Stafford v. George Wash. Univ.
| Decision Date | 05 June 2019 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 18-cv-2789 (CRC) |
| Parties | JABARI STAFFORD, Plaintiff, v. THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
Jabari Stafford alleges that he was the victim of racial discrimination during his time as a walk-on tennis player at George Washington University. He brings a bevy of federal- and D.C.-law claims against the University, two of his former coaches, and two administrators in the athletics department. One of the individual Defendants, Associate Athletics Director Nicole Early, and the University (together, "GWU" or "the University") have moved to dismiss all of Stafford's claims. Stafford opposes dismissal and also seeks leave to amend his complaint. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant in part and deny in part GWU's motion to dismiss and will grant in part and deny in part Stafford's motion for leave to file an amended complaint.
As required on a motion to dismiss, the Court draws this factual background from the complaint, "assum[ing] the truth of all well-pleaded factual allegations." Sissel v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 760 F.3d 1, 4 (D.C. Cir. 2014). The facts presented here are taken almost exclusively from the proposed amended complaint, although at times the Court draws from the original complaint—in particular where it appears that Stafford has deleted facts that may have been unfavorable to him. See Hourani v. Mirtchev, 943 F. Supp. 2d 159, 171 (D.D.C. 2013) (). The Defendants strenuously contest many of the facts Stafford alleges.
Mr. Stafford, who is African-American, attended George Washington University ("GWU") from September 2014 until December 2017. Proposed Amended Complaint ("Am. Compl."), ECF No. 11-6, ¶ 4. Stafford chose to attend GWU after meeting with its then tennis coach Gregory Munoz and members of GWU's administration. Id. ¶¶ 18, 21. He joined the GWU tennis team in September 2014, "two weeks into the Fall season." Id. ¶ 25. He was one of two African Americans and one of three players of color (the other a Persian American) on the nine-person roster. Id.
Shortly after joining the team, Stafford alleges that he began to observe and experience racist treatment. Id. ¶¶ 26-29. One week in, Munoz convened Stafford and the other players of color—who together were the only American players on the team—and threatened to punish them if they "did not get off to a good start." Id. ¶ 26. Soon thereafter, Stafford says Munoz announced that he "hate[d] Americans" and "subjected [non-white players] to constant threats which even included emails only directed to them and no one else on the team." Id. ¶ 28. Stafford says he also witnessed early on Munoz and an assistant coach "bull[y]" and "belittle" his Persian-American teammate. Id. ¶ 29. This teammate, Stafford says, "was kicked off the team the first week of his sophomore year for unknown reasons." Id. ¶ 30.
Also "in or around September 2014," Stafford maintains the same assistant coach told him and the team "a story about a Black tennis player . . . whom [the coach] and his teammatesin college would verbally and physically abuse because he was black," including by calling him racial epithets and remarking on how dark his skin was. Id. ¶ 31. Stafford also heard from his teammate that the same assistant coach had once caused the team van to crash, and Stafford claims that the coach was such a "careless" driver that he "became very frightened every time he got into the vehicle after hearing the news." Id. ¶ 32.
Though a time period is not specified,1 Stafford says that his "white teammates would often post racially insensitive jokes and rhetoric on social media." Id. ¶ 33. Stafford recounts one incident that occurred his freshman year—so either the fall of 2014 or the spring of 2015—in which a teammate posted a "racist picture on Facebook . . . of a black version of [the cartoon character] Spongebob that read, "Watch Black Spongebob on Niggalodeon." Id. Stafford alleges that the head coach, Munoz, "was aware of these racist postings because he was Facebook friends with the tennis players and told the players that he monitored social media postings[.]" Id. Stafford claims that events like these "eviscerated [his] desire to participate in team activities and caused him to try to limit his interactions with his teammates as much as possible." Id. ¶ 35.
"In other instances, later in [his] tenure," Stafford says "various players would often make racist comments in the team group chats." Id. ¶ 34. One teammate, whom Stafford names as a defendant in the proposed amended complaint, purportedly "referred to a black person as a gorilla and referred to black poetry as 'black shitty poetry.'" Id. Other teammates, Staffordalleges, "would often throw racial slurs in the group chat . . . when Plaintiff was excluded from [it]." Id.
