N.R. v. Sch. Bd. of Okaloosa Cnty.

• Decision Date: 30 September 2019
• Docket Number: Case No. 3:18cv2208-MCR-EMT
• Parties: N.R., a minor, BY Jason RAGAN and Amy Ragan, his natural guardians, Plaintiff, v. The SCHOOL BOARD OF OKALOOSA COUNTY, FLORIDA, Mary Beth Jackson, Stacie Smith, Arden Farley, Alan Lambert, Jon Williams, Roy Frazier, Jean Hennion, and Does 1-30, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Florida

418 F.Supp.3d 957

N.R., a minor, BY Jason RAGAN and Amy Ragan, his natural guardians, Plaintiff,

v.The SCHOOL BOARD OF OKALOOSA COUNTY, FLORIDA, Mary Beth Jackson, Stacie Smith, Arden Farley, Alan Lambert, Jon Williams, Roy Frazier, Jean Hennion, and Does 1-30, Defendants.

Case No. 3:18cv2208-MCR-EMT

United States District Court, N.D. Florida, Pensacola Division.

Signed September 30, 2019

John M. Leace, Ryan Blake Hobbs, Talley Lee Kaleko, Ryan Philip Molaghan, Brooks Leboeuf Foster etc, Tallahassee, FL, for Plaintiff.

Michael Patrick Spellman, Robert Jacob Sniffen, Terry Joseph Harmon, Sniffen & Spellman PA, Kayla Elizabeth Platt Rady, Linda Bond Edwards, Rumberger Kirk & Caldwell PA, Tallahassee, FL, Eric Alexander Krebs, Timothy M. Warner, Warner Law Firm-Panama City FL, Dixon Ross McCloy, Jr, Hand Arendall Harrison Sale LLC, Panama City FL, Joseph L. Hammons, Hammons Law Firm-Pensacola FL, Pensacola, FL, Anthony M. Hoffman, Speegle Hoffman Holman & Holifield LLC, Mobile, AL, David McKinnon Delaney, Dell Salter-Gainesville FL, Gainesville, FL, for Defendants.

ORDER

M. CASEY RODGERS, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiff N.R. is an autistic, nonverbal child who allegedly suffered physical and verbal abuse at the hands of his special education teacher, Roy Frazier, and a teacher's aide, Jean Hennion, while he was enrolled at Silver Sands School in Okaloosa County, Florida during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. N.R., through his parents, Jason and Amy Ragan, filed the instant action against the Okaloosa County School Board and seven individual defendants, alleging federal constitutional and statutory claims, as well as claims under Florida law.¹ All eight named defendants have separately moved for dismissal of N.R.'s claims.² Having carefully considered the law, the complaint, and the parties' arguments, the Court rules as follows.

I. Background

The basic facts, as alleged in the First Amended Complaint, ECF No. 64, and construed in favor of N.R., are as follows.³

a. The Parties

Plaintiff N.R. is an autistic, nonverbal child enrolled in the exceptional students education ("ESE") program at Silver Sands School in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Silver Sands is a public school in the Okaloosa County School District ("the School District"), governed and overseen by Defendant Okaloosa County School Board ("School Board"). During the time period relevant to this case, Defendant Mary Beth Jackson⁴ was the Superintendent of the School District and Defendant Stacie Smith⁵ was the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. The School District also employed an investigator, Defendant Arden Farley, who was responsible for, as relevant to this case, investigating allegations of misconduct by instructional personnel and school administrators.

From 2014 to 2017, N.R. was assigned to the classroom of Defendants Roy Frazier, a special education instructor at Silver Sands, and Jean Hennion, Frazier's aide. Defendant Alan Lambert served as Silver Sands' principal until his retirement midway through the 2015-2016 school year, after which, Defendant Jon Williams became principal.

b. The Allegations of Abuse at Silver Sands

N.R. alleges that Frazier and Hennion physically and verbally abused him, as well as other ESE students at Silver Sands, from the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year until the end of the 2015-2016 school year. Throughout that approximate two-year period, Frazier pushed, slapped, punched, kicked, pinched, flicked, threw shoes at, and withheld food from N.R., often physically injuring him as a result. It is also alleged that Frazier and Hennion regularly disciplined N.R. and other ESE students by strapping them onto a stationary exercise bike.⁶ Additionally, it is alleged that Frazier locked N.R. and other students in a hot transport van during field trips and confined them in cardboard boxes. The allegations of abuse further include: the use of duct tape on ESE students as restraints; tying a sack over a student's head, causing him to panic and undress himself; swinging students by their arms and legs, then throwing them to the floor, causing at least one student to suffer head injuries

; striking a student with a closed fist causing red marks and bruising; secluding a student in small, dark room; calling students "inappropriate" names; and making vulgar and offensive comments to students about their parents. The alleged abuse occurred openly in classrooms, in school hallways, and on school field trips.

