Edwards For and in Behalf of Edwards v. Rees

• Decision Date: 28 August 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-1284,88-1284
• Citation: 883 F.2d 882
• Parties: 55 Ed. Law Rep. 856 Dr. Charles EDWARDS, Guardian for and in Behalf of Craig Alan EDWARDS, a minor, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Dale REES and Davis County School District, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 882

883 F.2d 882

55 Ed. Law Rep. 856

Dr. Charles EDWARDS, Guardian for and in Behalf of Craig Alan EDWARDS, a minor, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Dale REES and Davis County School District, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 88-1284.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

Aug. 28, 1989.

B. Ray Zoll and Tom D. Branch, Salt Lake City, Utah, for plaintiff-appellant.

Allan L. Larson and Andrew M. Morse of Snow, Christensen & Martineau, Salt Lake City, Utah, for defendants-appellees.

Before HOLLOWAY, Chief Judge, and SETH and McWILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

SETH, Circuit Judge.

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed.R.App.P. 34(a); Tenth Cir.R. 34.1.9. The cause is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.

Charles Edwards, guardian for and in behalf of his son, Craig Alan Edwards, plaintiff in this Sec. 1983 action, appeals the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of Dale Rees and Davis County School District. We affirm.

In December 1985, Dale Rees, a vice principal at Farmington Junior High School in Farmington, Utah, removed Craig Edwards from the class he was attending at Davis High School. Mr. Rees took the student to a closed office where he interrogated him for twenty minutes concerning a bomb threat received earlier at Farmington Junior High. It is asserted that Mr. Rees threatened the student with felony prosecution, and questioned him in an intimidating and coercive manner. Charles Edwards, in behalf of his son, Craig Alan Edwards, filed this damages action against Mr. Rees and the School District under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, alleging that the interrogation incident constituted a denial of Craig Edwards' rights under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Mr. Edwards also brought pendent state law claims. In a well-reasoned memorandum opinion and order, the trial court held that Craig Edwards was not deprived of a constitutional right under Sec. 1983.

Initially we address appellant's broad argument that the trial court improperly considered the facts before it for the purposes of the motion for summary judgment. Appellant argues that the trial court, in ruling on the motion, failed to view the facts of the case in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. We review the grant of summary judgment de novo, thus the correctness of the trial court's approach in ruling on appellees' motion is important but not critical at this stage. The issue before us is whether appellant failed to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to his case, and on which he would bear the burden of proof at trial. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552-53, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

The parties were largely in agreement in their accounts of what took place at Davis High School the day Mr. Rees interrogated Craig Edwards. The areas of doubt as to the facts were not of consequence. Appellant's case suffered, however, from the paucity of facts he presented in opposition to the motion, and in particular from an overreliance on the seriously deficient affidavit of Craig Edwards. The conclusory and unsubstantiated allegations contained in that affidavit failed to controvert the facts presented by appellees to the trial judge, who relied only on those statements in the affidavit that could have been within the personal knowledge of the affiant. See Stevens v. Barnard, 512 F.2d 876, 879 (10th Cir.); Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e).

In determining what limits the Constitution places on the investigative and disciplinary activities of school authorities, the courts have always sought to accommodate both the interests protected by the Constitution and the interests in providing a safe environment conducive to education in the public schools. New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 332 n. 2, 105 S.Ct. 733, 737 n. 2, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985). While students do not "shed their constitutional rights ... at the schoolhouse gate," Tinker v. Des Moines Ind. Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 506, 89 S.Ct. 733, 736, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969), the Supreme Court has never held that "the full panoply of constitutional rules applies with the same force and effect in the schoolhouse as it does in the enforcement of criminal laws." T.L.O., 469 U.S. at 350, 105 S.Ct. at 747 (Powell, J., concurring).

Appellant argues that Mr. Rees effected an unlawful seizure of Craig Edwards under the Fourth Amendment when he took him to an office in the school building to question him about the bomb threat. Appellant argues that Craig Edwards was seized for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment because he was taken to a closed office in which he felt constrained to remain until the conclusion of the interrogation. Appellees argue that the incident did not constitute a seizure because Craig Edwards was never told he could not leave, and because Mr. Rees testified in a deposition that he would not have attempted to stop Craig Edwards had he tried to leave. For the purposes of this appeal, we assume without deciding that Mr. Rees seized Craig Edwards for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment, but we hold that any such seizure was reasonable.

In considering whether Mr. Rees' conduct constituted an unreasonable seizure, the trial court applied the standard enunciated by the Supreme Court with respect to searches by school officials in New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1969). T.L.O. involved the search of a student's purse by a school official who suspected her of smoking on campus. The Court held that school officials are bound by the strictures of the Fourth Amendment, but concluded that

"the accommodation of the privacy interests of schoolchildren with the substantial need of teachers and administrators for freedom to maintain order in the schools does not require strict adherence to the requirement that searches be based on probable cause to believe that the subject of the search has violated or is violating the law. Rather, the legality of a search of a student should depend simply on the reasonableness, under all the circumstances, of the search."

Id. at 341, 105 S.Ct. at 742. The Court held that a search of a student by a school official is reasonable if it is "justified at its inception," and "reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place." Id. (citing Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). We believe that the same considerations which moved the Supreme Court to apply a relaxed Fourth Amendment standard in cases involving school searches support applying the same standard in school seizure cases.

Mr. Rees' conduct was justified at its inception by the statements made to him by two students, both of which implicated Craig Edwards as the individual who called in the threat. Appellant did not dispute that these statements were made to Mr. Rees. The statements led Mr. Rees to believe that questioning Craig Edwards about the incident might "turn up evidence that [Craig Edwards had] violated ... either the law or the rules of the school." See T.L.O., 469 U.S. at 342, 105 S.Ct. at 743. Given the seriousness of the suspected offense, questioning Craig Edwards in an office in the school building for twenty minutes was reasonably related in scope to determining whether he had indeed called in the bomb threat.

App...