Schroeder v. Maumee Bd. of Educ.

• Decision Date: 08 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 3:00CV7311.,3:00CV7311.
• Citation: 296 F.Supp.2d 869
• Parties: Matthew SCHROEDER, a minor, by and through his parents and next friends Sandra and John SCHROEDER, Plaintiff, v. MAUMEE BD. OF EDUC., et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

296 F.Supp.2d 869

Matthew SCHROEDER, a minor, by and through his parents and next friends Sandra and John SCHROEDER, Plaintiff, v. MAUMEE BD. OF EDUC., et al., Defendants.

No. 3:00CV7311.

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

December 8, 2003.

Thomas A. Sobecki, Toledo, OH, Jillian S. Davis, American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, Raymond V. Vasvari, Jr., Berkman, Gordon, Murray & Devan, Cleveland, OH, for Plaintiff.

James L. Schuller, Shuller Law Office, Raymond H. Pittman, III, Schuller Law Office, Toledo, OH, David Kane Smith, Britton, Smith, Peters & Kalail, Cleveland, OH, Karin W. Rilley, Britton, Smith, Peters & Kalail, Scott C. Peters, Britton, Smith, Peters & Kalail, Cleveland, OH, for Defendants.

ORDER

CARR, District Judge.

This is a gender discrimination and free speech case brought by plaintiff Matthew Schroeder, a minor, by and through his parents, against defendants Maumee Board of Education, Christopher Conroy, Principal of Gateway Middle School, L. James Wilson, Assistant Principal of Gateway Middle School, and Gregory Smith, Superintendent of Maumee City Schools.

Schroeder claims that individual school officials and the Maumee Board of Education violated his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a). This court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331.

Pending is defendants' motion for summary judgment. For the following reasons, defendants' motion shall be granted in part and denied in part.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff is currently fifteen years old and receives private tutoring at his home in Toledo, Ohio. Plaintiff alleges that during fifth, sixth, and seventh grades, while he attended Fort Miami Elementary School ("Fort Miami") and Gateway Middle School ("Gateway") in Maumee, Ohio he was the victim of repeated, pervasive physical and verbal harassment. Plaintiff contends that, although he and his mother told defendant Conroy, Principal of Gateway, about the harassment during sixth and seventh grades, Gateway administrators failed to take any action to stop its occurrence.

Plaintiff asserts that the primary cause of the harassment was his propensity to speak out in favor of gay rights at school. He began expressing his views in fourth grade after he found out that his older brother, Chris, is gay. His views apparently led his peers, teachers, and administrators to suspect that plaintiff was also gay. Based on this perception, plaintiff alleges that many of his classmates targeted him for abuse in the forms of name-calling, offensive gesturing, and physical threats and violence.

Plaintiff contends that he did not want to fight with other pupils, so he usually walked away when they made threats, and responded to their comments "by saying things like `why would you persecute gays if they haven't done anything to you?'" (Doc. 69, at 3). Plaintiff acknowledges that "occasionally" he responded to the harassment by calling other pupils names. (Id.).

Plaintiff recounts several occasions in which the name-calling and harassment escalated to physical violence against him. He points to the first such incident as the catalyst for most of the later harassment and for many of his current mental and physical injuries. He alleges that when he was in the fifth grade attending Fort Miami, a female classmate approached him at a bowling alley and, after watching plaintiff give some money to another child, said "`Are you giving him that money because you want to suck him, you little fag?'" (Id. at 4). Plaintiff alleges that, later, on the bus, the same child approached him with a female classmate, and made another similar comment. Plaintiff admits that they engaged in "a round of name-calling." (Id.). The two girls then allegedly called plaintiff a "queer" and started kicking him. One of the girls "jumped on [plaintiff] with her knees on him." (Id.). Plaintiff was taken to the hospital that night; he claims he suffered serious injuries to his back and testicles.

Plaintiff alleges that this beating in fifth grade precipitated constant name-calling and other harassment, which escalated while he attended Gateway in sixth and seventh grades. He alleges that in sixth grade he told defendant Conroy about the harassment, but it did not stop. When plaintiff again approached Conroy, he alleges that Conroy asked plaintiff which of his brothers was gay, and said "`So are you a fag, too?'" (Id. at 5). Plaintiff alleges that Conroy then said that he "`would take care of those boys'" and told plaintiff "`[y]ou can learn to like girls. Go out for the football team.'" (Id.). Plaintiff also alleges that at another meeting Conroy told him that "if he shut his mouth about gay rights, he would stop getting into so many fights." (Id.).

