Crawford v. Columbus State Cmty. Coll.

• Citation: 196 F.Supp.3d 766
• Decision Date: 11 July 2016
• Docket Number: Case No. 2:15-cv-2438
• Parties: Thomas CRAWFORD, Plaintiff, v. COLUMBUS STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE, et al. Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

196 F.Supp.3d 766

Thomas CRAWFORD, Plaintiff,

v.COLUMBUS STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE, et al. Defendants.

Case No. 2:15-cv-2438

United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, Eastern Division.

Signed July 11, 2016

Michael Garth Moore, Law Offices of Michael Garth Moore, Columbus, OH, for Plaintiff.

Rory P. Callahan, Amanda L. Scheeser, Amy Ruth Ita, Ohio Attorney General's Office, Columbus, OH, for Defendants.

OPINION & ORDER

ALGENON L. MARBLEY, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Thomas Crawford, an adjunct lecturer of physics and engineering at Columbus State Community College ("CSCC"), sued his employer and several of its high-ranking officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Crawford alleged that those officials failed to promote him to a fulltime tenure track position in retaliation for exercising his First-Amendment right to speech regarding workplace grievances and his anti-abortion views, and also because of his advanced age, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. CSCC moved to dismiss Crawford's suit under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), arguing that he failed to state a claim and that, in any event, the individual officials remain entitled to qualified immunity. Having reviewed the parties' briefing, the Court agrees with CSCC as to Crawford's first claim, which is not based on constitutionally protected speech. The Court agrees with Crawford, however, as to his second and third claims, which both sufficiently state a cause of action upon which relief can be granted. Accordingly, the Court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART CSCC's motion to dismiss (Doc. 24). The Court likewise GRANTS Crawford's motion to strike the exhibits that CSCC appended to its motion to dismiss (Doc. 25).

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background¹

Thomas Crawford, aged seventy-two, has served as an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences at CSCC since 2002. (Doc. 21, ¶¶ 1, 10). Roughly a decade into his employment, Michael Hailu, the Dean of Crawford's department (and a defendant here), asked him to develop a "Fundamentals of Engineering" program. (Id. at ¶ 14). Crawford developed the program, which CSCC subsequently offered as two separate courses. (Id. ). Crawford taught those courses in addition to training other lecturers on how to teach them. (Id. ).

During the spring of 2013, one of Crawford's students approached him and mentioned the idea of recommending Crawford for a fulltime position due to his "superior teaching and tutoring." (Id. at ¶ 15). The student prepared a "recommendation[ ]" letter for David Harrison, the President of CSCC (and also a defendant in this case), which outlined the case for promoting Crawford. (Id. at ¶¶ 15-17). The student's letter also raised concerns over alleged cheating in some physics classes and poor teaching within the department more generally. (Id. at ¶ 15). Crawford, who had heard of another student's concerns regarding alleged cheating within the department, "did not dissuade" the student from lobbying school officials for a promotion or from voicing these other concerns. (Id. ). Later, this student asked Crawford for a copy of his resume, which Crawford provided, and then asked Crawford to review his proposed letter to President Harrison, which Crawford did. (Id. at ¶ 16). The student then created a petition to accompany his letter and collected signatures from forty-two other students who also wished to see Crawford promoted. (Id. at ¶ 17). The student submitted this petition and recommendation letter to President Harrison and Dean Hailu sometime in November 2013. (Id. ).

Following receipt of the petition and letter, President Harrison met with the student-author. (Id. at ¶ 18). President Harrison then met with Dean Hailu and Lisa Schneider, the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (parent-college to Crawford's department). (Id. at ¶¶ 3, 19). Together, the three administrators concluded that Crawford "orchestrated" the letter seeking his promotion to a fulltime position. (Id. at ¶ 19). After the administrators received the petition and letter, Dean Hailu told Crawford, "Do you think this is a positive for you? This is not a positive; this is a negative. This is not how we hire people." (Id. at ¶ 24).

Some of Dean Hailu's frustration may have stemmed from Crawford's outspoken anti-abortion views. (Id. at ¶¶ 20-24, 26-28). Over the years, Crawford had posted literature on public bulletin boards around CSCC's campus, "most [of which] dealt with religious statements in opposition to abortion." (Id. at ¶ 20). At one point, CSCC administrators began monitoring Crawford's postings, and in the spring of 2012, Dean Hailu "confronted" Crawford about his activities "and ordered him to stop all postings on campus." (Id. at ¶¶ 21-22). After that warning, Crawford met with a human resources representative, "who informed him that the bulletin boards where he was placing materials...were public and [that] anyone could post on them." (Id. at ¶ 23). Accordingly, Crawford "continued to post his religiously-oriented materials on those bulletin boards," which "he was informed were for public use." (Id. ).

