Davis v. Monroe County Board of EducationDavis v. Monroe County Board of Education
- Reporters:
- ,
- Before:
- Birch, Barkett, Henderson
Aurelia Davis, as mother and next friend of LaShonda D., appeals the district court‘s order dismissing her claims under Title IX and § 1983 against the Monroe County Board of Education (“Board“), Board Superintendent Charles Dumas and elementary school Principal Bill Querry (collectively “defendants“). Davis’ complaint for injunctive relief and compensatory damages alleged that LaShonda was sexually harassed on a continuous basis by a male, fifth-grаde classmate, that defendants knew of the harassment yet failed to take any meaningful action to stop it and protect her, and that LaShonda suffered harm as a result of their failure to act. The defendants’ failure to act, Davis asserted, discriminated against LaShonda and denied her the benefits of a public education in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,
The district court dismissed the Title IX claim against the Board, concluding that
[t]he sexually harassing behavior of a fellow fifth grader is not part of a school program or activity. Plaintiff does not allege that the Board or an employee of the Board had any role in the harassment. Thus, any harm to LaShonda was not proximately caused by a federally-funded educational provider.
Aurelia D. v. Monroe County Bd. of Educ., 862 F.Supp. 363, 367 (M.D.Ga.1994). The court also dismissed the § 1983 due process claims against the Board and the individual defendants.
On appeal, Davis argues that the court erred by dismissing her Title IX claim against the Board1 and by dismissing her § 1983 due process claims against all defendants. She also contends that she made an equal proteсtion claim on which the district court failed to rule. Because we find them without merit, we reject Davis’ arguments regarding the due process and equal protection claims without further discussion. See 11th Cir. Rule 36-1. For the reasons that follow, however, we conclude that Davis’ allegations that the Board knowingly permitted a hostile environment created by another student‘s sexual harassment of LaShonda state a valid Title IX claim against the Board and accordingly we reverse the dismissal of her complaint as to that claim.
I. BACKGROUND
Davis’ factual allegations, presumed as true in our review of
LaShonda reported G.F. to her teachers and her mother after each of the incidents and, after all but one of the incidents, Davis called the teacher and/or the principal to see what could be done to protect her daughter. The requests for protection went unfulfilled. Following one incident, for example, LaShonda and other girls whom G.F. had sexually harassed asked their teacher for permission to report G.F.‘s harassment to the principal. The teacher denied the request, telling the girls, “[i]f he [the principal] wants you, he‘ll call you.” After LaShonda told her mother of another incident of harassment, adding that she “didn‘t know how much longer she could keep him off her,” Davis spoke with Principal Querry and asked what action would be taken to protect
Finally, the complaint alleged that G.F.‘s uncurbed and unrestrained conduct severely curtailed LaShonda‘s ability to benefit from her elementary school education, lessening her capacity to concentrate on her schoolwork and causing her grades, previously all As and Bs, to suffer. The harassment also had a debilitating effect on her mental and emotional well-being, causing her to write a suicide note in April 1993.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
Reviewing the claim de novo, we will uphold the dismissal only if it appears beyond a doubt that the allegations in the complaint do not constitute a claim upon which relief may be granted. Hunnings v. Texaco, Inc., 29 F.3d 1480, 1484 (11th Cir.1994). “The issue is not whether a plaintiff will ultimately prevail but whether the claimant is entitled to offer evidence to support the claims.” Taylor v. Ledbetter, 818 F.2d 791, 794 n. 4 (11th Cir.1987) (en banc), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1065, 109 S.Ct. 1337, 103 L.Ed.2d 808 (1989) (quotation omitted).
III. DISCUSSION
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance....
