Jones v. Indiana Area School Dist.
| Decision Date | 25 October 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 2:03 CV 1081.,2:03 CV 1081. |
| Citation | 397 F.Supp.2d 628 |
| Parties | Rachel JONES and Nancy Jones, Plaintiffs, v. INDIANA AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, Kathleen R. Kelley, Rodney Ruddock and Arin Intermediate Unit, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania |
Maureen Dunn Harvey, Wallace, Chapas & Associates, Pittsburgh, PA, for Plaintiffs.
Christina L. Lane, Andrews & Price, Pittsburgh, PA, John W. Smart, Frank G. Adams, Peacock, Keller, Ecker, Crothers, Washington, PA, Douglas R. Nolin, for Defendants.
Defendant ARIN Intermediate Unit and Defendants Indiana Area School District, Kathleen R. Kelley and Rodney Ruddock have filed motions for summary judgment. After careful consideration of the motions, the memoranda of law in support and in opposition and the supporting materials supplied by the parties, this Court will grant ARIN Intermediate Unit's motion with respect to Plaintiffs' request for punitive damages in Count IV and deny it in all other respects. The Court will grant the motion filed by defendants Indiana Area School District, Kathleen R. Kelley and Rodney Ruddock with respect to Counts II, III and V of the complaint and deny the motion with respect to Counts I and IV.
Rachel Jones was a student in the Indiana Area School District (School District) at the time of the events at issue. Nancy Jones, Rachel's mother, is employed as a Vision Specialist by ARIN Intermediate Unit (ARIN), an agency that provides educational services to the eleven school districts within its geographical boundaries of Armstrong and Indiana Counties, Pennsylvania. This case arises out of the alleged harassment of Rachel by another former student, a special education student referred to by the parties as "John Doe." Plaintiffs contend that the School District, its Superintendent (Kathleen R. Kelley) and the principal of the high school (Rodney Ruddock) (together, the School District Defendants) were aware that John Doe was harassing Rachel but did nothing to prevent or remedy it, thereby violating Rachel's rights under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681-88 (Title IX) and her rights to bodily integrity and equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. Plaintiffs also allege that Defendants retaliated against Nancy for exercising her First Amendment rights when ARIN complied with the School District's request to have her transferred out of the School District. Finally, they allege that Kelley subjected Nancy, and Kelley and Ruddock subjected Rachel, to intentional infliction of emotional distress in violation of Pennsylvania law.
During the relevant times at issue, Rachel was a student at the School District, Kelley was the Superintendent of the School District, Ruddock was the principal of the high school and Nancy was employed by ARIN as a Vision Specialist. (Compl. ¶¶ 2-3, 6-7; Answers ¶¶ 2-3, 6-7.) John Doe is mentally retarded and has Sturge-Weber Syndrome. (Rebovich Dep. at 13.)1 He has been identified as a special education student. (Pretrial Stip. § III, ¶ 6.)2 Rachel and John Doe were assigned alphabetically to the same home room in the seventh, eighth and ninth grade years at the Indiana Junior High. (Pretrial Stip. § III, ¶ 7.)
Rachel has stated that, beginning when she was seventh grade in 1997, John Doe began harassing her, in the form of "unwanted attention and affection." (Rachel Dep. at 35-36; Nancy Dep. at 16.)3 Rachel told her homeroom teacher in the eighth and ninth grades about Doe's conduct and she gave the teacher a copy of a letter or drawing John Doe gave to her. (Rachel Dep. at 45-47.) The teacher separated their desks. (Nancy Dep. at 27-28.)
Nancy had multiple conversations with Rachel's guidance counselor, Linda Chrielson, about John Doe's conduct. Nancy was particularly concerned because Rachel was small and John Doe was large. Rachel began suffering from anorexia. (Nancy Dep. at 28-29.)
John Doe had an Individualized Education Program (I.E.P.) with a behavior plan at this time, but there was no mention of his harassing behavior toward Rachel or any other student, and no services were provided to help him deal with it.
Prior to beginning of Rachel entering tenth grade, Nancy had a conversation with John Doe's new special education teacher, Lois Rebovich. (Nancy Dep. at 30.) Mrs. Rebovich stated that she was already aware of the problem and that she had taken John Doe out of Rachel's homeroom and moved his locker. (Pretrial Stip. § III, ¶ 10; Nancy Dep. at 30.) Mrs. Rebovich said she would do what she could. (Nancy Dep. at 33.) John Doe continued to give Rachel notes and drawings and he told her he wanted her to be his girlfriend every day. (Rachel Dep. at 45-47.)
