Decision Roundup: Deliberate Indifference Edition

Here are some recent judicial decisions addressing institutional liability for sexual harassment and misconduct. These cases all specifically focus on the institution's alleged deliberate indifference:

A student who was sexually assaulted by a classmate plausibly alleged that her school district was deliberate indifferent to the threat posed by the perpetrator, whom school officials knew to have recently touched other female students without consent, and whom they allegedly failed to discipline prior to the sexual assault in question. T.Y. v. Shawnee Mission Sch. Dist., No. 17-2589-DDC-GEB, 2018 WL 2722501 (D. Kan. June 6, 2018).

Affirming the lower court, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Florida school district was not deliberately indifferent to reported harassment where it met with the victim and family the day after receiving the report and the day after that, and, following the week-long investigation, suspended the harasser for two days and ordered him not to have any more contact with her.  G.P. v. Lee County School Board, No. 17-14657, 2018 WL 2714658 (11th Cir. June 5, 2018).

A student who was attending a gateway program of the University of Notre Dame argued that the university was deliberately indifferent when it opened an investigation into her sexual assault that had been reported by someone else. But the court dismissed the claim, ruling that the university's decision to respond to the report, was not clearly unreasonable because the university had other reports that the same perpetrator, a UND football player, had assaulted another woman as well, and therefore had "an  obligation to the larger community to investigate the matter." Doe v. Univ. of Notre Dame Du Lac, No. 3:17CV690-PPS, 2018 WL 2184392 (N.D. Ind. May 11, 2018).

A school for students with autism may stand trial on a Title IX claim that it didn't do enough to protect one of its students from being molested by a fellow student who was 6 years older.  The perpetrator had previously been accused of attempting a rape his roommate, and was also known to have shown pornography to the plaintiff. In light of this knowledge, the court concluded, a jury could conclude that the school's failure to separate the plaintiff from the perpetrator and more adequately monitor his conduct amounted to deliberate indifference, and thus denied its motion for summary judgment. Doe v. The League School of Greater Boston, 2018 WL 2077595 (D. Mass. May 3, 2018).

A school district in Missouri must continue to litigate claims arising from a coach's sexual abuse of a student after losing its motion to dismiss Title IX and other claims. The plaintiff alleged that the school officials had knowledge of various acts of increasingly-severe misconduct committed by the coach (who was criminally convicted). The district's failure to discipline or remove the coach could therefore be seen as deliberate indifference, subjecting the district to liability for the abuse the student endured.  KC v. Mayo, 2018 WL 2107201 (W.D. Mo. May 7, 2018)

The school district in Russell County, Virginia, must continue to defend a lawsuit precipitated by a school custodian's sexual abuse of young boys after a federal court denied summary judgment on Title IX claims that alleged the school district's deliberate indifference to the abuse. The plaintiff, one of the students who had been the victim of that abuse, alleged that that school district should have conducted an independent investigation when it learned that the custodian's wife had called on county officials (its Department of Social Services) to investigate the relationship with the student. For its part, the school district argued that it was reasonable to forgo such an investigation in light of the fact that DSS did not find any evidence of abuse, and that the student's guardians had consented to the custodian's role in the student's life. But the court concluded that it was possible that a jury could determine that the school district's response was clearly unreasonable after hearing all the evidence, and allowed the claim to proceed. The court also found that the plaintiff had presented sufficient evidence from which a jury could conclude that that the school responded with deliberate indifference to the custodian's confession to abusing the student. Evidence that the school board failed to offer counseling or other remedial measures or implement any training or personnel policies aimed at preventing future abuse would support a jury's conclusion that the school district is additionally liable for damages arising after notice of the abuse came to light.  Doe by Watson v. Russell Cty. Sch. Bd., 2018 WL 842196 (W.D. Va. Feb. 13, 2018)

A federal magistrate in Texas recommended the dismissal of Title IX claim against the Austin Independent School District arising from harassment that the female plaintiff endured from another male student who had persistently pressured her for a romantic relationship and acted out in disturbing ways when she declined. The magistrate determined that the school had notice of the male student's obsessive behavior regarding the female student after an incident in which the male student exhibited suicidal behavior.  Yet, the school district's response to that information amounted to more than deliberate indifference. School officials developed a safety plan that included a security guard to shadow the female student.  Even though this did not completely eliminate encounters between the female and the male student, it did minimize them and ensured that no harassing behavior occurred again. Therefore, the school district's response was not clearly unreasonable and the school district could not therefore be liable for damages to the plaintiff under Title IX.  E.M. v. Austin Indep. Sch. Dist., 2018 WL 627391 (W.D. Tex., Jan. 30, 2018).

Roundup of School District Sexual Harassment Cases

Here are some updates in Title IX cases involving sexual harassment in schools:

• A federal court ruled that bullying consisting of pulling down another boy's pants, one time in front of a girl, was not harassment "because of sex" for purposes of Title IX. Morgan v. Town of Lexington, 2015 WL 5634463 (D. Mass. Sept. 24, 2015).  

