M.N. v. Morgan Hill Unified Sch. Dist., H043343

• Decision Date: 24 January 2018
• Docket Number: H043343
• Citation: 20 Cal.App.5th 607,229 Cal.Rptr.3d 186
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: M.N., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. MORGAN HILL UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants and Respondents.

20 Cal.App.5th 607

229 Cal.Rptr.3d 186

M.N., Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.MORGAN HILL UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants and Respondents.

H043343

Court of Appeal, Sixth District, California.

Filed January 24, 2018

Attorneys for Plaintiff and Appellant: M.N., Lindsay Marie Cooper, Jeffrey William Nardinelli, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP

Attorneys for Defendant and Respondent: Morgan Hill Unified School District, Sloan Robert Simmons, Steve Ngo, Walnut Creek, Lozano Smith

Attorney for Defendant and Respondent: Santa Clara County Office of Education, Robert M. Coelho, Office of the Monterey County Counsel

BAMATTRE-MANOUKIAN, J.

In March 2015, the principal of Martin Murphy Middle School (School) in Morgan Hill recommended that M.N. (then, a 13-year-old boy in the seventh grade) be expelled. The recommendation was based upon allegations that M.N. had committed sexual assault or sexual battery upon a 13-year-old female student (Victim) on multiple occasions while the two of them were riding on a School bus.¹ An administrative panel of the Morgan Hill Unified School District (District) conducted an evidentiary hearing and recommended that M.N. be expelled from the District for one calendar year, finding that he had committed or attempted to commit sexual assault or committed sexual battery, and also committed sexual harassment. The District's Governing Board (Board) adopted the panel's recommendation. M.N.'s administrative appeal to the Santa Clara County Board of Education (County Board) was denied.

M.N. filed a petition for writ of mandate challenging the expulsion decision. On December 7, 2015, the superior court concluded there was substantial evidence to support the administrative finding that M.N. had committed sexual battery under which the District was required by statute to expel the student for one year. The court nonetheless granted a peremptory writ and remanded the case to the District to consider the sole issue of whether the evidence justified it exercising its statutory discretion to suspend the order of expulsion.

M.N.'s primary contention on appeal is that the superior court erred in finding there was substantial evidence to support the District's finding that M.N. had committed misdemeanor sexual battery, a finding that carried with it mandatory expulsion. He asserts that the District's sexual battery finding was unsupported by any competent evidence of the element of specific intent—i.e., that M.N.'s unwanted touching of an intimate part of Victim was "for the specific purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse" ( Pen. Code, § 243.4, subd. (e)(1) ). He contends that proof of such specific intent was based entirely upon hearsay.

We conclude that there was substantial evidence—including competent, admissible, nonhearsay evidence—to support the District's finding that M.N. committed a sexual battery. And, as discussed below, we reject M.N.'s remaining claims of error that (1) the District's decision cannot stand because it failed to make factual findings, and (2) the superior court's decision upholding the District's sexual battery finding was allegedly based on the court's conclusion that M.N.'s awareness of the harmfulness of his actions satisfied the specific intent element of that offense. Accordingly, we will affirm the judgment.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Administrative Proceedings

On or about March 5, 2015,² School Principal Heather Griffin suspended M.N. She stated in the notice of suspension that under Education Code section 48915, subdivision (c), M.N. was subject to mandatory expulsion for "[s]exual assault or sexual battery (commit or attempt to commit)."³ On March 6, Principal Griffin made an expulsion recommendation to the director of student services based upon M.N.'s violations of section 48915, subdivision (c)(4), and section 48900, subdivisions (k), (n), and (t)(2) ; she specifically stated that M.N. had committed sexual battery upon another student.

In her March 6 discipline incident report, Principal Griffin summarized that she was informed before school commenced on March 5 that a female student had been tripped by boys on the bus on March 4, and the bus driver, upon speaking with the female student, was concerned that multiple boys had touched her inappropriately. The female student, when interviewed by Griffin and a Morgan Hill Police Officer, stated she had asked the boys, including M.N., numerous times to stop touching her, but they did not comply with her requests. As further reported by Griffin in her discipline incident report, M.N. was called in as a potential suspect and admitted that on a "handful" of occasions, he had "touch[ed] the female student on her breasts and buttocks [and had made] comments of a sexual nature towards her."

