C.T. v. Liberal School Dist.
| Decision Date | 10 June 2008 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 06-2359-JWL.,Case No. 06-2360-JWL.,Case No. 06-2093-JWL. |
| Citation | 562 F.Supp.2d 1324 |
| Parties | C.T., Plaintiff, v. LIBERAL SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants. G.B., Plaintiff, v. Liberal School District, et al., Defendants. J.B., Plaintiff, v. Liberal School District, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Kansas |
Luis Mata, Rebecca M. Randles, Sarah A. Brown, Randies, Mata & Brown, LLC, Kansas City, MO, for Plaintiff.
Johnny Lynn Aubrey, Liberal, KS, pro se.
Allen G. Glendenning, Watkins Calcara, Chtd., Great Bend, KS, John G. Schultz, Nikki E. Cannezzaro, Franke, Schultz & Mullen, PC, Kansas City, MO, for Defendants.
These consolidated cases arise from allegations that plaintiffs C.T., G.B. and J.B. were sexually abused and harassed by defendant Johnny Aubrey, who was a volunteer weight training coach for student athletes in Liberal, Kansas. Plaintiffs assert claims against Mr. Aubrey, who is appearing pro se in this action, for childhood sexual abuse, battery, and breach of fiduciary duty. Additionally, they assert various claims against the school district and several individuals employed by the school district (collectively, "the school district defendants") under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq., constitutional claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and state law claims seeking to impose vicarious liability for Mr. Aubrey's actions, negligent supervision of Mr. Aubrey, and negligent failure to supervise children.
This matter is currently before the court on the school district defendants' Motions for Summary Judgment (doc. 262 in Case No. 06-2093, doc. 10 in Case No. 06-2359, and doc. 20 in Case No. 06-2360).1 For the reasons explained below, the school district defendants' motions for summary judgment are granted in part and denied in part. Specifically, the motions are denied with respect to G.B.'s Title IX student-on-student harassment claim; all of the plaintiffs' state law respondeat superior claims; and all of the plaintiffs' state law negligent, supervision, retention, and hiring claims. The motions for summary judgment are otherwise granted with respect to all other Title IX claims; plaintiffs' § 1983 claims; plaintiffs' state law ratification claims; and plaintiffs' claims for negligent failure to supervise children. Plaintiffs' Motion to Consolidate Cases for Trial (doc. 230 in Case No. 06-2093) is granted.
The parties have submitted voluminous statements of fact consisting of more than eight hundred fact paragraphs spanning hundreds of pages in each of the three separate cases. Many of those facts appear in the parties' statements of facts in all three cases, but others do not. The court has thoroughly reviewed the parties' statements of facts, but in the interests of brevity will not repeat them all here. Instead, the court has endeavored to condense and will recite only those facts that are most material to the court's resolution of the current motions. Additionally, consistent with the well established standard for evaluating a motion for summary judgment, the court has viewed those facts in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, the nonmoving parties.
Defendant Johnny Aubrey was a volunteer weight training coach for student athletes in Liberal, Kansas. He ran a weight training program out of his home in which many youth in Liberal participated over the course of several years. The participants included, among others, plaintiffs C.T., J.B. and G.B. This lawsuit arises out of the fact that Mr. Aubrey's program with plaintiffs included, to varying degrees, having them take nude baths at Mr. Aubrey's house while Mr. Aubrey would sometimes come in and out of the room; Mr. Aubrey giving them body massages using an ultrasound machine2 on sore muscles, including sometimes massaging their groin areas and buttocks, while they lay naked on his bed (except for keeping a towel over their genitals); and having them conduct weighins at the school in the nude when it was not wrestling season. Mr. Aubrey also engaged these teenage boys in conversations and various activities ostensibly as sex education to keep them from getting girls pregnant and keep themselves out of trouble of a sexual nature. These "sex talks" included isolated incidents where, for example, he told G.B. to practice putting on a condom, he encouraged C.T. and G.B. on separate occasions to masturbate, and there were occasions when he had the boys watch sex videos. The fact that these events occurred is relatively uncontroverted. Plaintiffs claim that Mr. Aubrey's actions were inappropriate whereas defendant Aubrey denies that his actions were wrongful.3 Plaintiffs also claim that Mr. Aubrey operated his program in connection with the Liberal School District's athletic programs and, as such, plaintiffs assert that the school district and several individuals employed by the school district are liable for Mr. Aubrey's actions.
