Doe v. School Administrative Dist. No. 19

• Decision Date: 31 August 1999
• Docket Number: No. CIV. 98-0224-B.,CIV. 98-0224-B.
• Citation: 66 F.Supp.2d 57
• Parties: John DOE, Mary Doe, and Johnny Doe, Plaintiffs, v. SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICT NO. 19, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

66 F.Supp.2d 57

John DOE, Mary Doe, and Johnny Doe, Plaintiffs, v. SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICT NO. 19, et al., Defendants.

No. CIV. 98-0224-B.

United States District Court, D. Maine.

August 31, 1999.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Judith W. Thornton, Ebitz & Thornton, P.A., Bangor, ME, for Plaintiffs.

Jerrol A. Crouter, Drummond, Woodsum, Plimpton & Macmahon, Portland, ME, Kevin M. Cuddy, Cuddy & Lanham, Bangor, ME, for Defendants.

ORDER AND MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

BRODY, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, John and Mary Doe, and their son, Johnny Doe ("Plaintiffs"), bring this action against School Administrative District No. 19 ("SAD # 19"), a municipal school district empowered to administer the public schools in Lubec, Maine, the Interim Superintendent of SAD # 19, Briane Coulthard ("Coulthard"), and Principal Thomas Brennan ("Brennan"). Plaintiffs filed a seven count Complaint alleging violations of Title IX of the Education Act Amendments of 1972 ("Title IX"), 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (Counts I & II), 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Counts IV & V), the Maine Human Rights Act ("MHRA"), Me.Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 5, § 4602 (Counts VI & VII), and negligence (Count III) on the part of all three Defendants.

Before the Court is Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment as to all seven counts. For the reasons discussed below, the Defendant's Motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.

I. STANDARD for SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Summary judgment is appropriate in the absence of a genuine issue as to any material fact and when the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). An issue is genuine for these purposes if "the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A material fact is one that has "the potential to affect the outcome of the suit under applicable law." Nereida-Gonzalez v. Tirado-Delgado, 990 F.2d 701, 703 (1st Cir. 1993). Facts may be drawn from "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). "Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 does not ask which party's evidence is more plentiful, or better credentialled, or stronger." Greenburg v. Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Auth., 835 F.2d 932, 936 (1st Cir.1987). Rather, for the purposes of summary judgment the Court views the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.¹ See McCarthy v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 56 F.3d 313, 315 (1st Cir.1995).

II. BACKGROUND

In the fall of 1996, John and Mary Doe enrolled their 15-year-old son, Johnny Doe ("Doe"), in SAD # 19. He was enrolled as a sophomore in the high school, which had enrollment of approximately 108 students. For the 1996-1997 school year, the high school had a teaching staff of approximately 15 teachers. One of those teachers was Cathy Curtis ("Curtis"), a 24-year-old special education teacher. Curtis had just been hired by the district and was considered to be on probationary status.

During the fall of 1996, various teachers, students, and members of the community noticed that Curtis was developing inappropriately close relationships with some male high school students. At a school Halloween dance, a substitute teacher, Ms. Moores ("Moores") observed Curtis dancing in a suggestive manner with several boys. Moores had previously heard rumors that Curtis had a sexual relationship with one of these boys and decided to take her concerns to Principal Brennan. Moores met with Brennan and expressed concern about what she had seen and heard. Specifically, she told Brennan that Curtis might be having a sexual relationship with at least one boy. In response, Brennan alerted Moores that she could be "sued for slander for saying those things." Brennan made no attempt to investigate Moores' accusations following the meeting.

During the month of November, others brought their concerns to both Principal Brennan and Interim Superintendent Coulthard. These included reports from the school custodian of high school students gathering at Curtis's house as well as reports from a school board member that Curtis appeared too close to male basketball players and was rumored to have gone to the movies with students. In response to these reports, Interim Superintendent Coulthard directed Principal Brennan to meet with Curtis.

Brennan met with Curtis the week before Thanksgiving. Ms. Jamieson, the high school unit coordinator, and Ms. Batstone, a study hall monitor, also attended this meeting. Upon being confronted with the accusation of dating a student and having students at her home, Curtis denied dating a student and explained that students occasionally came to her house for tutoring. Brennan accepted this response but directed Curtis to discontinue tutoring in her home.

