Wyatt v. Fletcher

• Decision Date: 31 May 2013
• Docket Number: No. 11–41359.,11–41359.
• Parties: Barbara WYATT, Plaintiff–Appellee v. Rhonda FLETCHER; Cassandra Newell, Defendants–Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

718 F.3d 496

Barbara WYATT, Plaintiff–Appellee

v.Rhonda FLETCHER; Cassandra Newell, Defendants–Appellants.

No. 11–41359.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

May 31, 2013.

Wayne Krause (argued), Esq., Texas Civil Rights Project, Michael Emory Clark, Esq., Special Counsel, Duane Morris, L.L.P., Houston, TX, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Robert Scott Davis (argued), Esq., David Ryan Herring Iglesias (argued), Flowers Davis, P.L.L.C., Tyler, TX, for Defendants–Appellants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Before JOLLY, JONES, and GRAVES, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

As next-friend of her minor daughter “S.W.”, Barbara Wyatt brought this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against high school softball coaches Rhonda Fletcher and Cassandra Newell. Wyatt alleges the coaches disclosed S.W.'s sexual orientation during a disciplinary meeting with S.W.'s mother, primarily claiming the disclosure to the mother constituted a Fourteenth Amendment invasion of S.W.'s privacy. Wyatt also alleged a Fourth Amendment claim based on a disciplinary confrontation in a locked locker room. On the coaches' motion for summary judgment, the district court denied qualified immunity to Fletcher and Newell on the ground that genuine issues of material fact were disputed. We disagree and reverse. We hold that there is no clearly established law holding that a student in a public secondary school has a privacy right under the Fourteenth Amendment that precludes school officials from discussing with a parent the student's private matters, including matters relating to sexual activity of the student. We further hold that such students have no clearly established Fourth Amendment right that bars a student-coach confrontation in a closed and locked room. We thus conclude that these individual defendants are entitled to qualified immunity that bars the federal claims against them, and, consequently, we REVERSE and VACATE in part and REMAND for entry of judgment dismissing the federal claims against these individual defendants.

I.

The first matter we must deal with in this qualified immunity case is the basis of our jurisdiction. On this interlocutory appeal, we have before us the district court's denial of the coaches' motion for summary judgment asserting the claim of qualified immunity. Our review is de novo. Flores v. City of Palacios, 381 F.3d 391, 394 (5th Cir.2004). Although a denial of a defendant's motion for summary judgment is not ordinarily immediately appealable, such a denial based on qualified immunity is a collateral order capable of immediate review. Brown v. Strain, 663 F.3d 245, 248 (5th Cir.2011) (inset quotation marks omitted). We have jurisdiction over such an order, however, only “to the extent that the district court's order turns on an issue of law,” Kovacic v. Villarreal, 628 F.3d 209, 211 (5th Cir.2010); if it turns on a disputed material fact, we lack jurisdiction. Thus, if we decide that the district court erred in assessing the legal significance of the conduct that the district court considered, we then decide whether the factual disputes are material to deciding the legal issue presented in the summary judgment. See Kinney v. Weaver, 367 F.3d 337, 348 (5th Cir.2004) (en banc); Wagner v. Bay City, 227 F.3d 316, 320 (5th Cir.2000). If there are no such material factual disputes, we can then rule on the claim for qualified immunity.

Ms. Wyatt (“Wyatt”), in her complaint, has made various claims, but in this interlocutory appeal, we only have appellate jurisdiction over the federal claims against the individual defendants Rhonda Fletcher (“Fletcher”) and Cassandra Newell (“Newell”).¹ Wyatt alleged in her complaint that the coaches' conduct violated her daughter's constitutional right to privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment and her right to be free from unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. As we will see, to decide the overarching question of whether the district court erred in denying the coaches qualified immunity, we ask whether the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, which Wyatt claims were violated, are “clearly established.” See Jones v. City of Jackson, 203 F.3d 875, 879 (5th Cir.2000) (quoting Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 231, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991)). If they are not, the appellants are entitled to qualified immunity, and the district court's denial of summary judgment on the federal claims was error.²

II.

A.

