Rhodes v. Ohio High School Athletic Ass'n, 5:96cv1816.

• Decision Date: 05 September 1996
• Docket Number: No. 5:96cv1816.,5:96cv1816.
• Citation: 939 F. Supp. 584
• Parties: Dru RHODES, Plaintiff, v. OHIO HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

939 F. Supp. 584

Dru RHODES, Plaintiff, v. OHIO HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, et al., Defendants.

No. 5:96cv1816.

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio, Eastern Division.

September 5, 1996.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Leslie Iams Kuntz, Robert Paul Harbert, II, Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffiths & Dougherty, Canton, OH, for Dru Rhodes, plaintiff.

Steven L. Craig, Heichel, Craig & Prelac, Canton, OH, for Ohio High School Athletic Association.

E. Carroll Thornton, Jr., Newman, Olson & Kerr, Youngstown, OH, for Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, The Department of Education.

ORDER

SAM H. BELL, District Judge.

Currently before the court is the motion of Plaintiff Dru Rhodes for a preliminary injunction enjoining Defendants Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) and The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown (the Diocese) from enforcing the OHSAA's "eight consecutive semester" rule which would otherwise preclude Plaintiff from participating on his high school football team. The court took evidence and heard argument on this matter in a hearing held Thursday, August 22, 1996. The parties have also favored the court with briefs on the question, and the court is now well-prepared to issue its findings.

I. Background

Plaintiff Dru Rhodes is an eighteen year old student in his senior year at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, a school owned and operated by the Defendant Diocese. In 1987, while Dru was in the fourth grade, he was diagnosed with learning disabilities, including Attention Deficit Disorder. At that time he began receiving special services for his disability through the North Canton City School District.

Prior to Dru's freshman year in high school, he enrolled at Western Reserve Academy where Dru and his parents believed he could continue his personalized educational program. While at Western Reserve, Dru also played on the school football team. As a private boarding school, the Academy was not required to provide accommodations for Plaintiff's learning disabilities, nonetheless, he did receive out of class attention from his teachers and from his headmaster, who oversaw Plaintiff's studying for at least a couple of hours each week. While enrolled there, Dru's scholastic performance took a decidedly downward turn, and he now disputes the quality of the out-of-class attention that he received, saying that it fell far short of the tutoring which his disability requires. That year, Plaintiff's grade average was only 2.5 on 7 point scale, and he earned only one credit toward graduation. The student was informed that he would not be asked back to Western Reserve for the 1993-94 school year.

Consequently, in the fall of 1993 Dru Rhodes enrolled as a freshman in St. Thomas Aquinas High School. The school determined that Dru was academically ineligible to play football that fall semester because of his failing marks the year before. Fortunately, Dru thrived at St. Thomas where he received tutoring and other assistance for his disabilities; his present cumulative grade average is 2.633 on a 4 point scale. Dru has been involved in athletics since his second semester at St. Thomas.

The 1996-97 school year will mark Dru Rhodes's fifth and senior year in high school. It will also mark his ninth and tenth high school semesters. In the present fall semester, Dru would like to compete on the school football team, but he has been denied that privilege pursuant to an OHSAA rule which states: "After a student completes the eighth grade, the student shall be eligible to compete in high school athletics for a period not to exceed eight semesters taken in order of attendance, whether the student participates or not." (OHSAA Rule 4-3-4, docket # 4, ex. 1.) Although Dru has competed in only seven semesters of high school athletics, he has already been enrolled in high school for eight consecutive semesters, thus, according to the rule, Dru's athletic eligibility has expired.

Dru and his parents sought relief from the rule through the OHSAA's waiver and appeal procedures, first requesting a waiver from the Commissioner of the OHSAA, Clair Muscaro. After the request was denied, Dru appealed to the OHSAA Board of Control who, after a hearing, denied Dru's appeal on June 13, 1996. A little over two months later, or twelve days before the first scheduled football game of the season, Dru Rhodes filed the instant cause of action in which he seeks an emergency injunction to protect him from what he claims are OHSAA violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Ohio Revised Code Section 4112.01 et seq. Defendant OHSAA denies any violation of law and opposes the Plaintiff's motion. The Defendant Diocese is a "friendly" defendant because, according to counsel at the hearing, the Diocese supports Dru Rhodes's claim insofar as it would not subject the Diocese or St. Thomas to an OHSAA penalty. The court will therefore consider the instant motion primarily insofar as it relates to OHSAA's enforcement of its rule.

