., 10 hours) by the end of each quarter of their senior year to pass.
the summers when school is not in session. Students set their own work schedules and provide their own transportation.
Daniel Immediato, a student at the District's high school, objects to the mandatory community service program. He believes that charitable activities and community service, while admirable, must be left to an individual's conscience, and should not be mandated by the school. He also desires to keep private any information about what community service he does or does not perform. Daniel's parents, co-plaintiffs, concede that community service is rewarding, but maintain that it must remain a matter of individual choice. They have tried to instill these values in Daniel, but fear that the school's mandatory community service program will instead teach him that guidance on moral issues should come from the government, rather than from within.
Daniel and his parents filed a complaint against the District and several of its officers. They contend that the mandatory community service program conditions the right to public education on the surrender of their constitutional rights. Specifically, they assert that the program: (1) imposes involuntary servitude upon Daniel, in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment; (2) infringes on Daniel's parents' Fourteenth Amendment right to direct his upbringing and education; (3) infringes on Daniel's personal liberty, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment; and (4) violates Daniel's right to privacy, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs asked the district court to declare the program unconstitutional, and to permanently enjoin the defendants from imposing the program. The defendants denied that the program violated any of the plaintiffs' constitutional rights, and argued that, in any event, the district court should abstain from hearing the case under Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424 (1943) ().
After limited discovery, the parties agreed that there were no disputed issues of material fact, and submitted a Joint Statement of Material Facts. The parties also filed motions for summary judgment. On January 19, 1995, the district court issued a thorough memorandum and order granting summary judgment for the defendants, and denying the plaintiffs' similar motion. Immediato v. Rye Neck School District, 873 F.Supp. 846 (S.D.N.Y.1995). The court held that Burford abstention was inappropriate, and went on to find that the program violated neither Daniel's nor his parents' constitutional rights. Plaintiffs now appeal, renewing the same four constitutional challenges. The District does not challenge the court's failure to abstain, so the Burford question is not before us.
We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. Litton Indus., Inc. v. Lehman Bros. Kuhn Loeb Inc., 967 F.2d 742, 746 (2d Cir.1992); see also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).
Plaintiffs argue that, because the mandatory community service program "requires students to serve others" or forfeit a high school diploma, the program constitutes involuntary servitude. We disagree.
The Thirteenth Amendment provides:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
U.S. Const., amend. XIII, Sec. 1. The dispositive question, then, is whether the mandatory community service program rises to the level of "involuntary servitude" contemplated by the amendment.
The Supreme Court has conceded that, "[w]hile the general spirit of the phrase 'involuntary servitude' is easily comprehended, the exact range of conditions it prohibits is harder to define." United States v. Kozminski, 487 U.S. 931, 942, 108 S.Ct. 2751, 2759, 101 L.Ed.2d 788 (1988). The Supreme Court has observed, however, that "the phrase 'involuntary servitude' was intended 'to cover those forms of compulsory labor akin to...
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