According to the complaint, Frazier's conduct did not go unreported to school administration officials.⁷ Numerous unnamed Silver Sands employees who "witnessed" Frazier physically and verbally abusing ESE students reported their observations directly to Principal Lambert "on multiple occasions during the fall semester of the 2015-2016 school year." See ECF No. 64 at 28. Many times, Principal Lambert reassured the reporting employee that he would talk to Frazier and "tak[e] care of" the matter. See id. However, he never spoke with Frazier and never acted to stop the abuse. Instead, in many instances, he retaliated against the reporting employees by "separating them from their assigned students, moving them to different classrooms, and changing one aide's assigned lunch hour to 9:15 a.m." See id. at 32–33. In another instance, Principal Lambert told a teacher's aide that he "had only one year left until retirement" and "not to ruin that time" by reporting physical abuse and "forcing him to deal with the consequences of such a report." See id. at 28–29. Principal Lambert did, in fact, retire "midway through the 2015-2016 school year," without ever having fulfilled his state-mandated obligation to report Frazier's alleged abuse to the Department of Children and Families ("DCF") or otherwise taken any action to protect Frazier's students. See id. at 9.

In January 2016, Principal Williams joined Silver Sands. At the time, Frazier was still openly abusing ESE students in classrooms, school hallways, and on school field trips. On February 16 and 18, 2016, teacher's aides in Frazier's classroom sent "written notification" of Frazier's ongoing abuse to four School District officials—Principal Williams, Investigator Farley, HR Assistant Superintendent Smith, and Superintendent Jackson—in which they described a litany of separate incidents of abusive conduct. See id. at 29–30.⁸ At this point, Smith emailed Frazier to advise him of "the seriousness of the allegations against" him and the "need for [his] students to be protected from him." See id. at 31. Thereafter, Investigator Farley investigated and substantiated the physical abuse allegations, then detailed his findings in an "[i]nvestigative [s]ummary" that was sent to Principal Williams, HR Assistant Superintendent Smith, Superintendent Jackson, and Jeffrey McInnis, an attorney for the school district.⁹ See id. at 30–31. In the summary, Investigator Farley recommended that Frazier be disciplined and "evaluated to assess whether an environment of disabled students is where he should work." See id. As with Principal Lambert, none of these school officials made a mandatory report of Frazier's abuse to DCF.

Approximately 10 days later, on March 16, 2016, HR Assistant Superintendent Smith sent a letter to Superintendent Jackson recommending that Frazier receive a three-day suspension for "not following student [behavioral intervention plans]" and "not documenting accurate travel locations when he took students on field trips." See id. at 31. The next day, Superintendent Jackson sent two letters—one addressed to Frazier, the other to the School Board—also recommending a three-day suspension for the same reasons. None of the letters discussed, or even mentioned, the substantiated reports that Frazier was physically abusing ESE students. Frazier was ultimately suspended for three days; however, he was not required to serve the suspension "immediately or even on consecutive days." See id. Instead, he was permitted to choose three dates, over the course of a month, that were convenient for him.¹⁰

Throughout this period—and, indeed, through the end of the 2015-2016 school year—school officials left Frazier in the same ESE classroom, where he continued physically abusing N.R. and other ESE students. And, Silver Sands employees continued reporting the abuse to school officials. In April 2016, for example, a teacher's aide voiced her concerns in a phone call with HR Assistant Superintendent Smith and Superintendent Jackson. These two officials "disregarded" the aide's report. See id. at 32. Other aides were instructed by the "administration to only reply ‘today was a good day,’ " if asked by a student's parents how the school day went. See id. at 33. Finally, it is alleged that unnamed "administration" officials intentionally made a false report to DCF in order to conceal Frazier's abuse. More specifically, on one occasion, Frazier allegedly punched a student so hard in the chest that it echoed across the hallway and caused red marks and bruising. Administration officials allegedly described the incident to DCF, but purposely identified a different child as the victim so that DCF would not know to investigate the actual victim. Other than this alleged false report to DCF, none of the defendants in this case reported Frazier's conduct to appropriate authorities, despite their state-mandated reporting obligation.

c. The Allegations of Abuse at Kenwood Elementary School

"Shortly after" receiving notice of Frazier's abusive conduct at Silver Sands, the School Board, Superintendent Jackson, HR Assistant Superintendent Smith, and Investigator Farley "were contacted regarding" another ESE instructor, Marlynn Stillions, who allegedly was physically abusing ESE students at another school in the School District, Kenwood Elementary School. See ECF No. 64 at 34. Stillions had reportedly kicked and shoved ESE students; pinched their faces and bodies causing red marks and bruising; forced vinegar...