Spero v. Vestal Cent. Sch. Dist.
| Decision Date | 16 December 2019 |
| Docket Number | 3:17-CV-0007 (GTS/ML) |
| Citation | 427 F.Supp.3d 294 |
| Parties | Debra SPERO, as Natural Mother of V.S., an Infant, Plaintiff, v. VESTAL CENT. SCH. DIST.; Vestal Cent. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ.; Jeffrey Ahearn; and Albert A. Penna, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York |
WILLA S. PAYNE, ESQ., JOSHUA T. COTTER, ESQ., SUSAN M. YOUNG, ESQ., LEGAL SERVICES OF CENTRAL NEW YORK, INC., Counsel for Plaintiff, 189 Main Street, Suite 301, Oneonta, NY 13280.
FRANK W. MILLER, ESQ., CHARLES C. SPAGNOLI, ESQ., OFFICE OF FRANK W. MILLER, Counsel for Defendants, 6575 Kirkville Road, East Syracuse, NY 13057.
DECISION and ORDER
Currently pending before the Court, in this civil rights action filed by Debra Spero as the natural mother of the infant V.S.1 ("Plaintiff") against the Vestal Central School District, two of its employees and its Board of Education ("Defendants"), is Defendants' motion for summary judgment, and Plaintiff's cross-motion for summary judgment, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 56. (Dkt. No. 101-45; Dkt. No. 104-65.) Plaintiff also moves for a permanent injunction that would require Defendants to expunge all mention of V.S.'s suspension from the permanent record. For the reasons set forth below, Defendants motion for summary judgment is granted in part and denied in part, Plaintiff's cross-motion for summary judgment is denied, and Plaintiff's motion for a permanent injunction is denied.
Generally, liberally construed, Plaintiff's Amended Complaint alleges that Defendants violated V.S.'s rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by (1) retaliating against him for exercising his First Amendment right to freedom of speech, and (2) imposing an excessive punishment for his constitutionally protected speech in violation of his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. (See generally Dkt. No. 26 [Plf.'s Am. Compl.].)2 Familiarity with the factual allegations supporting these claims in Plaintiff's Amended Complaint is assumed in this Decision and Order, which is intended primarily for review by the parties. (Id. )
Unless otherwise noted, the following facts were asserted and supported with accurate citations by the parties in their Statement of Material Facts and expressly admitted, or denied without appropriate record citations, in response thereto. (Compare Dkt. No.101-44 [Defs.' Rule 7.1 Statement] with Dkt. No. 104-66 [Plf.'s Rule 7.1 Resp.]; compare Dkt. No. 104-67 [Plf.'s Rule 7.1 Statement] with Dkt. No. 107-6 [Defs.' Rule 7.1 Resp.])
1. Defendant Vestal Central School District ("the District") is a public school district organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York, and a recipient of federal aid.
2. V.S. was, at the time of the incidents relevant to Plaintiff's claims, a senior student of the District.
3. Defendant Jeffrey Ahearn is the Superintendent of Schools of the Vestal Central School District.
4. Defendant Albert Penna was, at the time of the incidents relevant to Plaintiff's claims, the building principal of Vestal High School.
5. In or about November of 2016, V.S. was a student in a mathematics class taught by Katharine Dyer.
6. On November 22, 2016, an incident occurred in Ms. Dyer's mathematics class in which V.S. called Ms. Dyer a "fucking racist," and was thereafter sent to the principal's office by Ms. Dyer.
7. V.S. was placed on senior probation as a disciplinary penalty for the November 22 incident in Ms. Dyer's mathematics class.
8. More specifically, on or about December 2, 2016, V.S. was suspended from school for five (5) days based on allegations that he engaged in behavior designed to intimidate Ms. Dyer: reciting her address and her husband's first and middle names aloud in her classroom without preamble or reason to voice that information.4
9. Between December 2 and 5, 2016, V.S. made several posts to the social media site Twitter ("Tweets") alleging that his suspension was the subject of racism.
10. Other students at Vestal High School received and viewed V.S.'s "Tweets," and V.S. was aware that other students in the school were receiving and viewing his "Tweets."
11. On December 7, 2016, two days after V.S.'s last "Tweet" alleging racism in Vestal High School, V.S. posted a video to the social media site Snapchat showing a woman handling a firearm.
12. V.S.'s Snapchat post was captioned "Guidette with a strap."
13. V.S.'s Snapchat post was viewed by other students of Vestal High School, and V.S. was aware that those other students would receive and view his Snapchat post.
