C.H. v. Sch. Bd.
| Decision Date | 30 September 2019 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 3:18cv2128/MCR/HTC |
| Parties | C.H., a minor, by RUSSELL HILLIGOSS, and TAMMY HILLIGOSS, his natural guardians, Plaintiff, v. THE SCHOOL BOARD OF OKALOOSA COUNTY, FLORIDA; MARY BETH JACKSON; STACIE SMITH; ARDEN FARLEY; ALAN LAMBERT; JON WILLIAMS; ROY FRAZIER; JEAN HENNION; and DOES 1-30, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Florida |
Plaintiff C.H. is an autistic, nonverbal child who allegedly suffered physical and verbal abuse at the hands of his special education teacher, Roy Frazier, and a teacher's aide, Jean Hennion, while he was enrolled at Silver Sands School in Okaloosa County, Florida during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. C.H., through his parents, Russell and Tammy Hilligoss, filed the instant action against the Okaloosa County School Board and seven individual defendants, alleging federal constitutional and statutory claims, as well as claims under Florida law.1 All eight named defendants have separately moved for dismissal of C.H.'s claims.2 Having carefully considered the law, the complaint, and the parties' arguments, the Court rules as follows.
The basic facts, as alleged in the Second Amended Complaint, ECF No. 55, and construed in favor of C.H., are as follows.3
Plaintiff C.H. is an autistic, nonverbal child enrolled in the exceptional students education ("ESE") program at Silver Sands School in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Silver Sands is a public school in the Okaloosa County School District ("the School District"), governed and overseen by Defendant Okaloosa County School Board ("School Board"). During the time period relevant to this case, DefendantMary Beth Jackson was the Superintendent of the School District4 and Defendant Stacie Smith was the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources.5 The School District also employed an investigator, Defendant Arden Farley, who was responsible for, as relevant to this case, investigating allegations of misconduct by instructional personnel and school administrators
For the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years, C.H. was assigned to the classroom of Defendant Roy Frazier, a special education instructor at Silver Sands, and Defendant Jean Hennion, Frazier's aide. Defendant Alan Lambert served as Silver Sands' principal until his retirement midway through the 2015-16 school year, after which, Defendant Jon Williams became principal.
C.H. alleges that Frazier and Hennion physically and verbally abused him, as well as other ESE students at Silver Sands, from the beginning of the 2014-15 school year until the end of the 2015-16 school year. Throughout that approximate two-year period, Frazier pushed, slapped, punched, kicked, pinched, flicked, threw shoesat, and withheld food from C.H., often physically injuring him as a result. It is also alleged that Frazier regularly strapped C.H. onto a stationary exercise bike, confined him in a cardboard box, or secluded him in a small, dark room—for hours at a time.6 The allegations of abuse further include: the use of duct tape on ESE students as restraints; tying a sack over a student's head, causing him to panic and undress himself; swinging students by their arms and legs, then throwing them to the floor, causing at least one student, C.H., to suffer head injuries; striking C.H. with a closed fist causing red marks and bruising; calling students "inappropriate" names, see ECF No. 55 at 20; making vulgar and offensive comments to students about their parents; and routinely locking students in a hot transport van. The alleged abuse occurred openly in classrooms, in school hallways, and on school field trips.
According to the complaint, Frazier's conduct did not go unreported to school administration officials.7 Numerous unnamed Silver Sands employees who "witnessed" Frazier physically and verbally abusing ESE students reported their observations directly to Principal Lambert "on multiple occasions during the fallsemester of the 2015-2016 school year." See id. at 28. Many times, Principal Lambert reassured the reporting employee that he would talk to Frazier and "tak[e] care of" the matter. See id. However, he never spoke with Frazier and never acted to stop the abuse. Instead, in many instances, he retaliated against the reporting employees by "separating them from their assigned students, moving them to different classrooms, and changing one aide's assigned lunch hour to 9:15 a.m." See id. at 32-33. In another instance, Principal Lambert told a teacher's aide that he "had only one year left until retirement" and "not to ruin that time" by reporting physical abuse and "forcing him to deal with the consequences of such a report." See id. at 28-29. Principal Lambert did, in fact, retire "midway through the 2015-2016 school year," without ever having fulfilled his state-mandated obligation to report Frazier's alleged abuse to the Florida Department of Children and Families ("DCF") or otherwise taken any action to protect Frazier's students. See id. at 9.