Davis argues that the Board‘s failure to stop the sexual harassment discriminated against LaShonda and denied her the benefits of her education on the basis of sex. In support of this argument, Davis urges us to apply sexual harassment principles from the more extensive caselaw of Title VII, which prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace.2 In relevant part, Title VII requires an employer to take steps to assure that the working environment of its employees is free from sexual harassment3 that
Enacted in 1972, Title IX was designed to protect individuals from sex discrimination by denying federal financial aid to those educational institutions that bear responsibility for sexually discriminatory practices. Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 704 & n. 36, 99 S.Ct. 1946, 1961 & n. 36, 60 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) (citing 117 Cong.Rec. 39252 (1971)). “It is a strong and comprehensive measure which ... is needed if we are to provide women with solid legal protection as they seek education and training for lаter careers....” Id. at 704 n. 36, 99 S.Ct. at 1961 n. 36 (quoting Sen. Birch Bayh, 118 Cong.Rec. 5806-07 (1972)). To accomplish this goal, employees and students of federally funded educational institutions who are discriminated against on the basis of sex have a private right of action under Title IX for injunctive relief and compensatory damages. Id. at 717, 99 S.Ct. at 1968; Franklin v. Gwinnett County Pub. Schs., 503 U.S. 60, 75-76, 112 S.Ct. 1028, 1037-38, 117 L.Ed.2d 208 (1992). Moreover, in interpreting Title IX, “[t]here is no doubt that if we are to give [it] the scope that its origins dictate, we must accord it a sweep as broad as its language.” North Haven Bd. of Educ. v. Bell, 456 U.S. 512, 521, 102 S.Ct. 1912, 1918, 72 L.Ed.2d 299 (1982)
Although the Supreme Court recognized a private right of action under Title IX in 1979, see Cannon, 441 U.S. at 717, 99 S.Ct. at 1968, until recently the denial of financial aid was the only remedy available to a Title IX plaintiff. Accordingly, early lawsuits brought under Title IX primarily challenged discriminatory practices in athletic programs and admissions policies. See, e.g., id. at 680, 99 S.Ct. at 1949. In 1992, however, the Supreme Court unanimously allowed monetary damages to private plaintiffs for intentional violations of Title IX, see Franklin, 503 U.S. at 76, 112 S.Ct. at 1038, increasing the number of Title IX suits brought by employees and students alleging that their educational institutions subjected them to sexual discrimination.
In reviewing sexual discrimination claims by teachers and other employees of educational institutions under Title IX, courts have regularly applied Title VII principles. In Lipsett v. University of Puerto Rico, 864 F.2d 881 (1st Cir.1988), for example, the plaintiff was a female medical student in the residency program and also was an employee of the University. Id. at 886. She alleged that University hospital supervisory personnel had subjected her to an atmosphere of sexual harassment at the hospital. Id. at 886-92. In determining that Title VII sexual harassment principles applied to this “mixed employment-training” context, the Second Circuit relied on Title IX‘s legislative history, “which strongly suggests that Congress meant for similar substantive standards to apply under Title IX as had been developed under Title VII.” Id. at 897; see also Preston v. Commonwealth of Virginia ex rel. New River Community College, 31 F.3d 203, 207 (4th Cir.1994); Mabry v. State Bd. of Community Colleges, 813 F.2d 311, 316 n. 6 (10th Cir.1987).
[it is] perfectly reasonable to maintain that academic achievement conditioned upon submission to sexual demands constitutes sex discrimination in education, just as questions of job retention or promotion tied to sexual demands from supervisors have become increasingly recognized as potential violations of Title VII‘s ban against sex discrimination in employment....
Alexander v. Yale Univ., 459 F.Supp. 1, 4 (D.Conn.1977), aff‘d, 631 F.2d 178 (2d Cir.1980). Similarly, in recognizing that Title IX prohibits the existence of a hostile environment due to a teacher‘s sexual harassment of a student, another court observed that “[t]hough the sexual harassment ‘doctrine’ has generally developed in the context of Title VII, these [Title VII] guidelines seem equally applicable to Title IX.” Moire v. Temple Univ. Sch. of Medicine, 613 F.Supp. 1360, 1366 n. 2 (E.D.Pa.1985), aff‘d, 800 F.2d 1136 (3d Cir.1986).
Nonetheless, in Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, 911 F.2d 617 (11th Cir.1990), rev‘d, 503 U.S. 60, 112 S.Ct. 1028, 117 L.Ed.2d 208 (1992), this court declined to apply a Title VII analysis to the question of whether compensatory damages were available in a suit brought by a student under Title IX. Id. at 622. On appeal, however, the Supreme Court reversed, and relied upon Title VII principles and authority in holding that Title IX
Unquestionably, Title IX placed on the Gwinnett County Public Schools the duty not to discriminate on the basis of sex, and “when a supervisor sexually harasses a subordinate because of the subordinate‘s sex, that supervisor ‘discriminate[s]’ on the basis of sex.” Meritor Sav. Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57, 64 [106 S.Ct. 2399, 2404, 91 L.Ed.2d 49] (1986). We believe the same rule should apply when a teacher sexually harasses and abuses a student. Congress surely did not intend for federal moneys to be expended to support the intentional actions it sought by statute to proscribe.
