S.S. v. Eastern Kentucky University

• Decision Date: 02 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 06-6165.,06-6165.
• Citation: 532 F.3d 445
• Parties: S.S., a minor, by and through his parents and next of friends, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY; Ellen Rini, and Jacqueline Vance, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

532 F.3d 445

S.S., a minor, by and through his parents and next of friends, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY; Ellen Rini, and Jacqueline Vance, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 06-6165.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: March 14, 2008.

Decided and Filed: July 2, 2008.

ARGUED:

Katherine K. Yunker, Yunker & Associates, Lexington, Kentucky, for Appellant. Douglas L. McSwain, Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney, PLLC, Lexington, Kentucky, for Appellees.

ON BRIEF:

Katherine K. Yunker, Katherine Shelby Sanford, Yunker & Associates, Lexington, Kentucky, for Appellant. Douglas L. McSwain, Merrie Kristin Winfrey, Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney, PLLC, Lexington, Kentucky, for Appellees.

Before: MOORE, GILMAN, and SUTTON, Circuit Judges.

GILMAN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which MOORE and SUTTON, JJ., joined. In addition, MOORE, J. (pp. 460-61), delivered a separate concurring opinion.

OPINION

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

From 2000 to 2003, S.S. was a student at the Model Laboratory Middle School (Model), which is operated by Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) to train student teachers under the supervision of certified teachers. S.S. has various disabilities, including cerebral palsy, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, pervasive developmental disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. During his attendance at Model, S.S. was involved in numerous physical and verbal altercations with other students, leading S.S. to complain that he was being bullied and harassed. Model investigated the incidents as they occurred, determining that some were initiated by S.S. and some were initiated by other students. In response, Model took various steps as the school administration deemed appropriate, including interviewing S.S. and his classmates, disciplining the students that it found to be culpable, monitoring S.S., and at times separating S.S. from his harassers.

S.S. left Model after successfully completing the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. He subsequently filed suit against EKU, Model's director Jacqueline Vance, and Model's psychologist Ellen Rini, alleging that the defendants had discriminated against him on the basis of his disability, in violation of both federal and state law. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual background

The district court summarized this case as arising "out of a long and unfortunate string of incidents that occurred during Plaintiff's time at Model.... [T]he core of all of Plaintiff's allegations is the failure of Model and its administrators, particularly Vance and Rini, to adequately respond to those incidents and maintain a safe educational environment for Plaintiff." S.S. v. E. Ky. Univ., 431 F.Supp.2d 718, 722-23 (E.D.Ky.2006). Because the district court's 32-page opinion and order granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants sets forth an accurate description of the numerous incidents that underlie S.S.'s claims, we need not repeat them here. As will be discussed in Part II below, the key issue in this case is not the specific details of each confrontation between S.S. and his peers, but rather the overall adequacy of Model's response to those confrontations.

B. Procedural background

S.S. filed suit in the district court in January of 2003, alleging numerous claims under federal and state law against EKU as an entity and against Vance and Rini in both their individual and official capacities. (The defendants will henceforth be collectively referred to as "Model.") S.S. contended that Model's conduct in disciplining and monitoring him, its failure to respond to and adequately investigate his complaints of discrimination and harassment, and its failure to discipline and monitor the students who harassed him constituted discrimination on the basis of his disability, in violation of both Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12132, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (§ 504), 29 U.S.C. § 794.

He further asserted that Model deprived him of his constitutional rights to due process and equal protection, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. As to his due process claim, S.S. alleged that Model's failure to end the harassment "intruded upon [his] liberty interest to be free from psychological and bodily abuse." His equal protection claim was based on the argument that Model treated him differently from other students by reason of his disabilities, thereby depriving him of equal protection under the law.

Finally, S.S. raised two tort claims under Kentucky state law. The first was a negligence claim, alleging that Model breached its duty to protect him from the harassment and, as a result, caused him bodily harm and other injuries. His second state-law claim was for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, based on allegations that Model's actions constituted intentional and/or reckless conduct that offended generally accepted standards of decency and morality.

The first decision in this case took place in January of 2004, when the district court dismissed all of S.S.'s claims without prejudice after finding that he had not first exhausted his administrative remedies under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (the IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1400. S.S. appealed that decision to this court and simultaneously pursued his administrative remedies for the same claims that he had raised in his complaint.

After a due process hearing before an administrative hearing officer and a review of the hearing officer's decision, the Kentucky Department of Education's Exceptional Children Appeals Board ultimately found, among other things, that Model had not denied S.S. a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) under the IDEA. The issues decided in the administrative proceeding are not before us because S.S. did not appeal the Appeals Board decision.

Following the conclusion of the administrative proceedings, this court reviewed S. S.'s appeal from the district court's dismissal of his claims and found that S.S. had subsequently exhausted his administrative remedies. It then declared his appeal moot, reinstated his claims, and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings on the merits. Model later moved for a judgment on the pleadings as to a number of S.S.'s claims. It conceded, however, that S.S.'s § 504 claims against Vance and Rini in their official capacities and his negligence claims against them in their individual capacities could proceed to discovery. S.S. in turn conceded that his ADA and § 504 claims against Vance and Rini in their individual capacities lacked merit. The district court then dismissed with prejudice some, but not all, of S.S.'s claims pursuant to Rule 12(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

In the meantime, S.S. initiated several discovery requests, asking Model to produce student records, confidential notes, incident files, discipline documents, and significant behavior reports, among other things. He further asked Model to produce all of the foregoing documents "that were created, prepared, or otherwise generated during the period by Model personnel or by Model students that mention or refer to any Model middle school student but that do not mention or refer to S.S., his parents, this lawsuit, or the claims in this Complaint." S.S.'s stated reason for seeking these documents was to demonstrate disparate treatment between himself and other students and between other students with disabilities and nondisabled students, and to show discrimination in the school's policies and procedures.

Model objected to the request on the grounds that it was overbroad and unduly burdensome because it would have required Model to produce every document that made mention of any middle-school student for a five-year period (420 students in total). The school also questioned the relevancy of school records for students who were not in S.S.'s grade and who therefore were not S.S.'s peers. Model noted that it had already produced the discipline and incident records of all of the 71 students in S.S.'s class, as well as the academic records for 32 of those students. The magistrate judge assigned to the case denied S.S.'s request, finding that it was too broad, unduly burdensome, and not likely to lead to admissible evidence. This ruling was affirmed by the district court.

Model then prepared a motion for summary judgment. In doing so, it requested and was granted permission to file a 50-page memorandum in support of its motion, 10 pages longer than the 40 pages allowed by the district court's local rule. The court, in fairness to S. S., also increased to 50 pages the limit applicable to S.S.'s response brief. One day before the response was due, however, S.S.'s counsel asked for permission to file a 75-page brief. The court denied that request.

After reviewing Model's motion for summary judgment and S.S.'s response, the district court concluded that the parties "tell markedly different versions of many events, but ... those differences are not material." It then granted summary judgment to Model on all of S.S.'s remaining claims. S.S. timely appealed, raising several issues. First, he argues that the district court erred in denying his discovery request and in refusing to increase the page limit for his brief in response to Model's motion for summary judgment. He also argues that the district court's opinion granting summary judgment to Model "ignores evidence, draws inferences in Defendants' favor, weighs evidence, and makes determinations of credibility." As to the court's ruling on his substantive claims, S.S. asserts that it applied the wrong standard to his ADA and § 504 claims, erred in finding that his § 1983 and state-law claims fail as a matter of law for lack of evidence of...