Garrard v. Charleston Cnty. Sch. Dist.

• Decision Date: 06 November 2019
• Docket Number: Opinion No. 5691,Appellate Case No. 2016-002525
• Citation: 838 S.E.2d 698,429 S.C. 170
• Parties: Amy GARRARD and Lee Garrard, Guardians Ad Litem for R.C.G., A Minor; and Dean Frailey and Kathryn Frailey, Guardians Ad Litem for C.F., A Minor, Richard Nelson and Cheryl Nelson, Guardians Ad Litem for D.G.N., A Minor; Adam Olsen Ackerman; and A.E.P., III, Plaintiffs, v. CHARLESTON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Kevin Clayton, Axxis Consulting Company, and Jones Street Publishers, LLC, Defendants, Eugene H. Walpole, Plaintiff, v. Charleston County School District, Kevin Clayton, Axxis Consulting Company, and Jones Street Publishers, LLC, Defendants, Of Whom Eugene H. Walpole, Amy Garrard and Lee Garrard, Guardians Ad Litem for R.C.G., A Minor; and Dean Frailey and Kathryn Frailey, Guardians Ad Litem for C.F., A Minor, Richard Nelson and Cheryl Nelson, Guardians Ad Litem for D.G.N., A Minor; Adam Olsen Ackerman; and A.E.P., III, are the Appellants, and Of Which Jones Street Publishers, LLC, is the Respondent.
• Court: South Carolina Court of Appeals

429 S.C. 170

838 S.E.2d 698

Amy GARRARD and Lee Garrard, Guardians Ad Litem for R.C.G., A Minor; and Dean Frailey and Kathryn Frailey, Guardians Ad Litem for C.F., A Minor, Richard Nelson and Cheryl Nelson, Guardians Ad Litem for D.G.N., A Minor; Adam Olsen Ackerman; and A.E.P., III, Plaintiffs,

v.CHARLESTON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Kevin Clayton, Axxis Consulting Company, and Jones Street Publishers, LLC, Defendants,Eugene H. Walpole, Plaintiff,

v.Charleston County School District, Kevin Clayton, Axxis Consulting Company, and Jones Street Publishers, LLC, Defendants,Of Whom Eugene H. Walpole, Amy Garrard and Lee Garrard, Guardians Ad Litem for R.C.G., A Minor; and Dean Frailey and Kathryn Frailey, Guardians Ad Litem for C.F., A Minor, Richard Nelson and Cheryl Nelson, Guardians Ad Litem for D.G.N., A Minor; Adam Olsen Ackerman; and A.E.P., III, are the Appellants,andOf Which Jones Street Publishers, LLC, is the Respondent.

Appellate Case No. 2016-002525

Opinion No. 5691

Court of Appeals of South Carolina.

Heard April 1, 2019

Filed November 6, 2019

Rehearing Denied March 18, 2020

John E. Parker and William F. Barnes, III, of Peters, Murduagh, Parker, Eltzroth, & Detrick, P.A., of Hampton, for Appellants.

Wallace K. Lightsey and Meliah Bowers Jefferson, of Wyche, PA, of Greenville, for Respondent.

GEATHERS, J.:

In this defamation action, Appellants—six members of the 2014-2015 Academic Magnet High School (AMHS) football team and their head coach, Eugene Walpole(Coach Walpole)—appeal the circuit court's order granting summary judgment to Respondent Jones Street Publishers.Appellants contend the circuit court erred in (1) finding the statements of fact in certain articles published by Jones Street Publishers are protected by the fair report privilege, (2) finding the opinions expressed in the articles are not actionable, (3) finding Appellants have not shown proof of injury to reputation, (4) finding the alleged defamatory statements were not "of and concerning" the students, and (5) finding Coach Walpole has not shown that Jones Street Publishers acted with actual malice.We affirm.

FACTS/ PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Appellants initiated this defamation action against Jones Street Publishers following its publication of two opinion editorials in the Charleston City Paper(City Paper )¹ concerning a post-game watermelon ritual performed by the AMHS football team.News regarding the watermelon ritual began on October 21, 2014, when the superintendent of Charleston County School District(the School District), Dr. Nancy McGinley, issued a press release stating,

There was an allegation related to inappropriate post game celebrations by the Academic Magnet High School (AMHS) Football Team.An investigation was conducted and, as a result of the investigation, the head football coach will no longer be serving as a coach for Charleston County School District.

Following this press release, Superintendent McGinley held a press conference in which she described the post-game ritual that prompted the investigation.Superintendent McGinley stated that "allegations" were brought to her attention by one of the School District's board members who indicated AMHS's football team was practicing a watermelon ritual that involved students making "monkey sounds" as part of their post-game celebration.She expressed that the board member was concerned about the "racial stereotypes related to this type of ritual."Superintendent McGinley contacted AMHS's principal to investigate the matter.The principal indicated that "the coaches were aware of the ritual following the victories[,] but they did not observe any cultural insensitivities."The principal reported back to Superintendent McGinley that it was an "innocent ritual."However, Superintendent McGinley decided that further investigation was necessary because the board member stated that the football team engaged in a "tribal-like chant that [was] animalistic or monkey-like."

