Baugh v. Muscle Shoals Bd. of Educ.

• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama
• Decision Date: 09 July 2013
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. CV-12-S-2000-NW
• Citation: Baugh v. Muscle Shoals Bd. of Educ., Civil Action No. CV-12-S-2000-NW (N.D. Ala. Jul 09, 2013)
• Parties: JUANICA BAUGH, Plaintiff, v. MUSCLE SHOALS BOARD OF EDUCATION and JEFF WOOTEN, Defendants.

JUANICA BAUGH, Plaintiff,

v.MUSCLE SHOALS BOARD OF EDUCATION and JEFF WOOTEN, Defendants.

Civil Action No. CV-12-S-2000-NW

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA NORTHWESTERN DIVISION

DONE: July 9, 2013

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff, Juanica Baugh, alleges that defendants, the Muscle Shoals Board of Education and its superintendent, Jeff Wooten, discriminated against her on the basis of her race by electing not to renew her employment contract for the position of science teacher at Muscle Shoals High School.¹ Plaintiff asserts claims for discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and 42 U.S.C. § 1981.² This action is before the court on defendants' motion for summary judgment.³ Upon consideration, this court will grant the motion.

I. SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARDS

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 indicates that the court "shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). "[T]he plain language of [that rule] mandates the entry of summary judgment, after adequate time for discovery and upon motion, against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322 (1986) (alterations supplied).

In making this determination, the court must review all evidence and make all reasonable inferences in favor of the party opposing summary judgment.

[However,] [t]he mere existence of some factual dispute will not defeat summary judgment unless that factual dispute is material to an issue affecting the outcome of the case. The relevant rules of substantive law dictate the materiality of a disputed fact. A genuine issue of material fact does not exist unless there is sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party for a reasonable [factfinder] to return a verdict in its favor.

Chapman v. AI Transport, 229 F.3d 1012, 1023 (11th Cir. 2000) (en banc) (internal citations omitted) (alterations and emphasis suppled).

II. SUMMARY OF FACTS

A. Plaintiff's Hiring

Plaintiff is an African-American female who was employed as a non-tenuredscience teacher by the Muscle Shoals Board of Education ("the Board") at Muscle Shoals High School for two years.⁴ Prior to her employment by the Muscle Shoals Board, plaintiff had served as a science teacher with two other school systems: i.e., the Anniston City Board of Education from 1999 to 2003; and the Talladega Board of Education from 2004 to 2008.⁵ Plaintiff voluntarily left her employment with the Anniston City Board because she changed her residence, and voluntarily left her employment with the Talladega Board to obtain a master's degree.⁶

The Muscle Shoals Board of Education posted an opening for a science teacher at Muscle Shoals High School at some point in early 2009.⁷ Muscle Shoals High School Principal H.L. Noah and Assistant Principals Jason Simmons and Denise Woods interviewed several applicants (of whom plaintiff was the only African-American), and unanimously agreed that plaintiff was the superior candidate.⁸ Accordingly, Noah recommended plaintiff's hiring to the Superintendent of the Muscle Shoals School System, Jeff Wooten, on June 25, 2009.⁹ In turn, Dr. Wootenrecommended her hiring to the School Board, which approved the recommendation.¹⁰

B. Plaintiff's Impression of the Racial "Climate" at Muscle Shoals High School

Plaintiff served as a science teacher at Muscle Shoals High School during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years.¹¹ She was one of three African-American teachers in the school, but the only one to teach a required subject.¹² Plaintiff formed an unfavorable opinion of the racial climate at Muscle Shoals High School. The following jumbled, bordering upon incomprehensible, testimony constitutes her attempt to explain some of the reasons for her negative attitude:

Any time you walked in a faculty room — mind you, you could count the blacks at the school anyway. ["]Hi, Bob. How are you doing?["] ["]Everything is great.["] ["]Good.["] I may walk by [Principal H.L. Noah] and he not say anything. I personally will still speak to him. I had talked to [School Board Member Willis] Thompson¹³ when he would sometimes — the [B]oard members would come to our school. And I told him before about the climate and how it feels. I said[, "T]hey go to church together, they are twenty year friends. They're reporting stuff to you because they're friends. He's not my principal. He's their friend.["] Mr. Thompson would give me advice. ["]Just don't let it bother you, just keep on going.["]

