Long v. Laramie County Community College Dist., 84-2382
| Decision Date | 23 February 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-2382,84-2382 |
| Citation | 840 F.2d 743 |
| Parties | 46 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 264, 45 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 37,794, 56 USLW 2522, 45 Ed. Law Rep. 70, 3 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1574 Sharon Lee LONG, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LARAMIE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT; Rodney Southworth; Richard Williams; Robert Schliske; Harlan Heglar, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Richard C. LaFond of LaFond & Evangelisti, Denver, Colo. (Jay Dee Schaefer, Schaefer & Newcomer, Laramie, Wyo., was also on the brief), for plaintiff-appellant.
Craig Kirkwood (Kennard Nelson of Kirkwood, Copenhaver & Nelson, Laramie, Wyo., was also on the brief), for defendants-appellees.
Before HOLLOWAY, Chief Judge, and McWILLIAMS and McKAY, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff-appellant Sharon Lee Long, a former part-time instructor in computer science, brought this action against defendants-appellees Laramie County Community College District and several of its administrators and employees. Long seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and back pay under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e, et seq., for alleged disparate treatment resulting from sexual harassment and retaliatory treatment. She also seeks compensatory and punitive damages under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983, 1985 and state common law tort theories. Plaintiff appeals the trial court's judgments in favor of defendants-appellees.
The record reveals the following evidence relevant to this appeal:
Defendant Laramie County Community College (LCCC) hired Sharon Lee Long in August 1977 after she had responded to a newspaper advertisement placed by LCCC. At the time she applied, Long had a high school diploma, three and one half months of training with International Business Machines, Inc. and a few accounting and computer courses through community colleges. She had no college degree and she took no additional courses while at LCCC. The chairman of the business division, defendant Richard Williams, interviewed Long and offered her a contract to teach an introductory business data processing class part-time in the fall semester of 1977, which Long accepted. Long was employed on a semester by semester basis.
After the spring of 1979 LCCC employed defendant Rodney Southworth as its first full-time computer instructor. Long testified that Southworth was her immediate supervisor and that he controlled her scheduling and assignments; Southworth denied being her supervisor and disputed her testimony on his authority over her.
Long's courseload temporarily declined in 1979 when Southworth started as a full-time instructor. When he began teaching higher level courses in the spring of 1980, Long's courseload again increased. The parties stipulated that from the fall of 1977 through the spring of 1981, Long performed her duties capably and competently and she received positive input about her job performance. XXIV R. pl. ex. 2 at 2-3; VI R. 11.
Long testified that in 1979 and 1980 Southworth and at least one student told her that Southworth was sexually involved with female students. VI R. 19-20. At trial Southworth admitted having affairs with one H. and one other student in the fall of 1979 and the spring of 1980. X R. 370-372. Although Long did not initially report these allegations, by October 1980 she testified that Southworth's sexual involvements were beginning to affect her career and relationships with students and peers. XI R. 20.
Long had a dispute with H., who was a member of the LCCC student chapter of the Data Processing Management Association, a group interested in data processing for which Long was faculty advisor. After a business portion of an October 17, 1980 meeting, Long testified that she called Southworth into the hall and "asked him to please get his girlfriends in line," as they were affecting her professionally. Southworth became angry and protested her going to his wife, the Board of Trustees or defendant Williams with her accusations.
There was a further incident between Long and Southworth on October 24, 1980. Long testified that she met Southworth in his office and that he leaned over and put his hands on hers and said: Long interpreted the remarks as a sexual advance and left Southworth's office. XI R. 23; IV R. 2264. About a month later, Long testified that Southworth made a similar statement when she met him at a local bar to discuss their deteriorating working relationship. Long said that Southworth told her that if she would make apologies for some untruths about him, he would see to it that she had the same number of classes to teach in the spring of 1981 as she had in the fall and that he would take her away and they would "spend a lot of time together." She interpreted these remarks again as a sexual advance and threat, and left this meeting in tears. IV R. 2264; VI R. 25.
Southworth disputed Long's version of these meetings directly. He said that in the office meeting he had told Long he hoped they could communicate effectively and denied the remarks interpreted as a sexual advance. Southworth denied making any representations at the off-campus meeting about Long's teaching load and testified he was in no position to determine her workload. X R. 382-89.
