Lucia v. Duggan

• Decision Date: 26 August 1969
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 69-424-G.
• Citation: 303 F. Supp. 112
• Parties: David LUCIA, Plaintiff, v. James DUGGAN et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

303 F. Supp. 112

David LUCIA, Plaintiff, v. James DUGGAN et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 69-424-G.

United States District Court D. Massachusetts.

August 26, 1969.

Haskell C. Freedman and Philip A. Mason, Brown, Rudnick, Freed & Gesmer, Michael Altman, Boston, Mass., for plaintiff.

George B. Adams, Jr., Palmer, Mass., for defendants.

OPINION

GARRITY, District Judge.

This case arises upon plaintiff's complaint under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for injunctive relief and damages based upon his allegedly improper dismissal as a teacher in the Monson public schools. The defendants are the members of the Monson school committee at the time of his dismissal on January 30, 1969, the present members of the Monson school committee, and the superintendent of the schools of the town of Monson. The superintendent has occupied his position since before the inception of the events in question until the present.

On June 10 the court denied plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction, principally upon the ground that his reinstatement as a teacher pending final determination of this case would have caused further confusion and disruption for the students in his classes disproportionate to its possible benefits to plaintiff. The court has since completed a trial of the merits of this case without jury at which most of the facts stated in the following findings were stipulated by the parties.

Findings of Fact

1. Monson, Massachusetts, is a small town near Springfield in the western section of the state and has a population of approximately 4,000 people exclusive of the inhabitants of a state hospital located there.

2. Plaintiff was originally hired to teach in the Monson public schools for the school year 1966 through 1967. His contract was renewed for the school years 1967-'68 and 1968-'69. His most recent contract was effective for one year beginning September 1, 1968 and includes the following termination provision:

This contract may be terminated by mutual consent at any time, or by written notice of termination by either party thirty (30) days before the effective date of such termination, provided the termination by the School Committee shall be subject to the provisions of the law prescribing procedures for the dismissal of teachers and that contract termination by either party may not take place within thirty (30) days immediately preceding the opening or closing of the school year.

At the time of his dismissal on January 30, 1969, plaintiff had not yet attained tenure status.

3. From the time he was originally hired until the end of December 1968 plaintiff was clean-shaven, with one minor exception noted below. During the winter school vacation of 1968-1969 plaintiff began to grow a beard and returned to school with a beard when classes resumed on January 2. Plaintiff has continued to wear a beard to this date. While the beard covers his face, it has been at all times short, neat, and well-trimmed. Plaintiff performed his duties as a teacher from January 2 to January 17 and during that time there was no disruption of his classroom or the learning situation caused by his wearing a beard.

4. During the first week of January defendant Donovan, the superintendent of schools, spoke to plaintiff and told him that it was the unwritten policy of the school committee that teachers should be clean shaven on the job. On January 8, as a result of questions and remarks directed from a few citizens of Monson to members of the school committee, the committee directed Mr. Donovan to write a letter to plaintiff "expressing the thoughts of the committee and the superintendent of schools with respect to his wearing of a beard while in the performance of his professional duties."

5. On January 13 the principal of the Junior-Senior High School where plaintiff was teaching summoned plaintiff to his office and told plaintiff that the school committee had a policy that teachers should be clean shaven on the job. He mentioned two prior occasions when teachers had worn beards, one during the previous Fall when the principal had given plaintiff permission to raise a few days' growth in conjunction with a Halloween costume and the other when another teacher had appeared wearing a beard at the teachers' meeting on the day before the start of the Fall 1968 school term. He reminded plaintiff that the other teacher had shaved his beard off that night at the principal's request.

6. On January 15 plaintiff was called into the office of the superintendent who handed him the following letter:

Dear Mr. Lucia:

On Wednesday, January 8, 1969 the Monson School Committee discussed the wearing of beards and moustaches by male members of the staff. It is our wish that our teachers not have a beard or moustache while in the performance of their professional duties.

It is requested that you not wear a moustache or beard while teaching.

