Benedict v. Eau Claire Public Schools
| Decision Date | 05 March 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-2513,97-2513 |
| Citation | 1998 WL 60374,139 F.3d 901 |
| Parties | 11 NDLR P 354 NOTICE: Seventh Circuit Rule 53(b)(2) states unpublished orders shall not be cited or used as precedent except to support a claim of res judicata, collateral estoppel or law of the case in any federal court within the circuit. Sandra Lea BENEDICT, Plaintiff/Appellant, v. Eau Claire Public Schools, Wisconsin Education Ass'n Council, Thomas Blount, Michael Burke, Defendants/Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. No. 95-C-0568-S John C. Shabaz, Judge.
Before Hon. JESSE E. ESCHBACH, Hon. KENNETH F. RIPPLE, Hon. ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
Sandra Benedict brought this lawsuit against her employer, Eau Claire Public School District ("ECPS"), alleging that ECPS violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ("ADEA"), see 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq., the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"), see 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and that ECPS engaged in retaliatory conduct because she filed her claims of discrimination. Ms. Benedict also alleged that union bargaining representatives Thomas Blount and Michael Burke and the Wisconsin Education Association Council ("WEAC"), a labor organization, breached their duty of fair representation in failing to prosecute her grievances against ECPS. The district court granted summary judgment for ECPS, holding that Benedict had failed to establish her prima facie cases of discrimination and retaliation; the court dismissed the complaints against the other defendants on a variety of grounds. Ms. Benedict, proceeding pro se on appeal, argues that the court erred in granting summary judgment. While this court lacks jurisdiction to review many of Ms. Benedict's allegations, three of her complaints survive. Because Ms. Benedict has failed to come forward with sufficient evidence to support her claims, we affirm.
Sandra Benedict was born in 1949, and taught for ECPS between 1972 and March 1996, when she took disability retirement. At all times relevant to her claims here, she was a member of WEAC, a labor organization that represents public school teachers in the Eau Claire Public School District. Tom Blount and Michael Burke are officers in labor organizations that provide grievance handling, collective bargaining and administrative services support for the WEAC affiliate in Eau Claire.
In 1986, Ms. Benedict was involved in a car accident that left her with a variety of maladies: chronic back, neck and shoulder pain; some instability of gait and a tendency to sway or fall to her right side, consistent with inner-ear abnormalities; post-traumatic stress syndrome with associated chronic muscle and ligament pain; heightened susceptibility to stress and anxiety; vocal problems of uncertain etiology; occasional blurring of vision and some loss of left eye nerve sensitivity; chronic headaches (perhaps migraine); and cognitive processing difficulties, with some short-term attention and concentration problems, possibly related to an auditory processing disorder. Several of the physicians who examined Ms. Benedict noted the lack of an obvious physical basis for her condition; the difficulty in arriving at any clear-cut diagnosis; and the possibility that Benedict's physical problems were, at least in part, psychologically driven.
Ms. Benedict took a medical disability leave during the fall of 1990 but returned in January 1991, when her doctors declared her fit to continue. She was placed at Boyd School, an older, multi-level site. This required that she occasionally climb stairs during the course of her day, a problem because of her difficulties with balance and stiffness. Moreover, friction developed between Ms. Benedict and her principals at Boyd; they were apparently unsympathetic to her condition and openly questioned the nature and existence of her ailments.
Because of her dissatisfaction at Boyd, Ms. Benedict requested a transfer to the single-level Putnam Heights School for the 1993-94 school year. She was interviewed in August 1993, by principal Jane Robertson-Johnson but was not hired. Ms. Benedict avers that Robertson-Johnson, "best friends" with one of the Boyd School principals, informed Ms. Benedict that she "needed to hire the best person for the job," and that she was afraid that hiring Benedict "would make her school go backwards."
