Schultzen v. Woodbury Cent. Community School Dist.

Decision Date19 February 2003
Docket NumberNo. C01-4089-MWB.,C01-4089-MWB.
Citation250 F.Supp.2d 1047
PartiesApril Marie SCHULTZEN, Plaintiff, v. WOODBURY CENTRAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT and Larry Bumsted, Individually and in his Official Capacity, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa

Stanley E. Munger, Jay Elliot Denne, Sioux City, IA, for Plaintiff.

Michael J. Frey, Hellige, Lundberg, Mies, Erickson & Frey, Douglas L. Philips, Klass Stoik Mugan Villone Phillips Orzechowski Clausen, et al., Sioux City, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER REGARDING DEFENDANT LARRY BUMSTED'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

BENNETT, Chief Judge.

                TABLE OF CONTENTS
                I.   INTRODUCTION ................................................. 1049
                     A. Procedural Background ..................................... 1049
                     B. Factual Background ........................................ 1051
                II.  LEGAL ANALYSIS ............................................... 1052
                     A. Standards For Summary Judgment ............................ 1052
                        1. Requirements of Rule 56 ................................ 1052
                        2. The parties' burdens ................................... 1053
                
                B. Counts I and III ofSchultzen's Complaint .................. 1053
                     C. Claims Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ....................... 1054
                        1. Title IX violation ..................................... 1054
                        2. Constitutional violations under § 1983 ................. 1056
                           a. Acting under color of state law ..................... 1057
                           b. Causation ........................................... 1060
                     D. Qualified Immunity ........................................ 1061
                        1.  Arguments of the parties .............................. 1061
                        2.  Applicable standards .................................. 1062
                        3.  The test for qualified immunity on summary judgment ... 1063
                        4.  Application of the standards .......................... 1063
                III. CONCLUSION ................................................... 1063
                

According to American Cancer Society estimates for 2002, approximately 170,000 cancer deaths among Americans will be attributable to tobacco use; 154,900 of these from lung cancer. American Cancer Society, Cancer Prevention & Early Detection—Facts & Figures 2002, available at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/STT/stt O.asp (2002). The Cancer Prevention & Early Detection study found that tobacco use among American high school students, grades nine to twelve, in 1999 was 34 .8 percent, or more than one-third of all high school students nationwide. Id. This same study found that in 1999, 29.5 percent of female students in Iowa high schools smoked cigarettes, and of those 19.9 percent smoked cigarettes frequently, higher than the nationwide statistic of 15.6 percent. Id. In the present action, the plaintiffs ability to participate in high school extra curricular activities was extinguished when she decided to join that 29.5 percent of Iowa high school females and smoke cigarettes. The plaintiff asserts four counts of discrimination regarding her su pension for twelve weeks from playing volleyball. Plaintiff was suspended because she was caught smoking in violation of defendant school district's good conduct code which prohibits any student who participates in any extra curricular activity of the school from using tobacco. The Iowa High School Athletic Association has found that "Research does not support claims that nicotine found in cigarettes, or smokeless tobacco, enhances athletic performance by improving reaction time, movement time, or total response time." Iowa High School Athletic Association, Cigarette Use by Teenagers, Wellness Update 99, # 3, available at http://www.iah-saa.org/wu99-S.htm. To the contrary, "The physical performance of adolescents is less in those who smoke compared to those who don't." Id.1

I. INTRODUCTION
A Procedural Background

This matter is before the court on defendant Larry Bumsted's ("Bumsted") Motion for Summary Judgment in both his individual and official capacities. Previously, Woodbury Central Community School District ("the school district") moved to dismiss portions of plaintiff April Marie Schultzen's ("Schultzen") complaint on the ground that portions of the complaint fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Namely, the school district asserted that Schultzen's punitive damage claims were not cognizable under Title IX, section 1983, nor under Iowa Code Chapter 216 as against the school district. In her resistance to the school district's motion to dismiss, Schultzen agreed that punitive damages were not available against the school district under either 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or Chapter 216 of the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Schultzen did resist the school district's assertion that Title IX did not provide for an award of punitive damages against a public school district because no court of appeals has of this date decided that issue. Schultzen asserted that she had pled sufficient facts to support a finding of ongoing violations by the defendants, which would allow for an award of punitive damages. On February 22, 2002, this court issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order Regarding Defendant Woodbury Central Community School District's Motion to Dismiss (# 13). In its order, the court granted the school district's motion to dismiss Schultzen's punitive damages claims under Counts I (Title IX), II (section 1983), and III (Chapter 216) because municipal entities are immune from punitive damages under these causes of action. The school district does not participate in Bumsted's motion for summary judgment.

