Barnes v. Zaccari

• Decision Date: 03 September 2010
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 1:08–CV–0077–CAP.
• Parties: Thomas Hayden BARNES, Plaintiff,v.Ronald M. ZACCARI, individually and in his official capacity as President of Valdosta State University; et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

757 F.Supp.2d 1313

Thomas Hayden BARNES, Plaintiff,

v.Ronald M. ZACCARI, individually and in his official capacity as President of Valdosta State University; et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 1:08–CV–0077–CAP.

United States District Court, N.D. Georgia, Atlanta Division.

Sept. 3, 2010.

Cary Stephen Wiggins, Wiggins Law Group, Atlanta, GA, Christopher A. Fedeli, Erin Nedenia Reid, Lisa Beth Zycherman, Robert Corn–Revere, Davis, Wright, Tremaine LLP Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.David C. Will, Holly Hance, Royal Washburn Will, Lawrenceville, GA, for Defendants.

ORDER

CHARLES A. PANNELL, JR., District Judge.

This matter is now before the court on Leah McMillan's motion for summary judgment [Doc. No. 167]; Laverne Gaskins's motion for summary judgment [Doc. No. 174]; Gaskins's motion for oral argument [Doc. No. 175]; Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, Kurt Keppler, Russ Mast, Valdosta State University, and Ronald M. Zaccari's motion for summary judgment [Doc. No. 177]; Thomas Hayden Barnes's motion for summary judgment [Doc. No. 179]; and Barnes's motion to exclude Dr. Matthew Norman as an expert witness [Doc. No. 164]. As an initial matter, the court denies Gaskins's motion for oral argument [Doc. No. 175].

I. Factual Background

This lawsuit arises out of the administrative withdrawal of the plaintiff, Thomas Hayden Barnes, from Valdosta State University in May 2007. The remaining defendants in this action are: Valdosta State University (“VSU”); the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (“BOR”); Ronald M. Zaccari, former President of VSU; Kurt Keppler, Vice President for Student Affairs at VSU; Russ Mast, Dean of Students at VSU; ¹ Laverne Gaskins, in-house counsel for VSU; and Leah McMillan, a counselor at VSU's Student Counseling Center. The relevant facts are as follows.

A. Barnes's Enrollment at VSU

Barnes initially enrolled at VSU in the fall of 2005 as a transfer student, but he later left while on academic probation to attend paramedic school in Savannah, Georgia in 2006.² Then, in January 2007, Barnes re-enrolled at VSU. During the re-enrollment process, Barnes contacted the VSU Access Office regarding the procedures necessary to register as an on-campus disabled student suffering from a panic disorder with agoraphobia. Dr. Kimberly Tanner, Director of the VSU Access Office, worked with Barnes to help him submit the proper documentation of his disability and to help him secure housing accommodations that VSU had available for Barnes.³ In addition to obtaining these accommodations, Barnes resumed therapy sessions with Leah McMillan after he re-enrolled.⁴

B. The Parking Garage

On March 22, 2007, the VSU student newspaper, The Spectator, ran a story regarding VSU President Zaccari's plans to construct a large parking garage on campus. More specifically, the parking structure was part of a “Master Plan” that Zaccari had developed between 2002 and 2004 at the direction of the BOR. After reading the article, Barnes started an initiative to raise public awareness of the issue and its potential environmental affects. Over the next week, Barnes posted a series of flyers around the VSU campus expressing his concerns for the possible environmental damage that the parking garage plan might cause,⁵ emailed VSU officials and fellow students, and electronically posted information and responses concerning the construction project on his Facebook webpage, an internet social networking website.

Shortly after Barnes's flyers started appearing around campus, Zaccari directed his assistant, Thressea Boyd, to find out who had posted the flyers. On March 26, 2007, classmates involved with Students Against Violating the Environment (“S.A.V.E.”), a campus environmental advocacy organization, informed Barnes that Zaccari was upset with Barnes's speech activities and had recently contacted S.A.V.E. to express his displeasure, particularly with the flyers. In response, Barnes took down his flyers and deleted his entries that were posted on the Facebook webpage. In addition, Barnes wrote a letter to Zaccari stating that he would remove the flyers and expressing a desire not to have an adverse response to his activities [Doc. No. 179, Ex. 22]. In the letter, Barnes also explained that he did not wish for his “actions to be perceived as a personal ‘attack’ or to jeopardize other environmental initiatives on campus.” Id.

After he sent his letter to Zaccari, Barnes maintained his interest in the parking garage's construction. Specifically, Barnes created a satirical collage protesting the project [Doc. No. 179, Ex. 25],⁶ which he posted on his Facebook website. Additionally, upon learning in early April 2007, that the BOR would be convening on April 17, 2007, to vote on the proposed parking garage, Barnes found the BOR members' phone numbers and contact information on the BOR website and began contacting those individual members via telephone and/or email to explain his opposition prior to the scheduled vote. Barnes's message to the BOR members was at all times respectful.