He told her he wrote about her in his journals. Rachel told him that she had a boyfriend and that she would never be his girlfriend. When she turned down his request to take her to a dance, he hit a wall in front of her. (Rachel Dep. at 59-60.) During that same school year, Nancy had continued conversations with Mrs. Rebovich to discuss John Doe's unwanted attention and affection towards Rachel. (Pretrial Stip. § III, ¶ 11.)
When Rachel was in eleventh grade, John Doe began stalking her. He would wait for her at her locker and walk to her classes and he wanted to carry her books. Rachel stated that "He was everywhere." (Rachel Dep. at 64.) She went for help to Bill Waryck, her A.P. Biology Teacher and head of the Student Assistance Program. (Rachel Dep. at 72, 80.) She told him that John Doe was bothering her, talking to her incessantly and wanted to be her boyfriend. Waryck stated that he clearly remembered her coming to him on one occasion, although she may have said something about it again. He told Rachel to bluntly tell John Doe that she did not want to be his girlfriend and that he should leave her alone. (Waryck Dep. at 12-15, 42.)4 Rachel spoke to Waryck about the situation on numerous occasions and Waryck said he would do what he could. (Rachel Dep. at 82.)
Waryck made an effort to stand in his classroom doorway between classes to watch Rachel at her locker because he knew that John Doe would wait for her there. Waryck continued to do this for the two years that Rachel remained in the high school. (Waryck Dep. at 13-14, 16-17.)5 He also advised Mrs. Rebovich and Assistant Principal Holly Rougeaux (then named Holly Lecce) of the situation. (Rebovich Dep. at 34-35; Waryck Dep. at 25-27.)6 He indicated that he did not take discipline problems such as this one to the Student Assistance Program team, but instead told students to take them to the principals. (Waryck Dep. at 24.)
During the spring of Rachel's eleventh grade school year, John Doe began waiting for Rachel after track practice and hanging around her car. (Rachel Dep. at 70-71.) Rachel and Nancy met with Luanne Kokolis, then Vice Principal of the high school. (Rachel Dep. at 73-74, 79; Kokolis Dep. at 18-19, 52.)7 Mrs. Kokolis informed Nancy at their first meeting in April that she had already been apprised of the situation by Mrs. Rebovich. (Nancy Dep. at 39.) Rachel said that she felt uncomfortable because John Doe was around her too much and she wanted him to stop sitting by her in the cafeteria, standing at her locker and giving her gifts and notes. (Kokolis Dep. at 18-19, 52; Rachel Dep. at 73-79.) Mrs. Kokolis told Rachel she could not do anything about John Doe hanging around her car because the car was not on school property. (Rachel Dep. at 73.) Rachel also indicated that John Doe was getting very angry and she heard that he and his friends were looking for her to beat her up after school. (Rachel Dep. at 84.)
Mrs. Kokolis said she spoke with John Doe and Mrs. Rebovich about the situation and explained to him that he could not be friends with Rachel anymore and was not permitted to be around her. Apparently, this made John Doe angry. (Kokolis Dep. at 19, 27-29.)8 Mrs. Kokolis also believed that John Doe's behavior toward Rachel ended after she spoke to him. (Kokolis Dep. at 40.)9 However, Plaintiffs noted that Mrs. Kokolis was later informed of subsequent developments and had a meeting with John Doe's parents in the spring of Rachel's junior year. (Nancy Dep. at 40.)
On March 22, 2001, an I.E.P. conference was held, attended by John Doe, his mother, Mrs. Rebovich and Principal Ruddock, among others. The team removed John Doe's behavior plan, recommended no discipline, no behavior plan and no services. In response to the question on the form that asked "Does the Student Exhibit Behaviors that impede his/her learning or that of others?" the I.E.P. team checked "no." (Pls.' App. Ex. R, Mar. 22, 2001 I.E.P. at 2.)
In Rachel's senior year, on September 11, 2001, John Doe attempted to get into her car as she was leaving school. He held onto the door handle and banged on the glass as she tried to get away. She was hysterical when she arrived at home. (Rachel Aff. ¶ 2; Rachel Dep. at 84-85.)10 Vice Principal Rougeaux stated that, if the incident occurred off of school grounds, there was little the administration could do about it. (Rougeaux Dep. at 31.)11 Rachel, however, testified that she was a senior with an assigned parking space in the school parking lot and the incident occurred in the school parking lot. (Rachel Aff. ¶ 3.) She further stated that Rougeaux knew about the incident, that both she (Rachel) and her mother told Rougeaux that it had occurred on school property, and that the School District did nothing about it except to reassure them that John Doe would be reminded and it would not happen again. (Rachel Aff. ¶¶ 4-5.) Nancy was also told that they were reminding John Doe and it would not happen again. (Nancy Dep. at 49.) After this incident, however, John Doe continued to appear...
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