Chiu v. Plano Independent School District
| Decision Date | 15 July 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-41218.,02-41218. |
| Citation | 339 F.3d 273 |
| Parties | Celia J. CHIU; Denise Brown; Veronica C. Jenkins; Denise Kirke; Alfred Kirke; Kenneth Johnson, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. PLANO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants, James Davis, Doctor, Plano Independent School District, Central Cluster Area, Assistant Superintendent; Corky Criswell, Principal, Hendrick Middle School, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
William Charles Bundren (argued), Wm. Charles Bundren & Associates, Frisco, TX, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.
Richard M. Abernathy, Charles J. Crawford (argued), Abernathy, Roeder, Boyd & Joplin, McKinney, TX, for Defendants-Appellants.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Before SMITH, DENNIS and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs-Appellees, parents of children in the Plano Independent School District ("PISD"), allege that Defendants-Appellants, employees of the PISD, prohibited them from distributing materials critical of a proposed math curriculum at public meetings convened specifically to discuss that curriculum. Plaintiffs-Appellees sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violation of their First Amendment rights. Defendants-Appellants filed a motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity, which the district court granted with regard to all but two of the defendants. Those defendants, James Davis ("Davis") and Corky Criswell ("Criswell"), appeal the denial of summary judgment on their defense of qualified immunity, arguing that they did not violate the Plaintiffs-Appellees' clearly established rights of which a reasonable person would have known. We disagree and AFFIRM in part, and DISMISS in part for lack of jurisdiction.
The PISD implemented a new math curriculum, the Connected Math Program ("CMP"), as a pilot program in four middle schools in the 1996-1997 school year. The CMP is a three-year pre-algebra math program directed at the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, that teaches students to think conceptually about math problems by emphasizing problem solving, by employing group interaction, and by helping students to understand how math is applicable to their daily lives. Following an evaluation of the program, the PISD decided to introduce it at all of the middle schools in the district, starting in the 1999-2000 school year. This dispute arises from the events leading to the introduction of the CMP.
Plaintiffs Alfred Kirke ("Kirke") and Kenneth Johnson ("Johnson") are parents of children who were students in the PISD. They oppose the CMP because they believe that the new approach has not been proven to be a successful alternative to the traditional middle school math curriculum.
As a part of the process of introducing the CMP, the PISD held a series of "Parents' Math Nights" at PISD middle schools. School officials conducted the meetings on school premises after school hours and announced the meetings in a local paper and through flyers sent home with the students. Each Math Night's agenda included a presentation by faculty discussing the goals and objectives of the new CMP curriculum, a question-and-answer session, and informal breakout sessions during which parents were able to talk to individual teachers about their children.
On August 25, 1998, Kirke attended a Math Night at Haggard Middle School, where his daughter was a student. Kirke brought with him materials that were critical of the CMP and a petition requesting that the PISD halt implementation of the curriculum until they conducted an independent evaluation. The petition also requested that school officials allow more parental input in the decision making process concerning whether to choose the CMP over a traditional math curriculum.
After arriving at the Haggard Math Night, Kirke briefly discussed the CMP's controversial history with two PISD officials. He then stationed himself near the entrance to the meeting room and began passing out the materials he had prepared. Kirke initially placed his materials on a table with the materials prepared by the PISD but at some point was asked to move them to another table, so that his position would not be mistaken for the PISD's position. Kirke complied with the request and continued to pass out materials to other parents as they arrived. Kirke also claims that at some point a PISD official, Roxanne Burleson ("Burleson"), who is not implicated in this appeal, approached him and told him to leave. Kirke refused to do so.
Once the meeting started, defendant James Davis ("Davis"), assistant superintendent for the central cluster area of the PISD, informed Kirke that he was not allowed to distribute petitions on school property and instructed Kirke to collect the petitions. Kirke did so, but continued to distribute flyers to individuals arriving late to the meeting. At that point, Davis informed Kirke that he was prohibited from distributing his flyers. Eventually, Kirke stopped distributing the flyers, because he felt as though the time for distributing flyers had passed. Following the faculty presentation, PISD officials fielded written questions submitted by attendees. Kirke chose not to submit a question, and chose to leave at the close of the question-and-answer period.
One week later, on September 1, 1998, Kirke attended the Math Night hosted at Wilson Middle School, where his son was a student. Kirke claims that because officials prohibited him from passing out flyers at the Haggard Math Night, he instead made a poster for display at the Wilson Math Night. The poster read:
PISD officials told me that I can't pass out flyers or circulate a petition requesting a conventional math choice. For more information, see me after the meeting or call our hotline[.]
Kirke was carrying this sign when he arrived at Wilson Middle School. As he approached the door to the cafeteria in which the meeting was to be held, he encountered Davis and another PISD official. Davis informed Kirke that he would not be allowed to bring the sign into the meeting. Complying with this demand, Kirke placed the sign on the table near the entrance. Kirke claims that Davis then instructed him to turn the sign face-down. After the presentation concluded, Kirke took his sign and departed.
A similar situation unfolded at the Hendrick Middle School Math Night on October 12, 1998. Johnson brought with him a report prepared by the Texas Education Agency that evaluated the CMP textbook and found it to be "approved" but "nonconforming". Johnson handed out copies of this report to individuals who arrived prior to the meeting. As Johnson distributed his materials and spoke to arriving parents, defendant Corky Criswell ("Criswell"), the principal of Hendrick Middle School, informed him that he was not permitted to distribute material on school property unless the material had been reviewed and approved by school officials. Johnson claims that Criswell was very agitated and raised his voice. Criswell told Johnson that if he wanted to distribute his materials, he would have to do so across the street, off of school property. Following this confrontation with Criswell, Johnson ceased distributing materials.
The PISD had several policy statements that required advance notice and pre-clearance for distribution of non-school materials on school property. The specific policies at issue in this dispute are policies FMA (LOCAL) and GKA (LOCAL), which require students, parents, and community members to submit their non-school materials for approval by school officials. The FMA (LOCAL) states, in relevant part:
All written material over which the school does not exercise editorial control that is intended for distribution to students shall be submitted for prior review according to the following procedures:
1. Materials shall be submitted to the building principal or designee for review.
2. Using the standards at LIMITATIONS ON CONTENT1 in policy FMA, preceding, the principal or designee shall approve or disapprove submitted material within three days of the time the materials is [sic] received. Failure to act within the three-day period shall be interpreted as disapproval.
The FMA extended to parents and community members through the PISD's policy GKA (LOCAL), which applied the same standards to distribution by these individuals on school property. It provides in relevant part:
Duplicated, written, or printed materials, handbills, photographs, pictures, films, tapes, or other visual or auditory materials shall not be sold, circulated, or distributed by persons or groups not associated with the school, on any school premises in the District, unless they have received permission in accordance with FMA (LOCAL).
Neither Kirke nor Johnson submitted their materials for approval under the PISD's prior review scheme. Davis and Criswell claim that they were enforcing school policy when they instructed Kirke and Johnson to halt their expressive activities because Kirke and Johnson had not complied with the speech policies.
On August 25, 1999, plaintiffs sued the PISD and various PISD officials, including Davis and Criswell, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the defendants violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech when they prohibited the plaintiffs from distributing literature, displaying signs, or collecting signatures on a petition at the Math Nights.
In a previous appeal, a panel of this Court reversed the denial of summary judgment to one defendant, Marilyn Brooks. The panel dismissed the appeals of the remaining defendants, including Davis and Criswell, finding that genuine issues of material fact existed to support the plaintiffs...
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