ECPS Title I Director Rick Savolainen then assigned Ms. Benedict to teach in ECPS' "mobile classroom," a classroom on wheels that serviced five school sites. While the mobile classroom is a single-level unit, Ms. Benedict was also responsible for gathering and returning her students at each of the schools, thereby increasing her walking and stair climbing during the day. Moreover, the mobile classroom was apparently prone to rocking when the students were active, further increasing Ms. Benedict's discomfort. Once again she requested a transfer at the end of the school year--to single-level sites at Northwoods and Sherman Schools--but once again, she was not selected. Ms. Benedict contends that the spots were given to two teachers under forty years of age, with less seniority and experience. Following a mid-August 1994, meeting between ECPS officials, Blount, Burke and Ms. Benedict, she was assigned to teach half-time at Randall School and half-time at Lincoln School, two older multi-level sites, for the 1994-95 school year.
On June 28, 1995, Ms. Benedict attended a meeting at Randall at which Mary Seitz, the new principal, informed her that she intended to cut Benedict's Title I position from the curriculum for the forthcoming year. Ms. Benedict avers that Seitz explained that she was "only going to hire one Title I teacher for the following year" because she "did not want to spend the money on Title I programming," preferring instead "to spend [the money] on extracurricular activities." Ms. Benedict then applied for transfers to the Sherman and Locust Lane schools for the 1995-96 school year. When she contacted the ECPS Personnel Director in mid-August to check the status of her applications, however, she was told that the two positions had been filled and the appointments approved by the school board.
Ms. Benedict was informed by Savolainen that she would continue to split her time between Randall and Lincoln for the forthcoming year, but when she reported to Randall on August 21, 1995, Seitz told her to leave the campus and that she would no longer be working there. Benedict reported the incident to Savolainen, who told her that she had not been reassigned and that she should consider herself placed at Randall until he told her otherwise. When Ms. Benedict returned the next day, Seitz told her that she "did not want the other teachers to see [her] face" and that she should return to her room "and hide." Seitz's response to these allegations is only that they are "inaccurate." Curiously, ECPS Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Don Lillrose issued a document on September 7, 1995, entitled "Subject: Vacancies, Certified Posting No. 463." The notice, printed on ECPS letterhead, lists five Title I kindergarten through second grade teaching vacancies, full and part time, opening on an emergency basis at Randall for the 1995-96 school year. Applicants were instructed to "notify the Personnel Office in writing by September 24, 1995." It is not clear who, if anyone, was hired for the Randall teaching positions.
Ms. Benedict was subsequently transferred full-time to Lincoln School for the 1995-96 school year, where, she asserts, she was subsequently denied participation in a career-related workshop held on October 11-13. She also avers that the Lincoln principal requested Ms. Benedict's colleagues to put in writing their expectations of her.
On May 13, 1994, Ms. Benedict filed a charge with the EEOC and the Equal Rights Division of the Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor, and Human Relations ("ERD"), alleging that ECPS violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ("ADEA"), see 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq., and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"), see 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. She claimed that her 1993 transfer denial to Putnam Heights constituted age discrimination and a failure to accommodate her medical disabilities; and that she had been subjected to "ongoing intimidation" by her principals at Boyd School. On June 5, 1995, the EEOC issued its determination, finding no evidence of discrimination. Ms. Benedict filed a second charge with the EEOC on October 1, 1995, alleging that the termination by Mary Seitz of her Title I position at Randall was retaliatory for her prior EEOC filing. The EEOC dismissed her charge of retaliation on January 16, 1996, citing her lawsuit in federal court as grounds.
Ms. Benedict brought her case to federal court on August 8, 1995. She named ECPS, WEAC and several others as defendants, and raised numerous allegations: 1 she had been subjected to ongoing intimidation by her Boyd School principals following her return from disability leave; she had been excluded from career-related workshops while at Boyd School; the 1993 denial of her transfer requests to Putnam Heights and her subsequent transfer to the district's mobile classroom constituted age and disability discrimination; the 1994 denials of her transfer requests to the Northwoods and Sherman Schools, and the 1995 denials of her transfer requests to the Sherman and Locust Lane Schools were discriminatory; the 1995 termination of her Title I position at Randall School by principal Mary Seitz was retaliatory for her prior EEOC filing; and her October 1995, exclusion from a workshop at Lincoln school, and the Lincoln principal's request that her colleagues put their expectations of her into writing were discriminatory.
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