L.S. v. Mount Olive Bd. of Educ.

• Decision Date: 25 February 2011
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 09–3052 (DRD).
• Citation: 42 NDLR P 227,267 Ed. Law Rep. 567,765 F.Supp.2d 648
• Parties: L.S. and R.S. on behalf of S.S., an infant, and individually, Plaintiffs,v.MOUNT OLIVE BOARD OF EDUCATION, Michael Iannucci, Audrey Strahl, Christopher Bosch, Julian Johnson, Kevin Stansberry, Rosalie Lamonte, individually and as employees of the Mount Olive Board of Education, and John Does 1–10, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

765 F.Supp.2d 648

267 Ed. Law Rep. 567

42 NDLR P 227

L.S. and R.S. on behalf of S.S., an infant, and individually, Plaintiffs,

v.MOUNT OLIVE BOARD OF EDUCATION, Michael Iannucci, Audrey Strahl, Christopher Bosch, Julian Johnson, Kevin Stansberry, Rosalie Lamonte, individually and as employees of the Mount Olive Board of Education, and John Does 1–10, Defendants.

Civ. No. 09–3052 (DRD).

United States District Court, D. New Jersey.

Feb. 25, 2011.

Kirsch, Gartenberg & Howard, Esqs., by Thomas S. Howard, Esq., Hackensack, NJ, for Plaintiffs.Methfessel & Werbel, PC, by Eric L. Harrison, Esq., Edison, NJ, for Defendants.

OPINION

DEBEVOISE, Senior District Judge.

This matter arises out of the ill-conceived notion to use a 10th grade student's confidential psychiatric evaluation as a tool to teach the famous J.D. Salinger novel, The Catcher in the Rye to an 11th grade English class.

On June 23, 2009, R.S. and L.S., individually, and on behalf of their son, S.S., filed a Complaint against the Mount Olive Board of Education (“the Board”), Michael Iannucci, Audrey Strahl, and Christopher Bosch, alleging violations of (1) S.S.'s constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983”); (2) the New Jersey Constitution and the New Jersey Pupil Records Act (“NJPRA”), N.J.S.A. 18A:35–19; (3) the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq., Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1181; and (4) general negligence principles, and seeking compensatory and punitive damages. Plaintiffs amended the Complaint on March 23, 2010 to join Julian Johnson, Kevin Stansberry, and Rosalie Lamonte as defendants.

Defendants now move for summary judgment on all of Plaintiffs' claims, except those against Mr. Bosch and Mr. Johnson for negligence. In doing so, they contend that (1) L.S. and R.S. failed to establish a prime face case under Section 1983 in their individual capacities; (2) Plaintiffs failed to establish a violation of S.S.'s constitutional rights under the First and Fourth Amendments; (3) Plaintiffs failed to state a claim under Section 1983 against all Defendants for the violation of S.S.'s constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; (4) Plaintiffs failed to state a claim under the New Jersey Constitution against all Defendants; (5) Plaintiffs failed to state a claim under the NJPRA, IDEA, FERPA, and HIPAA; and (6) Plaintiffs failed to state a claim for negligence against all Defendants except Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bosch.

In addition, Plaintiffs cross-move for partial summary judgment in favor of their claims against Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bosch for violations of S.S.'s right to privacy under the United States and New Jersey Constitutions, as well as those for negligence against all Defendants. In doing so, they argue that (1) the undisputed evidence indicates that Mr. Johnson's and Mr. Bosch's conduct deprived S.S. of his right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution; and (2) Defendants' violation of the NJPRA, IDEA, FERPA, and HIPAA constitute negligence per se.

For the reasons set forth below, Plaintiffs' and Defendants' motions are granted in part and denied in part. L.S. and R.S.'s claims under Section 1983 are dismissed because they failed to establish a violation of their constitutional rights in their individual capacities. Plaintiffs' claims under Section 1983 for violations of the First and Fourth Amendments are dismissed because they failed to establish a violation of their rights under those amendments.

Plaintiffs are entitled to summary judgment in favor of the liability portions of their claims under Section 1983 against Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bosch for the violation of S.S.'s constitutional right to privacy, as well as their parallel claims under the New Jersey Constitution, because the undisputed evidence shows that the disclosure of S.S.'s confidential psychiatric evaluation was intentional. However, such claims are dismissed with respect to Mr. Iannucci, Ms. Strahl, Mr. Stansberry, and Ms. Lamonte because there is no evidence that either had any personal involvement, knowledge of, or acquiescence in the disclosure of S.S.'s evaluation. Such claims are also dismissed as against the Board because there is no evidence of a policy or custom, or failure to supervise or train, that exhibited a deliberate indifference towards S.S.'s constitutional rights.