[Principal H.L. Noah] would correct me. He told me one time,["]Hey, we're going to do something for the black kids or the minority kids. They want a step team. They didn't grow up learning how to play these instruments.["] He said[, "G]reat.["] I made an announcement, ["]Anybody want to do the step team?["] After [the] black history [program], they were excited. They wanted to do something. They don't have any other voice there. Made an announcement over the intercom, ["C]ome sign up.["] I'm walking to my class, which is how he corrects me. He doesn't call me in . . . . "Ms. Baugh, I didn't give you approval to go ahead and say we were really going to do that." ["]Good morning. What are you talking about?["] He has never talked to anybody else at that school like that. Not where I've seen openly.¹⁴

C. Plaintiff's Job Performance

During the course of plaintiff's two years at Muscle Shoals High School, all of plaintiff's student's advanced to the following grade level.¹⁵ Further, plaintiff sang at school programs, served as the faculty sponsor for an African-American history program, and assisted other teachers with a recycling program, a pep rally, and a music event.¹⁶ Even so, Principal H.L. Noah testified that he personally witnessed problems with plaintiff's job performance, and received additional complaints about plaintiff from her co-workers and the parents of her students.¹⁷ Some of those "problems" and parent complaints are discussed in the following subsections.

1. Tardiness

Within the first few months of plaintiff's employment, Principal H.L. Noah received several reports from Assistant Principal Jason Simmons and Science Department Chair Kathy Eldridge that plaintiff was late for school.¹⁸ At some point before October of 2009, Noah counseled plaintiff regarding her tardiness.¹⁹ During her meeting with Noah, plaintiff admitted that she had been arriving late, and attributed the problem to the fact that she was in the process of changing her residence.²⁰ After that conversation, plaintiff allegedly began to arrive on time.²¹

2. Failure to attend mandatory faculty meetings

Principal H.L. Noah regularly held mandatory faculty meetings in order to report information received from Superintendent Jeff Wooten, and for the purpose of discussing upcoming events, testing information, school policies, and safety and emergency procedures.²² Teachers received notifications and reminders of the meetings by several means, including electronic mail ("e-mail").²³ Noah and other school employees noticed that plaintiff missed a number of the faculty meetingswithout explanation.²⁴ At one such meeting, Noah observed plaintiff's absence, and questioned Science Department Chair Kathy Eldridge regarding plaintiff's failure to attend.²⁵ Eldridge told Noah that she had seen plaintiff in her classroom when she (Eldridge) left to attend the meeting.²⁶ On another occasion, Assistant Principal Jason Simmons had to find plaintiff and direct her to come to the meeting.²⁷

Noah counseled plaintiff regarding her pattern of missing faculty meetings at some point during the 2009-10 school year.²⁸ Even so, plaintiff acknowledged that she missed a number of faculty meeting during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years.²⁹ Plaintiff alleged that, initially, she was not aware that the meetings were mandatory; but, even after learning of that fact, she still had occasional scheduling conflicts.³⁰ She also pointed the finger at others, saying that football, basketball, and tennis coaches missed faculty meetings, but were not reprimanded.³¹

3. Failure to provide substitute teachers with proper lesson plans and additional required information

When Muscle Shoals High School teachers were absent from school, they were required to provide substitute teachers with lesson plans that keep their students busy for the duration of the class period.³² They were also required to leave substitute teachers a seating chart, a description of school emergency procedures, and notes about students' medical needs.³³ Science Department Chair Kathy Eldridge and science teacher Leella Holt received several reports from various substitute teachers that plaintiff had failed to provide them with proper lesson plans.³⁴ On those occasions, Eldridge and Holt went to plaintiff's classroom, and found either that plaintiff had left no lesson plans at all, or that she had left plans that did not keep her students occupied for the duration of the class period.³⁵ Eldridge also was not able to locate seating charts, descriptions of school emergency procedures, and notes about students' medical needs.³⁶ As a result, Eldridge and Holt used their class time to writelesson plans for plaintiff's substitute teachers.³⁷ Eldridge repeatedly complained to Principal H.L. Noah regarding plaintiff's omissions.³⁸

Plaintiff denied that she failed to provide substitute teachers with proper lesson plans and additional required information.³⁹ Even so, she admitted that, on one occasion, a substitute teacher could not locate her lesson plans, that another teacher reported the incident to Principal H.L. Noah, and that Noah brought the incident to plaintiff's attention.⁴⁰

4. Failure to follow standard laboratory safety...