On March 9, M.N.'s parents were provided with a notice of an administrative hearing. On the same date, the District provided M.N.'s parents with, inter alia, the documents to be presented at the expulsion hearing.

The matter then proceeded to hearing on June 11 before a three-member administrative hearing panel (Panel). Both the District and M.N. were represented by counsel. Three witnesses testified in the proceedings: Principal Griffin, M.N., and M.N.'s mother. Additionally, the Panel received certain documents: the expulsion recommendation, discipline incident report, a discipline incident list and incident summary, the notice of suspension, student statements, attendance report, and teacher observation checklists.⁴ On or about June 12, the Panel recommended to the District that M.N. be expelled from the District for one calendar year based upon his commission of acts of sexual battery (violation of §§ 48900 and 48915, subd. (c)(4) ) and sexual harassment (violation of § 48900.2). The Board adopted the Panel's recommendation on June 23. M.N. appealed the Board's decision. The County Board heard the case on August 12, and it issued a written decision on August 18 denying M.N.'s appeal.

B. Court Proceedings

On September 15, M.N. filed a petition in the court below under Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5 for writ of administrative mandamus (writ petition) against the District and County Board. He alleged that the expulsion decision was invalid because the District and County Board, in finding he had committed sexual battery, had relied exclusively upon hearsay evidence to prove that M.N.'s specific intent was sexual in nature. The finding, M.N. argued, therefore ran afoul of section 48918, subdivision (f)(2), which provides that "no evidence to expel shall be based solely upon hearsay evidence." M.N. submitted a declaration attaching a number of documents from the administrative proceedings, including the transcript of the hearing before the Panel.

The District and the County Board filed answers to the writ petition, and the District filed a memorandum in opposition to the relief sought in the writ petition.⁵ After a hearing, the court issued its order on December 7. The court concluded there was substantial nonhearsay evidence in the administrative record to support the finding that M.N. had committed misdemeanor sexual battery under Penal Code section 243.4, subdivision (e). The court held further that the record did not contain substantial evidence to support the District's finding supporting expulsion that " ‘due to the nature of the act, the presence of the pupil causes a continuing danger to the public safety of the pupil or others.’ " The court therefore ordered that a peremptory writ be "granted on the basis that the findings were inadequate on the sole issue of punishment of the Petitioner and the matter is remanded to the agency to prepare additional and adequate findings on that issue after reopening the proceedings in their entirety."

The District filed a motion for reconsideration or for clarification of the order pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1008. It argued that remand was unnecessary and inappropriate because of the court's finding that there was substantial evidence supporting the District's conclusion that M.N. had committed sexual battery in violation of section 48900, subdivision (n). The District contended that such a violation carries with it mandatory expulsion under section 48915, subdivisions (c) and (d). Therefore (it argued), the District's secondary findings that M.N.'s presence "cause[d] a continuing danger to the public safety of the pupil and others"—specified in section 48915, subdivision (e)(2) for offenses (such as sexual harassment) for which the punishment of expulsion is discretionary—were unnecessary to the outcome of the case.

After extensive briefing and argument, on February 10, 2016, the court denied the motion for reconsideration, but it modified and clarified its prior order. It held that "the explained grounds for its original order were incomplete, if not erroneous" in that the court had failed to acknowledge that expulsion for a violation of section 48900, subdivision (n) is mandatory. But the court recited that under section 48917, subdivision (a), the governing board has the discretion to suspend the enforcement of its expulsion order for not more than one calendar year, and there was nothing in the record suggesting that the Board considered suspending the expulsion. The court therefore modified and clarified the original order on the writ petition to provide that the Board on remand must consider whether there was evidence justifying suspension under section 48917, subdivision (a) of the expulsion order. M.N. filed a timely notice of appeal.⁶

II. DISCUSSION

A. Administrative Mandamus & Standard of Review

Review of an administrative decision by mandamus is appropriate where the hearing in the underlying administrative proceeding was mandatory, evidence was required to be taken in the proceeding, and there was discretion vested in the body determining the matter in deciding contested factual issues. ( Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5, subd. (a).) A court...