Very truly yours William F. Donovan Superintendent of Schools

Mr. Donovan then told plaintiff, "Were I you, I'd remove the beard, but the decision is up to you." Plaintiff asked for an opportunity to meet with the school committee and was told that he could attend the meeting that night if he wished.

7. That evening plaintiff coached a basketball team in a local recreational league and went directly from the basketball game to the meeting, arriving in shirt sleeves and generally "unkempt." He and the school committee members discussed the matter of his wearing a beard, each member stating his reasons for feeling that it was not appropriate for a teacher to wear a beard in the classroom. Although the meeting was amicable, at least one member of the committee felt that plaintiff's attitude was "arrogant." Plaintiff stated to one member that Monson was one hundred years behind the times and it was the duty of the school committee to provide leadership in the town. As he was leaving the meeting room, plaintiff stated, "What are you going to do about it?" One of the committee members, Mrs. Skwark, responded, "David, it is not what we are going to do about it. It is what you are going to do about it."

8. On January 16 the school committee met and voted that plaintiff "be suspended as a teacher from the Monson School System for a period of seven (7) school days because of insubordination and improper example set by a teacher in the Monson School System, said suspension to commence on Monday, January 20, 1969 and continue through January 28, 1969 in accordance with the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 71, Section 42D." Plaintiff was not notified that the school committee was going to consider suspending him as a teacher nor was he given any notice of the January 16 meeting. On the next day a letter signed by Mr. Donovan and dated January 17 was served in hand upon plaintiff by a deputy sheriff of Hampden County setting forth the school committee's vote and advising him of his suspension. Plaintiff was suspended on Monday, January 20. The last school day for which he was paid was Friday, January 17.

9. On January 28 the school committee held another meeting. Plaintiff was not informed of it. In executive session the committee voted that, if plaintiff should appear at school with a beard on January 29, the superintendent should suspend him for an additional two days. The committee also voted that it would hold a meeting on the evening of January 30 "for the purpose of voting on the dismissal of David Lucia." Upon his arrival at school on January 29, plaintiff was told to report to the office of the superintendent who informed him that he was suspended for an additional two days. The superintendent said nothing else about the school committee's action of the night before.

10. Plaintiff was not notified of the meeting of January 30 nor informed of its purpose. The meeting, however, did receive advance local publicity and on the 29th plaintiff sent the following telegram to the chairman of the school committee:

WOULD LIKE TO HAVE LEGAL COUNSEL AT MEETING TOMORROW NIGHT BUT LAWYER IS NOT AVAILABLE UNTIL MONDAY. WOULD YOU POSTPONE MEETING UNTIL THEN

Plaintiff received the following telegram in response from the chairman shortly before the January 30, meeting convened:

MEETING NOT POSTPONED. YOU MAY PERSONALLY PRESENT YOUR REQUEST TO FULL COMMITTEE TONIGHT

11. When the school committee convened its meeting on January 30, the chairman, defendant Duggan, immediately resigned and, after a number of nominations for chairman were declined, defendant Raleigh was appointed temporary chairman. Plaintiff then appeared before the committee in executive session accompanied by a non-lawyer friend and requested that the meeting be postponed because of his inability to be represented that evening by legal counsel. His request was not granted and he was so advised. A group of about thirty or forty townspeople had gathered in the hallway and the committee requested that they appoint one or two spokesmen; this done, the townspeople followed their appointed spokesmen into the meeting room and were allowed to stay there. They proceeded to ask questions as to what the charges were against plaintiff and why a good teacher in the Monson schools should be removed. The members of the committee answered the questions either with silence or with the statement that "Mr. Lucia knows what the charges are." After the townspeople finished asking questions they left the meeting room and the school committee returned to executive session.

12. Upon Mr. Donovan's recommendation, the committee voted unanimously to dismiss plaintiff and the superintendent of schools was directed to so notify plaintiff. Each member of the committee thereupon resigned from the school committee and left the meeting. The minutes of the meeting, unlike those of the meeting on January 16, record no reason for plaintiff's dismissal. The reasons for his dismissal, according to the parties' stipulation, were: (a) the raising of a beard; (...