Nicol v. Auburn-Washburn Usd 437

• Decision Date: 01 November 2002
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 01-2117-CM.
• Citation: 231 F.Supp.2d 1092
• Parties: Andrea N. Sanders NICOL, Plaintiff, v. AUBURN-WASHBURN USD 437, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas

231 F.Supp.2d 1092

Andrea N. Sanders NICOL, Plaintiff, v. AUBURN-WASHBURN USD 437, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 01-2117-CM.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

November 1, 2002.

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Ira Dennis Hawver, Ozawkie, KS, for Plaintiff.

M. Kathryn Webb, Richard W. James, Robin E. Kluge, McDonald, Tinker, Skaer, Quinn & Herrington, P.A., Wichita, KS, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MURGUIA, District Judge.

This case arises out of a physical altercation between defendant Jerald F. Targett, a school security officer at Washburn Rural High School ("Washburn Rural") in Topeka, Kansas, and plaintiff Andrea N. Sanders Nicol, a student at Washburn Rural. Following the events giving rise to this action, plaintiff filed suit against defendant Auburn-Washburn Unified School District 437 ("USD 437"), several employees of Washburn Rural, and one member of the USD 437 School Board. Plaintiff named the individual defendants in both their individual capacities and official capacities as agents of defendant USD 437.

Plaintiff filed her suit under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., claiming defendants created "a hostile education environment" that included both harassment and physical abuse and discriminated against plaintiff on the basis of her gender. Plaintiff also filed her suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming defendants violated her rights under the Fourth Amendment to be free from unreasonable seizure, violated her rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to receive both procedural and substantive due process and to receive equal protection and "equal education," and violated her First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of association.¹ In addition, plaintiff filed her suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3), alleging defendants engaged in a conspiracy to deprive plaintiff of her "class-based civil rights."² Finally, plaintiff filed several related state law statutory and common law claims against defendants, including claims under Kan. Stat. Ann. § 60-513 "against the use of excessive force by officers," claims under Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-3608 for child endangerment, and common law claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, and battery.

Pending before the court is defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 37). As set forth below, defendants' motion is granted in part.

• Background³

On the morning of September 30, 1998, at Washburn Rural, defendant Jerald Targett, a school security officer, was called to the school's commons area. In the commons area, defendant Targett encountered two female ninth grade students, including plaintiff. These female students had just been suspended from school for misbehavior. The two students left the commons area because they had been instructed to go to their various classes and pick up homework assignments to be completed during their suspension. Defendant Targett followed the two girls. The two students used obscene language and told defendant Targett to stop following them. Defendant Targett responded with obscene words and told the two girls to leave the school premises. At one point, defendant Targett followed the girls into a classroom and placed his hands on plaintiff. Officer Targett grabbed plaintiff's arm and, standing behind her, placed his forearm across her throat, shutting off her air supply. Officer Targett then swung plaintiff off the floor by her neck and dragged her into the school hallway. Defendant Targett then "drove" plaintiff's face and head into a wall, which resulted in bruises to her face. (Pl.'s Resp. at 2; Compl. at 6). He then "slammed" plaintiff into a drinking fountain. (Id.) Plaintiff clung to the drinking fountain to keep defendant Targett from dragging her away. Defendant Targett wrenched her away from the drinking fountain with such force to her neck that she pulled the drinking fountain off the wall. Plaintiff's knee was injured when it struck the drinking fountain.

With the assistance of another adult male security officer, defendant Targett then physically forced plaintiff into submission. Plaintiff was handcuffed, taken to Shawnee County juvenile book-in, and then released to her parents. Upon her release, plaintiff's parents took plaintiff to a hospital for treatment.