C. Barnes's Meeting with President Zaccari

Upon being informed of Barnes's contact with members of the BOR,⁷ Zaccari summoned Barnes to meet with him and Russ Mast (VSU Dean of Students) on April 16, 2007, at 5:00 p.m. Barnes complied with the summons and arrived at the President's office with his girlfriend. Prior to the start of the meeting, Zaccari denied Barnes's request to permit his girlfriend to attend the conference with the school officials because, as Zaccari explained, the matter concerned only Barnes and the President. During his one-hour and ten-minute meeting with Barnes, Zaccari attempted to explain his reasoning and decisions regarding the parking garage and expressed his general frustration with Barnes's opposing views and actions. [Doc. No. 3, p. 2]. Zaccari further stated that Barnes had personally embarrassed the President with Barnes's protest activities and that he thought Barnes had “gone away” after receipt of the apology letter. Id. Finally, Zaccari questioned Barnes as to, “Who did [Barnes] think [he] was?,” adding that Barnes had made his life hard for him and that he “could not forgive [Barnes].” Id.

In the days following the April 16 meeting with Zaccari, Barnes sent the President a follow-up email [Doc. No. 179, Ex. 28] to introduce alternative ideas to the planned construction. Then, on April 19, 2007, The Spectator published a letter [Doc. No. 179, Ex. 21] that Barnes had submitted to the editor in which he expressed his views regarding the planned parking garage. Meanwhile, while attending the BOR meeting on April 17–19, 2007, Zaccari directed that inquiries be made by members of his staff into Barnes's academic records, his medical history, his religion, and his registration with the VSU Access Office.⁸ Zaccari contacted Dr. Tanner from the VSU Access Office to obtain more information about Barnes's accommodations and to possibly learn how to better communicate with Barnes. Then, after returning from the BOR meeting, Zaccari read Barnes's letter in The Spectator.

On April 20, 2007, Zaccari attended a faculty senate breakfast, where he made some remarks about his frustrations with the protests and opposition to his parking deck plan. One of the professors in the audience, Dr. Michael Noll, was one of Barnes's professors. Dr. Noll approached Zaccari at the conclusion of the meeting to discern whether Barnes was the subject of the President's ire and to ask if he could help in any way. Zaccari rejected the offer and told Dr. Noll that “it was not a faculty senate issue; that it would be handled from the administration side and the faculty. And [Zaccari] asked [Noll] not to discuss it.” Zaccari Depo. [Doc. No. 179, Ex. 4 at 198:14–16].

D. Zaccari's Meetings Regarding Barnes

1. First Meeting

After his breakfast with faculty members on April 20, 2007, Zaccari met with his assistant, Thressea Boyd, Major Ann Farmer of the VSU Police, Dean Russ Mast, Laverne Gaskins (VSU in-house counsel), and Dr. Tanner in the President's conference room. During the meeting, Zaccari informed the group that he had investigated Barnes's employment and grades, and he further expressed complaints about Barnes's correspondence regarding the parking garage.

In response to Zaccari's information, Dr. Tanner informed the group of the contents of Barnes's file with the Access Office, including details regarding Barnes's medical condition and the identity of his treating counselor at the VSU Counseling Center. Major Farmer suggested that if Zaccari felt threatened, the President could file a formal report and get a temporary restraining order. However, Zaccari declined to file a report against Barnes.

After the conclusion of the April 20 meeting with Zaccari, Major Farmer conducted her own follow-up investigation in an effort to determine if Barnes could potentially be a threat to Zaccari. First, Major Farmer “ran a check through our records person to see if she could pull up any records with Hayden Barnes's name on them” but there were “no kinds of reports where there had been any trouble with Hayden Barnes.” Farmer Depo. [Doc. No. 179, Ex. 27 at 34:21–35:7]. Then, Major Farmer called the VSU Counseling Center to inquire whether Barnes was a patient or “whether or not Hayden may be a problem.” Id. at 36:7–12. Major Farmer ultimately spoke with McMillan, who told Farmer that Barnes had exhibited grandiose thinking, narcissism at times, manic behavior at times, the tendency to become obsessed with situations, and being paranoid at times. Nevertheless, McMillan concluded by effectively communicating that Major Farmer did not have to worry about whether Barnes was a danger to anyone.⁹ The VSU police never conducted an interview with Barnes.

2. Barnes's Facebook Webpage

On April 23, 2007, Barnes posted a series of items on his Facebook webpage [Doc. No. 179, Ex. 34]. The postings included clips of Bill Maher and The...