Superintendent McGinley asked the School District's diversity consultant, Kevin Clayton and Associate Superintendent Louis Martin to conduct the investigation.Mr. Clayton and Mr. Martin interviewed the students on the football team and the coaches.The investigation revealed that "players would gather in a circle and smash the watermelon while others were either standing in a group or locking arms and making chanting sounds that were described as ‘Ooo ooo ooo,’ and several players demonstrated the motion."Superintendent McGinley stated the AMHS team named the watermelons "Bonds Wilson"² and drew a face on each watermelon "that could be considered a caricature."A copy of the caricature that was drawn on the watermelons was shown at the press conference.³Superintendent McGinley concluded the press conference by stating that it was "our conclusion that the accountability lies with the adults" and that the Charleston County School District(the School District) had "taken action to relieve the head coach of his responsibilities."No students were named during the press conference.

After the press conference, several news media outlets ranging from national publications to the AMHS's newspaper reported on the firing of Coach Walpole, and numerous commentators expressed their opinions concerning the post-game ritual.

City Paper 's editor, Chris Haire, watched Superintendent McGinley's press conference by a live television broadcast from the School District's public hearing room.After viewing the press conference, Mr. Haire wrote an opinion editorial about the events described entitled, "Melongate: Big toothy grins, watermelons, and monkey sounds don't mix," which was published in the City Paper on October 21, 2014.The article, in its entirety, provided,

Today, Charleston was consumed by one story and one story only: the removal of Academic Magnet football coach Bud Walpole amid allegations that his players more or less behaved like racist douchebags.And if there's one lesson to be learned from all of this[,] it's this: big toothy grins, watermelons, and monkey noises don't mix.Any sensible person can see that.

Apparently not.And apparently not the coaching staff and the players on the Academic Magnet Raptors.

Somewhere along the way in this year's unexpectedly successful season, the Raptors took a liking to buying watermelons before their games.They apparently drew a face on it each time—a big toothy, grinning face.The first time the watermelon was named Junior.The next time it was Bonds Wilson, the name of the campus the AMHS shares with School of the Arts.That name stuck.

But here's where the things get even worse.At the close of each game, the players smashed the watermelon on the ground while reportedly making the monkey-like sounds of ‘ooh ooh ooh ooh.’Apparently, the players did this after four or five games, each time evidently after the largely white Raptor squad beat one of their opponents, each one largely an African-American team.Parents of players on one of the opposing teams reportedly brought this to the attention of African-American Board member Michael Miller last week.

That the coaching staff of the Academic Magnet Raptors and none of its players, including at least one African-American, didn't see the trouble with this toxic combination of monkey sounds, toothy grins, and watermelons is at best baffling and at worst indicative of the casual acceptance of racism in Charleston today, even among the best and brightest that the county has to offer.After all, AMHS is not only the No. 1 ranked school in the state, it's one of the tops in the nation[ ].

Seriously, did everyone at AMHS forget the last 100 years of American history?Did they forget about blackface, Buckwheat, and Birth of a Nation ?Did they forget about minstrel shows?Did they forget about Coons Chicken, lawn jockeys, golliwogs, and the like?Apparently so.I don't know about you, but I think it's time to reconsider Academic Magnet's rankings because clearly they are producing nothing more than grade-A dumbas[***].

Even more troubling is the degree to which Raptor Nation has circled the wagons around Walpole and the team.Frankly, this has nothing to do with the fact that the coach is by all accounts a good man.Walpole's merits are meaningless.

The point is that an entire team of players thought it was OK to draw a grinning face on a watermelon, smash it on the ground each time they beat a largely black team, and make monkey noises—and no one apparently told them to stop.

No one said, "Hey guys, I know not a single one of you has a racist bone in your body, you know, because that's a bad thing, and well, you're an Academic Magnet kid, and you come from a good middle-class white family and you're going to college, and there's no way in hell you'd, you know, draw a racist caricature on a watermelon and make monkey noises and do it fully aware of, like, what all that stuff means, because if you did, knowing all that stuff, then yikes, people might start thinking you're racists.Hell, I'd think you're a racist, and, well, I just don't know if I can deal with the fact that Charleston's best and brightest students are racist douchebags.I mean, it's just a joke right?Right?"

Actually, it’s not.It's the sad truth about life here in Charleston, S.C. today.

In a reversal, Superintendent McGinley issued a press statement on October 22, 2014 indicating she was reinstating Coach Walpole as head coach and that he would resume his coaching duties on October 23, 2014.Shortly thereafter, the Charleston County School Board announced the resignation of Superintendent McGinley.⁴Following this announcement, Mr. Haire wrote a second article entitled, "Mob Rules: School district forces out superintendent who fired coach who condoned racist ritual."This article was published in the City Paper on November 5, 2014.

Later that month, six members of the AMHS football team filed a defamation complaint against Jones Street Publishers, the School District, Kevin Clayton...