Long testified that after she told Southworth she did not want an affair with him, he and others at the college made special criticisms of her job performance, which she had not had before. Long testified that she learned from class schedules that the college did not rehire her to teach in the summer or fall semesters of 1981. Southworth was not speaking to her at this time and defendant Williams would only speak with her when his secretary was taking notes. VI R. 36-38. Again, the defendants' versions of these events differed sharply with Long's statements. While Long said she had raised Southworth's sexual harassment of her and the students at November and December 1981 meetings, defendants Williams, Schliske and Heglar all testified that the meetings did not involve Southworth's alleged sexual harassment of her. XI R. 573, 661; XII R. 755.
There was testimony that in February 1981 there was a meeting of Southworth with Heglar and Schliske. Southworth first denied any involvement with students, but when he was told that someone had reported such an involvement, Southworth admitted having a sexual relationship with one employee, but denied relationships with others. X R. 390-91. Southworth had a relationship with one other student, according to some testimony. X R. 370, 45. The college staff placed Southworth on probation and told him that if he had any sexual involvement with students or committed other improprieties, he would be discharged. Southworth testified that he lived up to the terms of his probation. X R. 392, 404.
The defendants testified there were non-discriminatory reasons for the reduction of Long's teaching load and their decision later not to re-employ her at all. LCCC hired a second full-time instructor in the spring of 1981 for the computer science program. Williams testified that this employee's presence and a normal decline in the demand for courses in the spring of 1981 accounted for a second reduction of Long's courseload from five to two courses in the spring of 1981. Defendants also presented evidence that LCCC did not offer a teaching contract to Long during the 1981 summer session because she had taught two courses in the spring while a better qualified instructor was available and requested one course. Under a new rotation policy, Long was not allowed to teach summer classes in order that the other instructor could teach two courses during that session. Lastly, the decision not to employ Long in the fall of 1981 was based on the availability of more qualified part-time instructors, on the improvement in the data processing program, on the lack of improvement in Long's qualifications, and on the fact that Long had started some rumors and had a poor relationship with defendant Williams and a lack of communication with the remainder of the faculty. XI R. 526-27.
Long contacted a Cheyenne, Wyoming law firm concerning her problems at the college. An intern there investigated and made a report. With Long's approval, the LCCC Board of Trustees treated the report as an administrative grievance under the administrative grievance procedures of the college and the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act, Wyo.Stat. Secs. 16-3-101 to 16-3-115.
A college Grievance Committee hearing was held and the committee made findings and recommendations. Under the school's procedure, findings and decisions of the Board of Trustees of the college followed after review of the committee findings and recommendations. The Board found that those named as parties against whom the grievance was submitted included Rodney Southworth, Dean Schliske, Mr. Williams, Division Chairman, and Dr. Heglar, President of the College, and the College itself. The Board found that a hearing had been held before the Committee. An attorney appeared for Long and another attorney entered an appearance of behalf of all the respondents except Southworth, who represented himself. Testimony was taken for approximately 18 hours and transcribed.
The Board found that there was a basis for the claimed grievance by Long. The Board recognized that sex discrimination is an employment practice in which an employer or his agents discriminate on the basis of sex; that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination; and that sexual harassment is any behavior, unwelcome or unsolicited, verbal or physical, which imposes a requirement of sexual cooperation as a condition of employment or advancement;...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Hargrave v. County of Atlantic
...are not recognized under general constitutional principles— may not be pursued via § 1983. See, e.g., Long v. Laramie County Community College District, 840 F.2d 743, 752 (10th Cir. 1988) (holding that allegations of employer retaliation are properly governed by Title VII and cannot support......
-
Saville v. Houston County Healthcare Authority
...by the equal protection clause"), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1007, 109 S.Ct. 788, 102 L.Ed.2d 780 (1989); Long v. Laramie County Community College Dist., 840 F.2d 743, 752-53 (10th Cir.) (allowing plaintiff to proceed "under §§ 1983 and 1985 on the sexual harassment theory" despite plaintiff's ......
-
Price v. Delaware Dept. of Correction
...under the Equal Protection Clause, and is more properly remedied through Title VII. See also Long v. Laramie County Community College District, 840 F.2d 743, 752 (10th Cir.1988) (holding that a theory of liability under federal law for retaliatory conduct does not come within § 1983, and su......
-
Mummelthie v. City of Mason City, Iowa
...State Sch. and Hosp. v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 28, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 1545, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981)); see also Long v. Laramie County Community College Dist., 840 F.2d 743, 752 (10th Cir.) (§ 1983 claim cannot be predicated on right created by Title VII), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 825, 109 S.Ct. 73......