Schultzen asserts four counts of discrimination. Count I alleges violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ("Title IX"), 28 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., against the school district for alleged discriminatory treatment of females in the school system. Count II states constitutional violations against both the school district and Bumsted, individually and in his official capacity, which Schultzen seeks to vindicate vis-a-vis 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Count III asserts a state-law claim pursuant to the Iowa Civil Rights Act, Iowa Code Chapter 216 and is properly before the court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367 (supplemental jurisdiction). Finally, on behalf of a class of other women against whom the defendants have allegedly discriminated based on their gender, Count IV of Schultzen's complaint requests that this court certify this litigation as a class action.2 Bumsted moves for summary judgment on several grounds, the first of which is that only grant recipients (i.e., schools) can be held liable under Title IX, and by definition grant recipients exclude individuals, thus he cannot be held liable in his individual capacity under Title IX. Secondly, Bumsted claims that he was not acting under color of state law when he reported Schultzen to the school district, and he in turn did not deprive Schultzen of any protected rights because he merely reported what he observed to school officials, and nothing more. Next, Bumsted asserts that he is entitled to qualified immunity. Lastly, Bumsted argues that because Schultzen failed to file a charge of discrimination against him and obtain an administrative release permitting her to file suit against him for an alleged violation of Iowa Code Chapter 216, Schultzen has no state statutory claim against Bumsted.

On October 10, 2002, Schultzen resisted Bumsted's motion for summary judgment, and on October 15, 2002, Bumsted filed a reply in further support of his motion. There is a trial set in this matter for April 7, 2003. The plaintiff April Marie Schultzen is represented by Stanley E. Munger and Jay E. Denne of Munger, Reinschmidt & Denne, Sioux City, Iowa. The defendant Larry Bumsted is represented by Douglas L. Phillips of Klass, Stoik, Mugan, Villone & Phillips, L.L.P., Sioux City, Iowa. The defendant Woodbury Central Community School District, although not a party to this motion, is represented by Michael J. Frey of Hellige, Meis, Erickson & Frey, Sioux City, Iowa. This matter is now fully submitted.

B. Factual Background

Whether or not a party is entitled to summary judgment ordinarily turns on whether or not there are genuine issues for trial, Quick v. Donaldson Co., 90 F.3d 1372, 1376-77 (8th Cir.1996); Johnson v. Enron Corp., 906 F.2d 1234, 1237 (8th Cir.1990), and the court must view all the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party and give that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the facts. See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., 475 U.S. at 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348; Quick, 90 F.3d at 1377 (same). Thus, a summary of the undisputed and disputed facts is essential to the disposition of Bumsted's motion for summary judgment.

Schultzen was a student athlete in the Woodbury Central Community School District system. Bumsted was employed as a part-time police officer for the City of Moville, Iowa, and worked part-time as a bus driver for the school district. On September 9, 2000, Schultzen's brother and father made a report to Bumsted at the Conoco gas station in Moville, Iowa, about an assault on Schultzen's brother. Bumsted called for back-up, and shortly thereafter a Woodbury County Sheriffs Deputy and a member of the Iowa State Patrol arrived at the gas station, as did Schultzen. It was during this time that Bumsted claims he observed Schultzen, who was eighteen years of age, smoking a cigarette. Bumsted contends he and Schultzen conversed at the gas station, and Schultzen told him that "she wasn't doing drugs anymore." Bumsted's Aff., at ¶ 7. Schultzen disputes this contention, and admits only that she talked about the assault on her brother with Bumsted. Schultzen alleges that Bumsted overheard her discussing with the deputy and state trooper "the fact that I [Schultzen] was out for volleyball ... and his [Bumsted's] actions indicated that he knew I would be suspended because of smoking."...

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