14. On December 8, 2016, two students brought V.S.'s social media posts to the attention of the administration.
15. District employees received at least three phone calls regarding V.S.'s Snapchat post, including a call from a State Police Captain whose daughter attends Vestal High School.
16. On December 8, 2016, the school resource officer for Vestal High School visited V.S.'s home to investigate the gun.
17. On December 8, 2016, high school administers left a meeting to respond to concerns about the atmosphere created in Vestal High School by V.S.'s Snapchat and Twitter posts.5
18. The District canceled a state-mandated lockdown drill that had been scheduled to occur on December 9, 2016, due to the concerns about the atmosphere created in Vestal High School by V.S.'s Snapchat and Twitter posts.
19. On December 8, 2016, V.S. was suspended from school for five (5) additional days and informed that the reason for the additional suspension was for engaging in disruptive, insubordinate conduct; specifically, V.S.'s social media posts that caused the disruption at Vestal High School.
20. V.S. and his family were provided notice of a hearing pursuant to New York Education Law § 3214, to commence on December 20, 2016, to determine whether a suspension longer than five days should be imposed upon V.S. for engaging in disruptive, insubordinate conduct due to the disruption in Vestal High School caused by his social media posts.
21. V.S.'s suspension hearing was held over the course of four days on December 20, 2016, and January 25, 30, and 31, 2017, before Hearing Officer Michael A. Sherwood.
22. During the pendency of the hearing, V.S. returned to school, and remained in school from January 5, 2017, to February 7, 2017; during this time, V.S. demonstrated a marked improvement in his academic performance.
23. Following a hearing, hearing officer Sherwood found V.S. guilty of violating the Vestal Central School's student code of conduct, and issued a recommendation (also issued by counsel for the school district) that V.S. be suspended from school for the remainder of the 2016-17 school year and the entire 2017-18 school year, as a penalty for his conduct.
24. Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Ahearn accepted Hearing Officer Sherwood's findings that V.S. violated the Vestal Central Schools Code of Conduct, and imposed a penalty of suspension from school for the remainder of the 2016-2017 school year and the entire 2017-2018 school year.
25. On March 13, 2017, V.S. appealed his suspension to the Vestal Central School District Board of Education, which voted to affirm the suspension.
26. V.S. filed an appeal to the New York State Commissioner of Education pursuant to New York Education Law § 310 seeking expungement of his suspension and a stay to immediately reinstate V.S. in school.
27. On April 21, 2017, V.S.'s request to the Commissioner of Education to stay implementation of the penalty was denied.
28. On August 29, 2017, V.S.'s appeal was dismissed by the Commissioner of Education without examination of the merits of his claims, and with leave to re-file based upon the outcome of the within proceedings.
29. Hearing Officer Sherwood's disciplinary recommendations regarding other Vetsal High School students concerned conduct including the following: writing out the chemical formula for a bomb, engaging in racially discriminating conduct, and retaliating against a student for reporting said conduct; assaulting a fellow student in a manner that could have caused permanent physical injury and sending threatening messages to the student's girlfriend; threatening another student by saying "wait until I become a serial killer, you'll be sorry," "if you touch me I will stab you in the throat with my pencil," "I'm going to ... kill all of you and your family," among other explicit threats; and posting a video discussing blowing up the school, posting harassing remarks and comments via social media and text messages in regard to students, having a history of cyber-bullying other students, among other disruptive conduct.
30. Superintendent Ahearn has accepted Hearing Officer Sherwood's disciplinary recommendations regarding other Vestal High School students for out-of-school suspensions of the following durations: eight months, an academic year, twelve months, and sixteen months.
Familiarity with the remaining undisputed material facts of this action, as well as the disputed material facts, as set forth in the parties' Rule 7.1 Statements and Rule 7.1 Responses, is assumed in this Decision and Order, which (again) is intended primarily for review by the parties. (Id. )
Generally, in support of their motion for summary judgment, Defendants argue as follows: (1) Defendants reasonably foresaw a substantial disruption in the educational environment at Vestal High School due to V.S.'s alleged protected speech; (2) Plaintiff's substantive due process claim is encompassed in her First Amendment claim and thus is meritless; (3) Defendants Ahearn and Penna are entitled to qualified immunity because their conduct was objectively reasonable under the clearly established law as it existed at the time of the suspension; and (4) the official-capacity claims against Defendants Ahearn and Penna are redundant because Plaintiff named the District and the ...
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