• A principle's arguable knowledge of a volunteer teacher's "inclination to engage in inappropriate relationships with school-age boys," in combination with the school district's lack of effort to limit the teacher's access to its students, precluded summary judgment on Title IX claim. K.S. v. Detroit Public Schools, 2015 WL 5460674 (E.D. Mich. Sept. 16, 2015). 

• School officials' failure to respond to reports of one student's sexual abuse of various other students by doing anything other than documenting the incidents and, in one case, moving the victim to another dorm room, could constitute deliberate indifference for purposes of Title IX.  BPS v. Colo. Sch. for the Deaf and Blind, 2015 WL 5444341 (D. Colo. Sept. 16, 2015).

• Dispute as to whether or not parent had told school officials about sexual misconduct by an adult male special needs student precluded dismissal on summary judgment.  Kauhako v. State of Hawaii Bd. of Educ., 2015 WL 5312359 (D. Ha. Sept. 9, 2015).

• School district's decision to defer to police department's investigation was not deliberately indifferent, where it continued to prevent the perpetrators from returning to school and took other steps to measure and address safety.  Doe v. Bibb County Bd. of Educ., 2015 WL 5063746 (M.D. Ga. Aug. 27, 2015).

• A school cannot be liable under Title IX for a teacher's sexual advances on a student, where school officials acted swiftly and decisively to force the teacher's resignation upon learning of his misconduct.  Doe v. Crown Point Sch. Corp., 2105 WL 5038093 (N.D. Ind. Aug. 26, 2015).

• Title IX claim alleging school district's failure to respond to bullying directed at the plaintiff because of his "effeminate mannerisms and way of speaking" adequately alleged discrimination on the basis of sex. J.R. v. N.Y. City Bd. of Educ., 2015 WL 5007918 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 23, 2015). 

Another Litigation Roundup

Here are some updates in various cases where Title IX is being used to challenge sexual harassment and sexual assault in high schools:

• In Michigan, a former student has filed a Title IX lawsuit against the Traverse City Area Public Schools, alleging that the school district was indifferent to harassment and retaliation he faced after reporting that a teacher had engaged him in oral sex and had been sending him sexually explicit text messages.  (The teacher was later criminally convicted.) 

• In a similar matter, a federal judge in Pennsylvania refused to dismiss a mother's claim against the Susquehanna Township School District challenging the hostile environment her daughter faced after police arrested the principal for having sex with her daughter, a 16-year-old student. (The principal has plead guilty.) 

•  In yet another matter involving teacher-student harassment, a court refused to dismiss a student's case against the Seattle School District where the student alleged that she reported the teacher's harassing comments, stares, and touches to the principal, and that the principal did not follow up in any meaningful way, allowing the teacher's conduct to escalate to more egregious physical contact.  R.P. v. Seattle Sch. Dist., 2015 WL 418001 (D. Wash. Jan. 30, 2015).

• The State Board of Education in Hawaii will have to continue to defend a lawsuit arising out of the repeated instances of rape of a female special-needs high school student by one of her male special-needs peers. In rejecting the state's motion to dismiss, the court agreed that the plaintiff adequately alleged that school officials failed to supervise the male student even though they were on notice of the fact that he had attacked the female student off campus, and that the lack of supervision provided the male student the opportunity to rape the female student in a coed bathroom on campus.  Kaukaho v. State Bd. of Educ., 2015 WL 470230 (D. Ha. Feb. 3, 2015).

Judge Holds Hawaii HS Softball Field Violates Title IX

Yesterday a federal district court judge in Hawaii ruled in favor of the girls' softball team at Baldwin High School, in Maui County, who had sued the county and the state board of education over the condition of the softball field. According to the press, the judge held that the "obvious disparity" in quality between the boys' baseball field, of "near semi-professional" quality, and the girls' softball field, which is not regulation size, a mile from campus, and dangerously strewn with rocks and stones, violated Title IX, and ordered the state and county to make improvements to the field where the softball team used to play before being relocated to the county-owned field.

While I applaud the decision for recognizing and ordering remediation for the disparate playing conditions, I don't understand why the judge has held the county partially responsible for ensuring equality between the fields. Hawaii has a statewide school district rather than local districts, so that explains why the state board of education is the educational institution on the hook for violations of Title IX. But it seems (from this article) that the board has made arrangements for softball to play on a county field rather than provide a field on school grounds. The board is surely liable for opting to use a county-owned softball field whose quality does not measure up to the baseball field, but this arrangement does not turn the county into an educational institution with an obligation to comply with Title IX. I'm guessing we haven't heard the last chapter in this case; most local governments are strapped for cash these days, so I think the county is likely to appeal.