Plaintiff allegedly continued to get into fights, including one incident in which a student repeatedly punched him and another said "`that's what you get, you little fag.'" (Id.) Plaintiff admits that he punched the child who said this, though he says it was an accident. Plaintiff contends that, because of continuous harassment and fighting, defendants Wilson and Conroy eventually told him that "the school district could not keep him safe." (Id.). Plaintiff alleges that the harassment continued, and that, in seventh grade, he was beaten by two older pupils in the bathroom. Plaintiff alleges that the children "slammed his head in a urinal and chipped his ... [tooth] on the urinal." (Id.) Plaintiff further alleges that one of the children called him a "little faggy queero" and said "`... you're a little bitch. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to beat the living shit out of you." (Doc. 56 Exh. A, at 156-57). Plaintiff contends that he told a teacher about the altercation, but that plaintiff, not his alleged attackers, was ultimately disciplined for the incident.

Plaintiff alleges that "`tons of times'" other students at Gateway harassed him, and that he reported the incidents to his mother and to defendants Conroy and Wilson. (Doc. 69, at 6). Plaintiff says that Conroy "stated that he would take care of it" on more than one occasion. (Id.). Plaintiff also contends that, when he was in seventh grade, defendant Wilson watched several other kids call plaintiff derogatory names and beat up plaintiff after school, but did not help plaintiff when he called out for assistance. Plaintiff further alleges that Wilson did not discipline the students involved in the beating. (Doc. 66, at 42-45).

Plaintiff contends that defendants failed to enforce Gateway's policies prohibiting the abuse and harassment he suffered because of plaintiff's gender and because they perceived plaintiff to be gay. In other situations involving racial and gender discrimination, plaintiff alleges, the school did enforce its policies and protect its students. Additionally, plaintiff claims that defendants' failure to protect him, coupled with defendant Conroy's comment to plaintiff about not speaking out on gay issues, objectively chilled plaintiff's free speech rights. Finally, plaintiff claims that defendants' failure to address the harassment plaintiff endured effectively impeded his access to an education.

Defendants contend that plaintiff was simply a troubled student with a long school disciplinary record of fighting, name-calling, and other behavioral problems. Defendants also claim that they had no knowledge of the alleged harassment plaintiff suffered due to his views and others' perceptions of his sexuality. They dispute plaintiff's contentions about their statements to him.

Defendants point out that none of plaintiff's school disciplinary records make any mention of plaintiff's alleged complaints to teachers or administrators about the harassment he says he endured. Defendants claim Gateway fully investigated each of the incidents plaintiff cites, as well as each incident listed in plaintiff's disciplinary record (which defendants reproduce, in detail, in their pleadings), and that the school took appropriate action in each case in light of the information it received from students, plaintiff, his mother, and Gateway teachers and administrators. Defendants assert that none of Gateway's investigations revealed any harassment of plaintiff due to his perceived sexuality, his gender, or the sexual orientation of plaintiff's older brother.

Gateway and the Maumee Board of Education have a sexual harassment policy prohibiting all forms of sexual harassment. Defendants allege that the school uniformly enforced its anti-harassment policy in all appropriate cases. They point to incidents where girls were called "lesbian," "hermaphrodite," and "slut," in which defendants punished the perpetrator,¹ as evidence that the school fairly enforced its policy.

Plaintiff and his mother claim that they repeatedly complained to defendants Conroy and Wilson about the harassment plaintiff was suffering, but no written record of their complaints was ever made. Plaintiff contends that the lack of written documentation of the harassment and the fact that plaintiff, not others, was repeatedly disciplined reflect the school's failure to investigate and respond properly in situations where plaintiff was actually the victim.

Plaintiff filed this case over three years ago, after he left Gateway Middle School. He has attended several other schools since that time, and currently receives home tutoring. Plaintiff has also been in and out of the hospital and has been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress syndrome, and bipolar disorder. (Doc. 66, at 25). Defendants seek summary judgment on all of plaintiff's claims.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Summary judgement must be entered "against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91...