Doe v. Lago Vista Independent School Dist.

Decision Date24 February 1997
Docket NumberNo. 96-50056,96-50056
Citation106 F.3d 1223
Parties125 Ed. Law Rep. 1074 Jean DOE, as Guardian and Next Friend of Jane Doe; Jane Doe, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. LAGO VISTA INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant-Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Terry L. Weldon, Law Offices of Terry Weldon, Martin Boozer, Boozer & Tull, Austin, TX, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Nathan Mark Ralls, San Antonio, TX, for defendant-appelllee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before KING and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges, and LAKE, * District Judge.

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

This case presents the question of when a school district is liable under Title IX for a teacher's sexual harassment of a student. We recently addressed this question in a pair of Title IX cases, Rosa H. v. San Elizario Indep. School Dist., 106 F.3d 648 (5th Cir.1997), and Canutillo Indep. School Dist. v. Leija, 101 F.3d 393 (5th Cir.1996). Based on those cases, we affirm summary judgment in favor of the school district.

I.

Frank Waldrop, a teacher at Lago Vista High School, first met Jane Doe while she was a student in his wife's eighth-grade honors class during the 1990-91 school year. At that time, she was thirteen. Because Doe needed a more challenging academic program, Waldrop's wife referred her to her husband's high school discussion group, which Doe participated in for several weeks. When Doe became a ninth-grader, she was assigned to Waldrop's class in advanced social studies. Their relationship grew during the academic year. Waldrop went out of his way to flatter Doe and spend time alone with her, and Doe enjoyed receiving attention from her instructor.

Waldrop initiated sexual contact with her at her home in the spring of 1992. Knowing she would be alone, he visited under the pretext of returning a book and proceeded to fondle her breasts and unzip her pants. During the summer, Waldrop had sex on a regular basis with Doe, who was by then fifteen years old. None of the encounters took place on school property. The relationship ended in January of 1993, when a Lago Vista police officer happened to discover Waldrop and Doe having sex.

Doe agrees with the school district that "there was no direct evidence that any school official was aware of Waldrop's sexual exploitation of Jane Doe" until January of 1993. The parents and guardian of two other students complained to Michael Riggs, the high school principal, that Waldrop had made inappropriate remarks in the presence of female students. Riggs organized an investigation into this complaint, Waldrop denied the charges, and Riggs did not bring the matter to the attention of Virginia Collier, the district superintendent.

The plaintiff sued the school district for negligence and for violations of § 1983 and Title IX. The plaintiff concedes that her negligence action cannot succeed under Texas law. Judge Sparks granted summary judgment to the school district on both statutory claims. Doe appeals only the summary judgment on her Title IX claim.

II.

Doe's Title IX cause of action has its origin in Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, 503 U.S. 60, 112 S.Ct. 1028, 117 L.Ed.2d 208 (1992). But while Franklin made it possible for private litigants to use Title IX to recover money damages when teachers sexually abuse students, it did not set out the standard for assessing a school district's liability. The school district insists that Doe cannot recover unless we are willing to hold educational institutions strictly liable for teachers' misconduct. Doe, on the other hand, claims that summary judgment was inappropriate because school districts can be liable on agency principles when a teacher uses his position of authority to abuse students sexually.

We have recently rejected the notion that Title IX creates strict liability in teacher-student sexual harassment cases. In Canutillo Indep. School Dist. v. Leija, 101 F.3d 393 (5th Cir.1996), we reversed a district court's denial of summary judgment where a teacher molested a second-grade student during movies on school grounds and another teacher had notice of the harassment. A school district is not absolutely liable because, "[s]imply put, strict liability is not part of the Title IX contract." 101 F.3d at 399. To recover, Doe must be able to articulate a theory that is less expansive than strict liability.

One possibility is a theory based on constructive notice. Under this theory, Title IX plaintiffs, like Title VII plaintiffs, can prevail by showing that management-level authorities should have known of the misconduct and failed to take steps to end it. See Waltman v. Int'l Paper Co., 875 F.2d 468, 478 (5th Cir.1989). In Leija, we held that the teacher's abusive conduct was not so pervasive that a reasonable juror could find constructive notice, in spite of the fact that a student and her mother reported the abuse to a teacher. Leija, 101 F.3d at 402. Doe does not pursue the constructive-notice theory because, as in Leija, there is not enough evidence for a jury to conclude that a Lago Vista school official should have known about the abuse. Doe did not present any evidence that any Lago Vista employee other than Waldrop knew of the relationship. School officials knew of complaints about Waldrop's tendency to make inappropriate remarks to students, but those complaints did not concern Doe and gave...

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