Following the meeting, Ms. Jamieson met with Coulthard and expressed her concerns regarding Curtis's relationships with junior and senior boys. The day before Thanksgiving, Brennan witnessed Curtis leave a school event in her car with a male student. When Brennan next saw Curtis, he reminded her of their previous meeting. Curtis responded by explaining that she had taken the boy home to change his clothes. Brennan took no other action to investigate any of the allegations nor did he confront Curtis regarding specific allegations of sexual misconduct.

During the fall of 1996, Doe was not assigned to any of Curtis's classes and essentially had no contact with Curtis. However, Curtis and Doe met at an away basketball game on Friday, December 6, 1996. Curtis attended the game in order to assist in keeping statistics for the team. Doe had come as a spectator and ended up assisting Curtis.

The principal claims in this case arise out of Curtis's egregious sexual harassment of Doe the following night on December 7, 1996. Curtis had offered to take a group of boys, including Doe, to a concert in a neighboring town. However, because of the boys' ages (Doe was 15 and the other boys were 16), they could not get in to the concert. On the way back to Lubec, Curtis purchased alcohol for the underage group and went with them to the home of one of the boys.² Doe proceeded to get highly intoxicated. While he was in this state, Curtis had sexual relations with Doe.

In the following months, Doe did not report this incident with Curtis to his parents or any staff member at SAD # 19.³ At the same time, officials at SAD # 19 did not undertake any investigation of Curtis's alleged misconduct that had been reported by others. In fact, faculty, including Curtis, questioned students about the allegations at only one meeting held in late December. At this meeting, Curtis confronted Doe and some other boys in the presence of two other faculty members about rumors around the school that Curtis had engaged in sexual relations with them. When asked by one of the teachers whether there was truth to the rumors, all of the students, including Doe, answered "no." Neither Coulthard nor Brennan were present at this meeting, although Coulthard suggested the meeting to Curtis as a way to dispel rumors of inappropriate conduct after Curtis complained to him about such rumors.

Doe suffered from depression and contemplated suicide in the months following the incident with Curtis. He did confide in some classmates and a girl he was dating about the events on the night of December 7th. This girlfriend subsequently told her parents, who, in turn, reported the matter to police in March of 1997. This set in motion an investigation that resulted in the filing of criminal charges against Curtis, her dismissal from SAD # 19, and the filing of this lawsuit by the Does.⁴

III. DISCUSSION

A. Title IX & MHRA Claims

For the purposes of this case, the Court will apply the same legal analysis to Plaintiffs' MHRA claims that it applies to the Title IX claims. This interpretation is warranted because the language of the relevant MHRA provision tracks the language of Title IX. See Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 5, § 4602. Additionally, Maine courts "look to federal law in the interpretation of the MHRA." Davidson v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 998 F.Supp. 1, 6 n. 4 (D.Me.1998); See Soileau v. Guilford of Maine, Inc., 105 F.3d 12, 14 (1st Cir.1997) (applying ADA analysis to relevant provision of MHRA); Perez v. Maine, 585 F.Supp. 1535, 1539-41 (D.Me.1984) (finding that legal rights under Title VII and similar MHRA provision, 5 M.R.S.A. § 4572, were "fully equivalent"). However, in doing this the Court notes that section 4602 of the MHRA and Title IX do differ in that compliance with the latter is tied to federal funding while compliance with the state provision is not tied to funding.⁵ Nonetheless, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine has said the "use of federal precedent as an aid in interpreting Maine's anti-discrimination provisions is appropriate." Bowen v. Dept. of Human Services, 606 A.2d 1051, 1053 (1992).

As a preliminary matter, at oral argument both sides were in agreement with the case precedent that there is no individual liability under Title IX. See Lipsett v. University of Puerto Rico, 864 F.2d 881, 901 (1st Cir.1988). Rather, liability under Title IX is clearly limited to the funding recipient. See Davis v. Monroe Cty. Bd. of Ed., 526 U.S. 629, ____, 119 S.Ct. 1661, 1670, 143 L.Ed.2d 839 (1999). Consequently, the Court dismisses all Title IX and MHRA claims against Defendants Coulthard and Brennan leaving only SAD # 19 to answer for the Title IX and MHRA claims that survive Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment.

1. Sexual Harassment (Counts I & VI)

The Court reads Counts I & VI of the Plaintiff's Amended Complaint to allege two separate grounds for sexual harassment. First, Plaintiffs assert that Doe was subject to sexual harassment on December 7, 1996 when he was subjected to unwelcome and nonconsensual sexual intercourse by Curtis, a SAD # 19 teacher. Second, Plaintiffs allege...