Warren ex rel. Good v. Reading School Dist.

• Decision Date: 23 January 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-1148.,00-1148.
• Citation: 278 F.3d 163
• Parties: Robert WARREN, a Minor, by and through Lori A. GOOD, his Parent and Natural Guardian, v. READING SCHOOL DISTRICT; Geraldina Sepulveda, in her Individual and Official Capacity as Principal of the 10th and Green Elementary School; James A. Goodhart, in his Individual and Official Capacity as Superintendent of the Reading School District, Reading School District, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

278 F.3d 163

Robert WARREN, a Minor, by and through Lori A. GOOD, his Parent and Natural Guardian, v. READING SCHOOL DISTRICT; Geraldina Sepulveda, in her Individual and Official Capacity as Principal of the 10th and Green Elementary School; James A. Goodhart, in his Individual and Official Capacity as Superintendent of the Reading School District, Reading School District, Appellant.

No. 00-1148.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued December 4, 2000.

Opinion Filed January 23, 2002.

David R. Dautrich (Argued), Reading, PA, Attorney for Appellee.

Frederick B. Buck, III (Argued), Rawle & Henderson, Philadelphia, PA, Attorney for Appellant.

Before McKEE, ROSENN and CUDAHY,^* Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

McKEE, Circuit Judge.

Lori Good brought this action on behalf of her minor son, Robert Warren, seeking damages under Title IX for sexual abuse he received at the hands of his fourth grade teacher in a school that was part of the defendant school district. Plaintiff also contends that the school's principal was individually liable for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The jury returned a verdict against the school district under Title IX, but found the principal was not liable under § 1983. The district court refused to grant a renewed defense motion for judgment as a matter of law or grant a new trial, and awarded plaintiff attorney's fees. This appeal followed. For the reasons set forth below, we will reverse and remand for a new trial on plaintiff's Title IX claim.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

In April 1995, Robert Warren transferred into the Reading School District's Tenth and Green Elementary School where he was assigned to Harold Brown's fourth grade class. At some point after Robert's transfer, Robert remained after school at Brown's request. While Robert remained in the classroom, Brown locked the classroom door, and asked Robert to play a "game" that Brown called "shoulders." This consisted of Robert squatting with his head between Brown's legs and placing his shoulders under Brown's thighs. Robert would then lift Brown's upper body from this squatting position as Brown leaned forward. As Robert lifted, Brown's genitals touched the back of Robert's head and neck. Brown challenged Robert to squat and lift as many times as he could and Brown "rewarded" Robert with candy or money when the "game" was over. Brown apparently repeated this routine two or three times per week during the school year. On at least one occasion during the following summer, Brown also drove by Robert's house in order to pick Robert up and take him to a "secret spot" near the woods where they again played "shoulders."

In early November 1995, Lori Good discovered her son's journal and read an entry in which Robert described playing "shoulders" with Brown at a secret spot. Good immediately became concerned and spoke to Robert about the entry. After that discussion, Good reported Brown's conduct to the Berks County Children and Youth Services. That agency reported Brown's suspected abuse to the school district, and Brown was suspended, and ultimately resigned his position.¹

A short time later, Good initiated a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking damages from the Reading School District, Dr. Sepulveda, the principal of Tenth and Green Street School; and Dr. James A. Goodhart, the former superintendent of the Reading School District. The suit included a state law claim against Sepulveda and Goodhart under 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 8550. Good subsequently amended the complaint to add a private cause of action for damages against the school district under the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et. seq. (Title IX).

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants and against Robert on all claims except the Title IX claim against the school district and the § 1983 claim against Sepulveda. Those claims proceeded to trial.

Carlos Mercado testified at trial for the plaintiff. Mercado's son had been a student at Tenth and Green Elementary School in the early 1990s. Mercado testified that he went to that school sometime in 1992 or 1993 and spoke with Sepulveda regarding his concerns about Brown engaging in inappropriate activity with his son. The following exchange occurred during Mercado's testimony:

Q: And what did you say to the principal that day, Mr. Mercado?

A: I told her that I wanted to talk to her about Mr. Brown taking my kid to his house, that there's no reason for him to take him to his house and give him money to lift him up and down. She told me that she was too busy to listen to me at that time. She told me to talk to Mr. Vecchio [the guidance counselor].