Once, in January 2015, Stafford confronted a teammate who he says used a racial slur while traveling to practice, and Munoz "chastised [Stafford]" for doing so. Id. ¶ 36. Stafford was suspended from the team a week later. Id. ¶ 37. In the amended complaint, Stafford says Munoz justified the suspension on the grounds that Stafford had been "disrespectful to his teammates," "had anger control issues, as well as profanity issues," and "was selfish" and did not support his teammates. Id. Stafford says these claims came out of left field, and that Munoz had only once before expressed disapproval of his behavior—namely, when Stafford reprimanded his teammate for using a racial slur. Id. ¶ 38. In the original complaint, however, Stafford said Munoz offered other, additional reasons for the suspension—including that Stafford "did not show pride in the University" and "disrespected the tennis director" at the team's practice facility. Compl. ¶ 25.
Stafford and his father thereafter requested a meeting with then Athletics Director Patrick Nero to challenge his suspension. Am. Compl. ¶ 41. Although Nero declined the request, Stafford and his father did meet with Munoz and Associate Athletics Director Early. Id. ¶ 42. At that meeting, Stafford says Munoz "falsely denied the existence of any racial animus and repeated the 'anger control' and 'disrespecting teammates' pretexts from the aforementioned January 18, 2015 [suspension] email." Id. Stafford apparently asked to be reinstated at the meeting, but Early "did not order reinstatement of [Stafford], leaving the issue of whether, or not, [he] would get reinstated from the suspension entirely to the discretion of Defendant Munoz." Id. ¶ 43. Stafford maintains that this "grossly improper and unjustified suspension,"caused him to become "depressed and withdrawn, which adversely affected his ability to perform academically." Id. ¶ 49.
While his suspension remained in effect, Munoz allegedly "presented [Stafford] with an ultimatum": become a member of a "white fraternity" to prove his social skills had improved or face continued suspension. Id. ¶ 51. Despite having no interest in joining the fraternity, Stafford went through recruitment and received a bid to pledge the house. Id. ¶ 52. Munoz then added two further conditions to his reinstatement. Stafford would have to apologize to his teammates for his "purported disrespectful conduct towards them" and his teammates would have to agree to lifting his suspension. Id. ¶ 53. Having to "apologize to his teammates was extremely difficult and humiliating for [Stafford] especially because he had not done anything wrong to any of his teammates and coaches who had used racial slurs and never suffered any consequences as a result of their discriminatory actions." Id. ¶ 54.
Stafford's "hard efforts" nevertheless paid off, and he was reinstated after about a month-long suspension. Id. ¶ 55. According to Stafford, though, the "verbal abuse and discriminatory treatment" picked up where it left off. Id. Even worse, it escalated. One representative example, Stafford alleges, was when a teammate asked him, "Were all of your ancestors' slaves at one point?" Id. ¶ 59. Stafford also observed "serious racquet and verbal abuse from various players on the team," id. ¶ 62, and yet, he says, they were never "disciplined for [their] disruptive and disrespectful behavior," id. ¶ 61.
Later in his freshman spring season, "[i]n or around March 2015," Stafford says a teammate yelled at him to "Get off the court, monkey!" Id. ¶ 64. Stafford alleges that Munoz overheard the remark but did nothing about it, and that he feared retribution by Munoz if he spoke up. Id. Then, in April 2015, during a training trip to Florida, Stafford says a teammateyelled "N****R!" so loud that Stafford's teammates in the adjoining hotel rooms could hear it. Id. ¶ 65. Again, Stafford says he was worried that Munoz would accuse him of being an angry teammate if he attempted to confront the racial abuse. Id. Harassment like this, carried out by nearly all of Stafford's teammates, continued throughout the spring 2015 season. See id. ¶¶ 66-69. Stafford claims the abuse caused him to "suffer[ ] from anxiety, extreme depression and severe mental anguish" and "adversely affected his academic performance," culminating in a sub-2.0 grade point average. Id. ¶ 71.
The mistreatment continued in the fall 2015 season of his sophomore year, Stafford says. He was reprimanded by an assistant coach for yelling in celebration after winning a match. Id. ¶ 77. His teammates allegedly piled on, telling Stafford they were cheering for him to lose the match—and yet they faced no discipline from the coaching staff. Id. ¶ 79.
The intra-team squabbling came to a head at the beginning of the spring 2016 season, when...
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