In January 2016, Principal Williams joined Silver Sands. At the time, Frazier was still openly abusing ESE students in classrooms, school hallways, and on school field trips. On February 16 and 18, 2016, teacher's aides in Frazier's classroom sent "written notification" of Frazier's ongoing abuse to four School District officials—Principal Williams, Investigator Farley, HR Assistant Superintendent Smith, and Superintendent Jackson—in which they described a litany of separate incidents of abusive conduct.8 See id. at 29-30. At this point, Smith emailed Frazier to advise him of "the seriousness of the allegations against" him and the "need for [his] students to be protected from him." See id. at 31. Thereafter, Investigator Farley investigated and substantiated the physical abuse allegations, then detailed his findings in an "[i]nvestigative [s]ummary" that was sent to Principal Williams, HR Assistant Superintendent Smith, Superintendent Jackson, and Jeffrey McInnis, an attorney for the school district.9 See id. at 30-31. In the summary, Investigator Farley recommended that Frazier be disciplined and "evaluated to assess whether an environment of disabled students is where he should work." See id. As with Principal Lambert, none of these school officials made a mandatory report of Frazier's abuse to DCF.
Approximately 10 days later, on March 16, 2016, HR Assistant Superintendent Smith sent a letter to Superintendent Jackson recommending that Frazier receive a three-day suspension for "not following student [behavioral intervention plans]" and "not documenting accurate travel locations when he tookstudents on field trips." See id. at 31. The next day, Superintendent Jackson sent two letters—one addressed to Frazier, the other to the School Board—also recommending a three-day suspension for the same reasons. None of the letters discussed, or even mentioned, the substantiated reports that Frazier was physically abusing ESE students. Frazier was ultimately suspended for three days; however, he was not required to serve the suspension "immediately or even on consecutive days." See id. Instead, he was permitted to choose three dates, over the course of a month, that were convenient for him.10
Throughout this period—and, indeed, through the end of the 2015-2016 school year—school officials left Frazier in the same ESE classroom, where he continued physically abusing C.H. and other ESE students. And, Silver Sands employees continued reporting the abuse to school officials. In April 2016, for example, a teacher's aide voiced her concerns in a phone call with HR Assistant Superintendent Smith and Superintendent Jackson. These two officials "disregarded" the aide's report. See id. at 32. Other aides were instructed by the "administration to only reply 'today was a good day,'" if asked by a student's parents how the school day went. See id. at 33. Finally, it is alleged that unnamed "administration" officials intentionally made a false report to DCF in order toconceal Frazier's abuse. More specifically, on one occasion, Frazier allegedly punched C.H. so hard in the chest that it echoed across the hallway and caused red marks and bruising. Administration officials allegedly described the incident to DCF, but purposely identified a different child as the victim so that DCF would not know to investigate the actual victim, C.H. Other than this alleged false report to DCF, none of the defendants in this case reported Frazier's conduct to appropriate authorities, despite their state-mandated reporting obligation.
"Shortly after" receiving notice of Frazier's abusive conduct at Silver Sands, the School Board, Superintendent Jackson, HR Assistant Superintendent Smith, and Investigator Farley "were contacted regarding" another ESE instructor, Marlynn Stillions, who allegedly was physically abusing ESE students at another school in the School District, Kenwood Elementary School. See ECF No. 55 at 34. Stillions had reportedly kicked and shoved ESE students; pinched their faces and bodies causing red marks and bruising; forced vinegar into students' mouths and sprayed it in their faces; slammed a student's head into the wall; purposefully tripped a student, carried him forcefully into the cafeteria by the waistband and shirt, and then threw him on the floor; and confined students in a basket, placed a bean bag "on or near" the children's genitals, and then stepped on it, causing pain. See ECF No. 55 at 26.
On April 26, 2016, Kenwood's then-principal, Angelyn Vaughan, sent an email to the School District's Human Resources Department describing "alleged Code of Ethics violations made by several [School District] employees who had seen Stillions acting abusively to" ESE students. See id. at 34. The next day, Investigator Farley began investigating Stillions' alleged misconduct and, in time, he...
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