* * *

Q: Did you talk to Mr. Vecchio?

A: Yes.... I told him — she told me to go to him, so I went to him. He said what was the problem. I told him that I wanted to talk to him about Mr. Brown taking my kid to his house and lifting him up and down and giving him money. There was no reason for that.

Q: Mrs. Sepulveda, did she stay at the office?

A: No, she walked out.

Appendix at 129-30.

Mercado testified that Vecchio said he was going to talk to Brown and "get back to me," but Mercado never heard anything further from Vecchio, Sepulveda, or anyone else at the school. According to Mercado, Sepulveda appeared to be in a hurry, and upset about something when he tried to speak to her. He testified: "I couldn't describe it to the lady because she was too much in a hurry. She was going out." Id. at 139-40. Vecchio and Sepulveda also testified, but they both denied having any such conversation with Mercado.

Plaintiff also introduced the testimony of Dr. Susan Kraus, an expert in psychology and sexual abuse of children. She testified that the "shoulders" game that Robert described was actually a masturbatory exercise engaged in for sexual gratification. According to her testimony, "games" such as this are nothing more than sexual activity. They did not constitute anything that could be regarded as "horseplay."

Dr. Chester Kent also testified for plaintiff over the defendants' objection. Kent was an expert in the field of school policy, procedure and administration, with a sub-specialty in cases involving molestation or abuse of children. He opined that Dr. Sepulveda's internal policies for student safety were highly deficient and not conducive to protecting the health, safety, or welfare of the students at the school. App. 231, 239, 243, 250-1. He also surmised that, given the number of children that had been victimized by Brown, the level of activity in Brown's classroom should have aroused suspicion. He added that Sepulveda was complacent and her approach to protecting the welfare of the children at her school conveyed that complacency to the teachers she was responsible for supervising. According to him, those teachers "were certainly incapable of recognizing the signs that they should have recognized when something was not right regarding molestation of students." App. 250-1. Kent concluded that Sepulveda's attitude evidenced deliberate indifference as exemplified by her response to the Mercado complaint. Id. He testified:

throughout [Sepulveda's] tenure, beginning with the Mercado incident, she basically conducted no investigations of any type to determine if there was a legitimate complaint involved. This becomes very, very important because one could always say, I've turned it over to the police or I turned it over to Children and Youth Services, but the police standard is much higher.... School Districts are required to conduct an investigation to determine whether or not a person is fit to be a teacher. None of that has ever gone on under her leadership in the building

App. 251-2. Later in his testimony, Dr. Kent told the jury that Dr. Sepulveda's attitude "really served to create a hostile environment in the building where young boys ... became prey of a teacher who was bent on molesting them and this was happening right under the nose of the principal." App. 257.

Plaintiff also introduced two "supervisory conference" memoranda over defense objection. The first memorandum, dated 1969, was a two-page evaluation of Brown that had been prepared years before he came to Robert's school. The memorandum summarized the conference Brown apparently had with a supervisor back in 1969. It stated in part: "[w]e also discussed his preparation for graduate school—children in his class—and his involvement with children after school hours." Warren v. Reading School Dist., 82 F.Supp.2d 395, 398 (E.D.Pa.2000). The memorandum was in Brown's personnel file in the School District Administration Building, but there was no evidence that Sepulveda, or anyone else at Robert's school ever saw it or knew it existed.

The second memorandum was a supervisory conference memorandum that Sepulveda prepared in 1995. It stated in part: "it has been brought to my attention that the games you play with the students in the classroom involve physical contact. For the best interest of all concerned, this situation must `stop'." Id. Sepulveda explained that this second memorandum referred to a parent's complaint that inappropriate "horseplay" was occurring in Brown's classroom during recess and not inappropriate sexual or physical contact.

At the close of plaintiff's case, the school district moved for judgment as a matter of law under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50. The school district argued that plaintiff had not introduced sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable jury to conclude that an official of the Reading School District had actual knowledge of, and was deliberately indifferent to, Brown's conduct as was required under the standard recently articulated in Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District, 524 U.S. 274, 118 S.Ct. 1989, 141 L.Ed.2d 277 (1998). Sepulveda also moved for judgment as a matter of law arguing that the evidence was insufficient to impose § 1983 liability on her under Stoneking v. Bradford Area School District, 882 F.2d...