Plaintiffs' claims under the NJPRA, IDEA, FERPA, and HIPAA are dismissed because the NJPRA, FERPA, and HIPAA do not provide for a private right of action altogether, while the IDEA does not provide a private right of action for damages. Finally, Plaintiffs are entitled to summary judgment in favor of the liability portion of their negligence claims against Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bosch, not because the violations of the NJRPA, IDEA, FERPA, and HIPAA constitute negligence per se, but that no reasonable juror could find that they did not breach a duty of care owed to S.S.

I. BACKGROUND

S.S. is a high school student in the Mount Olive school district that has struggled with diabetes and anxiety since the third grade. He was first diagnosed with diabetes in March 2002, at the age of nine. In the following years, S.S., his parents, and doctors attempted to manage his diabetes with mixed results. On several occasions, S.S. experienced dangerously high blood sugar levels, and even went into diabetic shock. In addition, S.S. missed significant portions of school, complaining about abdominal pains, sore throat, nausea, headaches, and fatigue. His doctors and parents further observed that he was exhibiting symptoms of depression and a general phobia of attending school—completing substantial portions of the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades through home instruction at a local library. He attended just three days of the tenth grade before resuming home instruction.

On October 21, 2008, S.S.'s parents, L.S. and R.S., attended a meeting with Michael Iannucci, Director of Special Services for the Board, Deborah Kuzma, Vice Principal of Mount Olive High School, Judy Sarubbi, S.S.'s guidance counselor, a Mrs. Pasquelone, S.S.'s English teacher, Julian Johnson, a social worker employed by the Board and S.S.'s case manager, and Jodi Martino, a social worker, via telephone, to develop an educational plan for S.S. under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. That same day, Christopher Bosch, a special education instructor assigned to the classroom of Audrey Strahl, an English teacher at Mount Olive High School, was helping Ms. Strahl teach the famous J.D. Salinger novel, The Catcher in the Rye, to a class of 11th grade special education students. As an exercise, those students were instructed to prepare a psychological or psychiatric evaluation on Holden Caulfield, the novel's protagonist.

Prior to the meeting between S.S.'s parents and the aforementioned individuals, Mr. Bosch approached Mr. Johnson in his office to ask for assistance in securing a sample psychological or psychiatric evaluation to distribute to Ms. Strahl's students as a guide in preparing their own reports. Shockingly, Mr. Johnson offered S.S.'s psychiatric evaluation to Mr. Bosch and instructed him to delete any information that would personally identify S.S. ¹ Mr. Bosch made a redacted copy of the evaluation and returned the original to Mr. Johnson. He then distributed copies of the redacted evaluation to Ms. Strahl's students to be used as a template.

Mr. Bosch's redactions were as ill-conceived as the notion to distribute S.S.'s evaluation in the first place: significant information about S.S.'s background and medical conditions was left in the document, including the fact the S.S. had been on home instruction, S.S.'s age, religion, grade, family members, physical conditions, past medical and psychiatric history, examinations, and diagnoses. W.P., one of Ms. Strahl's students that received the redacted evaluation, and a friend of S.S., recognized that the information in the evaluation pertained to S.S. Accordingly, he asked Mr. Bosch if the evaluation, in fact, belonged to S.S. Mr. Bosch said it did not and continued with the lesson.

After class, W.P. encountered R.S. and L.S., who were leaving their meeting, and told them that S.S.'s evaluation had been passed out in class as part of an assignment. He then gave them his copy of the redacted evaluation. As a result, they alerted the Mount Olive High School administration, who promptly collected and destroyed all copies of the evaluation.

The parties dispute the effect of this debacle on S.S. Plaintiffs contend that “S.S. reacted with disbelief, shock and embarrassment,” and became too scared to attend school at all. (Pl.'s Br. Summ. J. 9.) In addition, they argue that S.S. became generally reclusive, withdrawn, and asocial. In contrast, Defendants maintain that S.S. was largely unaffected because he believed that most of his friends either did not read his evaluation or realize that it was his in the first place.

The following day, R.S. and L.S. filed an administrative complaint with the New Jersey Department of Education (“the Department”) for breach of confidentiality of S.S.'s student records. On January 26, 2009, the Department issued a written report in response to the administrative complaint. In that report, the Department determined that the Board's personnel had breached the confidentiality of S.S.'s student records. In addition, the Department found that “district personnel are uninformed of the importance of maintaining the privacy of potentially disabled students and the confidentiality of the records of those students. Therefore, corrective action is required to ensure that no similar incident will ever occur.” (Pl.'s Br. Summ. J., Ex. 26.) As a result, the...