The only summary judgment motions currently at issue are those filed by the school district defendants. Those defendants include the Liberal School District itself and various school coaches and administrators. Specifically, defendant Gary Cornelsen was a long time friend of Mr. Aubrey's and was the school's head football coach from 1991 through 2001, and again in 2003. He also was the school's athletic director from the summer 2002 through April 2004. Defendant Tom Scott was the school's wrestling coach from 1989 through 2001. Defendant Mike Pewthers was the school's assistant wrestling coach from approximately 1992-1993 until Mr. Scott left in 2001, at which time Mr. Pewthers became the head wrestling coach. Defendant Dave Webb was the principal from 2001 to 2003. Defendant Jim Little was an assistant principal from 1998 until 2003, and he became the principal in 2003.
The predominant theme of the current motions for summary judgment is the extent to which the school district and/or its various employees can be held liable for Mr. Aubrey's actions. The school district defendants maintain that Mr. Aubrey was not an employee of the school and his weight training program was not a school program and, as such, it cannot be held liable for his actions. They rely on the fact that the problems with Mr. Aubrey's program did not come to light until the spring of 2003 when G.B. reported the matter to law enforcement officials. Plaintiffs C.T. and J.B. corroborated G.B.'s allegations against Mr. Aubrey. Plaintiffs experienced some backlash from the other student athletes, who did not believe, the allegations against Mr. Aubrey.4 Mr. Aubrey discontinued his program that same spring and the school district took measures to distance itself from Mr. Aubrey. Thus, the summary judgment record does not reflect that Mr. Aubrey engaged in any of the conduct that forms the basis of this lawsuit at any time after the spring of 2003.
Plaintiffs, on the other hand, seek to impose liability against the school district defendants because Mr. Aubrey ingratiated himself and became friends with the school district's coaches and athletics director they gave him physical access to school property, including his own key to the school; they gave him special access to athletes reserved only for the school district coaches such as allowing him to be present in the coaches' areas and permitting him to assist with practices; and, in doing so, they cloaked him in the authority of the school's athletic programs. Plaintiffs contend that Mr. Aubrey was a resource to the sports programs at the Liberal High School who helped prepare students physically for the district's sports programs and he effectively became another supervisor of the athletes. Parents and students perceived that athletes who participated in Mr. Aubrey's program were given special consideration in high school sports. Mr. Aubrey was so far insinuated into the school district's athletic program that at least one parent believed him to be what is known as a "Rule 10" coach who is not a certified teacher but is hired by the school to coach student athletes.
With this general background in mind, the court will proceed to analyze the parties' various specific arguments, and will discuss the facts (viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiffs) in more detail in connection with those arguments.
Summary judgment is appropriate if the moving party demonstrates that there is "no genuine issue as to any material fact" and that it is "entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In applying this standard, the court views the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Rost ex rel. K.C. v. Steamboat Springs RE-2 Sch. Dist., 511 F.3d 1114, 1119 (10th Cir.2008) (citing Scott v. Harris, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1769, 1774, 167 L.Ed.2d 686 (2007)). An issue of fact is "genuine" if "the evidence allows a reasonable jury to resolve the issue either way." Haynes v. Level 3 Commc'ns, LLC, 456 F.3d 1215, 1219 (10th Cir.2006). A fact is "material" when "it is essential to the proper disposition of the claim." Id.
The moving party bears the initial burden of demonstrating an absence of a genuine issue of material fact and entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. Libertarian Party v. Herrera, 506 F.3d 1303, 1309 (10th Cir.2007) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986)). In attempting to meet that standard, a movant that does not bear the ultimate burden of persuasion at trial need not negate the other party's claim; rather, the movant need simply point out to the court a lack of evidence for the other party on an essential element of that party's claim. Id. (citing Celotex, 477 U.S. at 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548).
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