In June 2014, roughly six months after receipt of the student petition and recommendation letter, CSCC posted an opening for a fulltime tenure track position in the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, with an "Engineering-Physics Emphasis." (Id. at ¶ 29). The posting sought a successful candidate who possessed "[a]n appropriate combination of education, training, course work[,] and experience," and it included minimum and preferred qualifications which Crawford far surpassed. (Id. at ¶ 30).

Crawford, who holds advanced degrees in Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering, applied for the position. (Id. at ¶¶ 10, 31). Crawford's application included a seventeen-page letter and resume. (Id. at ¶ 31). In his application letter, Crawford mentioned the student petition and recommendation letter from the previous December. (Id. ). When he applied for the fulltime position, Crawford was seventy-one years old. (Id. ).

Dean Hailu then convened a hiring committee to consider the applications that CSCC received. (Id. at ¶ 33). Under the hiring process, committee members independently were to score the objective qualifications of each applicant and then choose the five highest-ranking applicants, based on the committee's combined scores, for interviews. (Id. ).

According to Crawford, Dean Hailu manipulated the hiring process with the agreement of President Harrison and Dean Schneider. (Id. at ¶¶ 32, 35). Together, the three administrators "concluded that [Crawford] would be denied the opportunity to be considered for the position" due, in part, to the fact that he orchestrated the student petition and "place[d] anti-abortion literature and objects around campus." (Id. at ¶¶ 24, 27, 32). Crawford maintains that his objective qualifications "placed him at the top of the applicant group," but that "his application was dropped" before CSCC officials conducted any interviews. (Id. at ¶ 33). Crawford alleges that "[t]he scoring was manipulated to deny [him] an interview." (Id. ).

On August 20, 2014, the hiring committee interviewed a different applicant, Jeevan Baretto, for the position. (Id. at ¶ 34). Professor Baretto, who was forty years younger than Crawford, and who allegedly "possessed dramatically inferior qualifications," was hired two days later. (Id. ). During the Winter Semester of 2015, Professor Baretto was out of the country and unable to teach the courses he was assigned. (Id. at ¶ 36). Dean Hailu assigned a different adjunct lecturer to teach Professor Baretto's fulltime schedule until his return. (Id. ).

B. Procedural Background

Crawford—who sought both the fulltime position and a temporary assignment to teach those fulltime courses in Professor Baretto's absence—felt slighted for being passed over in favor of other candidates. According to Crawford, CSCC officials refused to promote him in retaliation for the exercise of his First-Amendment right to free speech. (Id. at ¶¶ 37-47). That speech allegedly consisted of the following: (1) orchestrating the student petition and letter of recommendation, which referenced concerns over cheating and poor teaching practices within the Biological and Physical Sciences Department, and referring back to those students' concerns in his own application letter; and (2) "[o]ver the years...post[ing] literature on public bulletin boards around CSCC campus....most[ly] deal[ing] with religious statements in opposition to abortion." (Id. at ¶¶ 20, 37-51). Crawford also contends that CSCC officials refused to promote him due to his age. (Id. at ¶¶ 48-51).

Crawford filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against CSCC, as well as Dean Hailu, Dean Schneider, and President Harrison, each in their individual capacity. He subsequently amended his complaint on several occasions—leaving the operative complaint as the Third Amended Complaint from November 20, 2015, which raised the following three claims:

Count 1: a First-Amendment retaliation claim based on the student petition and letter of recommendation (id. at ¶¶ 37-41);

Count 2: a First-Amendment retaliation claim based on Crawford's "religiously-based postings in public areas of CSCC campus" (id. at ¶¶ 42-47); and

Count 3: a Fourteenth Amendment age-discrimination claim based on CSCC's decisions to: (a) hire a younger candidate for the fulltime tenure-track position; and (b) deny Crawford a temporary assignment to that position during the Winter Semester of 2015 (id. at ¶¶ 48-51).

CSCC and the individually named defendants (Dean Michael Hailu, Dean Lisa Schneider, and President David Harrison) moved to dismiss all of Crawford's claims under Rule 12(b)(6). (Doc 24). In doing so, CSCC attached several exhibits to its motion, prompting another round of briefing from the parties over whether to strike those exhibits under Rule 12(f) or to convert CSCC's motion to dismiss into a motion for...