II. Analysis

It is well established that when considering a motion for a preliminary injunction, the court must address the following factors:

(A) Whether the party seeking the order has shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits;

(B) Whether the party seeking the order will suffer irreparable harm absent the injunction;

(C) Whether the order will cause others to suffer substantial harm; and

(D) Whether the public interest would be served by injunctive relief.

Golden v. Kelsey-Hayes Co., 73 F.3d 648, 653 (6th Cir.1996), petitions for cert. filed, 64 USLW 3727 (U.S. April 17, 1996) (No. 95-1674), 64 USLW 3795 (U.S. May 17, 1996) (No. 95-1884); Forry, Inc. v. Neundorfer, Inc., 837 F.2d 259, 262 (6th Cir.1988); North Avondale Neighborhood Ass'n v. Cincinnati Metro. Hous. Auth., 464 F.2d 486, 488 (6th Cir.1972); Reynolds v. International Amateur Athletic Fed'n, 841 F.Supp. 1444, 1454 (S.D.Ohio 1992); Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Kramer, 816 F.Supp. 1242, 1246 (N.D.Ohio, E.D.1992). No single factor is dispositive; rather, the court must balance them collectively to determine whether an injunction should issue. In re DeLorean Motor Co., 755 F.2d 1223, 1229 (6th Cir.1985).

A. Substantial Likelihood of Success on the Merits.

1. Applicability of the I.D.E.A.

The Plaintiff has based his argument on three separate grounds which the court shall consider in turn. First, however, the court must address the Defendant's argument that the Plaintiff's claims are not properly before the court because Dru Rhodes has not exhausted his administrative remedies in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I.D.E.A), 20 U.S.C. Section 1415. That Act, also known as the Education of the Handicapped Act, requires that states receiving certain federal financial assistance establish procedures "to assure that handicapped children ... are guaranteed procedural safeguards with respect to the provision of free appropriate public education." 20 U.S.C. § 1415(a). The I.D.E.A. then specifies "with painstaking care" the minimum requisites for due process in that administrative context. Id.; Crocker v. Tennessee Secondary Sch. Athletic Ass'n., 873 F.2d 933, 934 (6th Cir.1989). Ohio has since implemented its own "Impartial Due Process Hearing" regulations in accordance with the federal mandate. See Ohio Administrative Code § 3301-51-02(G). Before a student can bring a claim in either Federal court or state municipal court, he or she must exhaust the state administrative hearing process. 20 U.S.C. § 1425(e)(2); Crocker, 873 F.2d at 935.

In the instant case, it is clear that Plaintiff Rhodes has not subjected his claim to Ohio's Impartial Due Process Hearing procedure. However, Rhodes argues that the exhaustion requirement and, indeed, the entire I.D.E.A. do not apply to him. Plaintiff relies on the terms of the statute which state that the I.D.E.A. governs only those who seek "safeguards with respect to the provision of free appropriate public education." (Docket # 8, at 2 (quoting 20 U.S.C. § 1415(a)).) Plaintiff Rhodes's education is neither free nor public. The court appreciates this difference but finds that the case hinges on a narrower issue: whether Plaintiff's athletic program is pursuant to an Individual Educational Plan ("IEP"). In a Sixth Circuit decision, Crocker v. TSSAA, the plaintiff, a disabled student, sought a waiver of a Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association rule which precluded him from competing in varsity athletics at his public high school by reason of his transfer of schools. The Sixth Circuit dismissed the case because the Court assumed that the "State" Athletic Association's decision was a part of the Plaintiff's IEP, and because Plaintiff failed to subject this complaint about his IEP to Tennessee's mandatory administrative review procedure. Crocker, 873 F.2d at 937.

In the instant case, Plaintiff attended a private school that has chosen to subject itself to an athletic association to which the state delegates a great deal of authority and, thus, it is likely that the Plaintiff's claim would typically be subject to Ohio's administrative process. However, there is no evidence in this matter that Rhodes had an IEP in recent history, save for the one implemented in order to aid him in his preparation for the ACT college board examination. Thus, unlike the plaintiff in Crocker, Plaintiff Rhodes had no IEP from which to appeal through the Ohio administrative process. To dismiss the instant action for failure to comply with an administrative process which was not open to Plaintiff would be manifestly unjust, and is not compelled by the statute. The court will thus reach the merits of Plaintiff's claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 12101-12213, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, codified at 29 U.S.C. Section 794.

2. Plaintiff's Federal Claims.

The ADA and the ...