The dispute arose in the East Texas town of Kilgore. On March 3, 2009, S.W., a student at Kilgore High School (“KHS”), attended a meeting of the varsity softball team on which she played. The meeting was held at an off-campus playing field where practices regularly took place. In her complaint, Wyatt alleges that, upon S.W.'s arrival at the meeting, S.W.'s softball coaches Fletcher and Newell dismissed the rest of the team and led S.W. into a nearby locker room, locked the door, and questioned her about an alleged relationship with an older young woman named Hillary Nutt (“Nutt”). Wyatt said that the coaches then yelled at S.W., falsely accused her of spreading rumors regarding one of the coaches' sexual orientation,³ and threatened to tell S.W.'s mother that her daughter was in a sexual relationship with another woman. ⁴ In her complaint,Wyatt made a further allegation: that, at the locker room meeting, “Fletcher asked S.W. if she was gay.” In her deposition, however, S.W.'s story changed: she said definitively that the coaches did not ask, point blank, whether she was a lesbian. Besides this inconsistency, there is one more worthy of note: in her complaint, Wyatt states, “At the time of Fletcher and Newell's confrontation, S.W. was dating [Nutt].” But in her appellate brief, she says “in fact, [S.W.] and Hillary [Nutt] hadn't dated” and “weren't in a relationship.”

Following the meeting with S.W., the coaches called Wyatt, S.W.'s mother, and requested they meet.⁵ The parties' characterizations of events differ. In her complaint, Wyatt alleges that Fletcher revealed S.W.'s sexual orientation to her mother at this second meeting and that Newell then offered Wyatt the contact information for Nutt. As with the locker room meeting, however, there are inconsistencies in Wyatt's story. Wyatt's allegation in her complaint was that, at the second meeting, the coaches “outed” her daughter: “Fletcher said [to Wyatt that] S.W. was a lesbian.” Wyatt apparently withdrew this allegation when, at her deposition, she testified under oath that Coach Fletcher in fact never used the word “gay” or “lesbian.” The claim involving the revelation of S.W.'s sexual orientation has become ever more nuanced over the course of the briefing on this appeal: Instead of alleging that the coaches divulged, point-blank, her daughter's homosexuality, Wyatt's claim is now that she inferred S.W.'s sexual orientation from the coaches' comments. ⁶ In response, the coaches argue that they were obliged to contact S.W.'s mother because rumors regarding S.W.'s relationship with Nutt were causing dissension on the team, Nutt was a potentially dangerous and underage user of illegal drugs and alcohol, and any possible sexual relationship between Nutt and S.W. was a valid concern. SeeTex. Penal Code § 22.011(a)(2). ⁷

B.

Wyatt filed three separate grievances with Kilgore Independent School District (“KISD”) alleging the coaches acted inappropriately by disclosing S.W.'s sexual orientation to her mother; all were subsequently dismissed. ⁸ Then, on December 10, 2010, Wyatt, as next-friend of her minor daughter S.W., filed a complaint in federal court against KISD, and, in their personal capacities, against KHS assistant athletic director Douglas Duke,⁹ Fletcher, and Newell, for violating S.W.'s federal rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and state privacy rights under the Texas Constitution. In their answer, Defendants pleaded the affirmative defense of Texas official immunity for KISD on the state claims and qualified immunity for Fletcher and Newell on the federal claims. The parties consented to proceed before a magistrate judge, and the coaches moved for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity. The magistrate judge rejected the defense of qualified immunity and consequently denied the coaches' motion for summary judgment. The magistrate judge cited “multiple unresolved questions of fact.” With regard to Wyatt's Fourth Amendment claim of unlawful seizure, the court said “there remains a genuine material issue of fact as to whether there was an objectively reasonable basis for the coaches' actions including factual disputes over what transpired behind the closed doors of the locker room.” With regard to the Fourteenth Amendment right to privacy claim, the magistrate judge held that S.W.'s right to privacy in her sexual orientation was clearly established, and summary judgment was premature due to unresolved questions of fact—such as “whether the Coaches[ ] disclosed S.W.'s sexual orientation as retaliation for S.W.'s conduct, whether they disclosed the identity of Ms. Nutt [to Ms. Wyatt] without provocation by Ms. Wyatt, and the words they used to describe the relationship ...”—all of which related to the reasonableness of their conduct.

As we have said, we lack appellate jurisdiction in this interlocutory appeal to determine whether a genuine factual issue exists; however, we do have jurisdiction to review the materiality of disputed facts as well as the district court's legal analysis as it pertains to qualified immunity. See Wagner, 227 F.3d at 320;see also Kinney, 367 F.3d at 358. As we will see, the magistrate judge erred in analyzing the materiality of disputed facts because, even taking the facts in the light most favorable to Wyatt, Wyatt has not alleged violations of clearly established Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Consequently, we have appellate jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal.

III.

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