On October 5, 1998, defendant USD 437's School Board held an administrative suspension hearing. Following the hearing, plaintiff was suspended from school for the remainder of the semester. On August 2, 1999, plaintiff's parents appeared before defendant USD 437's School Board requesting an investigation into the actions of defendant Targett against plaintiff. However, in a letter dated September 13, 1999, defendant Howard Schuler, Superintendent, and defendant Stephen Angel, USD 437's School Board President, indicated that the School Board would take no action against any employee of the District for doing their job. Plaintiff alleges that defendant Targett was "generally in the community, known to have used harassment and excessive force against female minor students at his previous employment as a security officer at U.S.D. 501." (Compl. at 2).

Plaintiff alleges she was too frightened due to this altercation to return to school where defendant Targett was in a position of authority. Plaintiff alleges that she was "diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and has developed a fear and hatred of authority, and of large males." (Id. at 7). Plaintiff also alleges that she has been impaired in the fullness of her family relationships, including those with her parents.

• Motion to Dismiss

The court will dismiss a cause of action for failure to state a claim only when it appears beyond a doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of the theory of recovery that would entitle him or her to relief, Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957); Maher, 144 F.3d at 1304, or when an issue of law is dispositive. Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 326, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989). The court accepts as true all well-pleaded facts, as distinguished from conclusory allegations, Maher, 144 F.3d at 1304, and all reasonable inferences from those facts are viewed in favor of the plaintiff. Swanson, 750 F.2d at 813. The issue in resolving a motion such as this is not whether the plaintiff will ultimately prevail, but whether he or she is entitled to offer evidence to support the claims. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974), overruled on other grounds, Davis v. Scherer, 468 U.S. 183, 104 S.Ct. 3012, 82 L.Ed.2d 139 (1984).

• Plaintiff's Stipulation of Dismissal of Claims

In her response to the pending motion, plaintiff noted that she "stipulates to the dismissal of her Freedom of Association, Freedom of Speech, Right to Equal Education, and Right of Equal Protection causes of action." (Pl.'s Resp. at 12). Defendants present no objection to these proposed dismissals. Accordingly, the court hereby dismisses Count 2 of plaintiff's complaint to the extent it sought a remedy for these claims. Therefore, the court finds that following plaintiff's stipulation, Count 2 remains only to the extent it alleges claims for unreasonable seizure and for procedural and substantive due process violations.

• Qualified Immunity from Federal Civil Rights Claims

• Relevant Defendants

Defendants assert they are "immune from liability for the federal civil rights violations claimed by plaintiff by reason of the qualified immunity doctrine." (Defs.' Mot. at 4). Although all defendants have moved for dismissal on the basis of the qualified immunity defense, the court assumes that defendants' arguments regarding qualified immunity apply only to the individual defendants sued in their individual capacities and not to the school district defendant or the individual defendants sued in their official capacities. The court makes this assumption based upon the legal principle that a municipal entity, including a school district, does not "enjoy immunity from suit — either absolute or qualified — under § 1983." Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit, 507 U.S. 163, 166, 113 S.Ct. 1160, 122 L.Ed.2d 517 (1993); see also Seamons v. Snow, 206 F.3d 1021, 1029 (10th Cir.2000) (noting school districts are quasi-municipal agencies). Moreover, any claim raised against a municipal official in their official capacity is tantamount to a claim against the entity itself. In addition, relevant to the immunity analysis, defendants assert that the individually named defendants are "government officials who performed [acts] within the course of their duties" and that these defendants acted "in good faith and not in ignorance or disregard of settled indisputable principles of law." (Defs.' Mot. at 4).

B. Qualified Immunity

Qualified immunity protects state actors from liability when acting within the scope of their employment. "[G]overnment officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). Qualified immunity provides government officials immunity from suit as well as from liability for their discretionary acts. Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526-27, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985); Pueblo Neighborhood Health Ctrs., Inc. v. Losavio, 847 F.2d 642, 644 (10th Cir.1988). The doctrine of qualified immunity serves the goals of protecting public officials "who are required to exercise their discretion and the related public interest in encouraging the vigorous exercise of official authority." Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 506, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978).

Where a defendant raises the defense of...