Franklin, 503 U.S. at 75, 112 S.Ct. at 1037. Importantly, the Court relied on Title VII principles and cited Meritor, a Title VII case, to resolve the issue.
Subsequently, several courts have understood Franklin to authorize the application of Title VII standards to a student‘s Title IX sexual harassment claim against her school. In Murray v. New York University College of Dentistry, 57 F.3d 243 (2d Cir.1995), the Second Circuit looked to Title VII in addressing a student‘s Title IX claim that she was subjected to a sexually hostile educational environment created by a patient at the dental school. Id. at 248. The district court had dismissed the complaint after determining that the facts alleged were
Similarly, the District Court for the Northern District of California relied on Franklin in determining that a student may state a Title IX claim for hostile environment sexual harassment wherе the harassment is initiated by fellow students. In Doe v. Petaluma School District, 830 F.Supp. 1560 (N.D.Cal.1993), the plaintiff alleged that she was harassed when she was a seventh- and eighth-grade student in the defendant school district. The harassment allegedly began early in plaintiff‘s seventh-grade year, when two male students approached her and said “I hear you have a hot dog in your pants.” Id. at 1564. Over the next year and a half, other students regularly made similarly offensive remarks to plaintiff and spread sexual rumors and innuendoes about her. Id. During this period, plaintiff and her parents spoke with her school
Plaintiff filed suit under Title IX against the school district and several school officials for their failure to take action to stop the sexual harassment inflicted upon her by her classmates. Id. at 1563. Denying defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure tо state a claim, the court held that Title IX proscribes the same type of hostile environment sexual harassment prohibited by Title VII. Id. at 1571-75. In addition to relying on Franklin and Title IX‘s legislative history, the court looked to findings of the Department of Education‘s Office of Civil Rights (“OCR“). Petaluma, 830 F.Supp. at 1572 (citing Patricia H. v. Berkeley Unified Sch. Dist., 830 F.Supp. 1288 (N.D.Cal.1993)). These findings demonstrated an OCR belief that “an educational institution‘s failure to take appropriate response to student-to-student sexual harassment of which it knew or had reason to know is a violation of Title IX.” Id. at 1573 (citations omitted). The court concluded that to deny recovery to a sexually harassed student under the hostile environment theory “would
We likewise find it appropriate to apply Title VII principles to the question before us. As discussed in the foregoing cases, such application is supported by Franklin, Title IX‘s legislative history and the Supreme Court‘s mandate that we read Title IX broadly, as well as by findings of the OCR. In particular, the OCR has found that a student is subjected to sexual harassment when “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other sex-based verbal or physical conduct ... has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual‘s education creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.” Letter of Findings by John E. Palоmino, Regional Civil Rights Director, Region IV (July 24, 1992), Docket No. 09-92-6002, at 2.4 The OCR also has found that “[w]hen individuals who are participating in a program or activity operated by an educational institution are subjected to sexual harassment, they are receiving treatment that is different from others.” Id. Finally, the OCR has found that “[i]f the harassment is carried out by non-agent students, the institution may nevertheless be found in noncompliance with Title IX if it failed to respond adequately to actual or constructive notice of the harassment.” Id.; see also
Application of these principles to Title IX claims by students recognizes, as the Supreme Court acknowledged in Franklin, that a student should have the same protection in school that an employee has in the workplace. See Franklin, 503 U.S. at 74-75, 112 S.Ct. at 1037. Indeed, where there are distinctions between the school environment and the workplace, they “serve only to emphasize the need for zealous protection against sex discrimination in the schools.” Patricia H., 830 F.Supp. at 1292-93. The ability to control and influence behavior exists to an even greater extent in the classroom than in the workplace, as students look to their teachers for guidance as well as for protection. The damage caused by sexual harassment also is arguably greater in the classroom than in the workplace, because the harassment has a greater and longer lasting impact on its young victims, and institutionalizes sexual harassment as accepted behavior. Moreover, as economically difficult as it may be for adults to leave a hostile workplace, it is virtually impossible for children to leave their assigned school. Finally, “[a] nondiscriminatory environment is essential to maximum intellectual growth and is therefore an integral part of the educational benefits that a student receives. A sexually abusive environment inhibits, if not prevents, the harassed student from developing her full intellectual potential and receiving the
Thus, we conclude that as Title VII encompasses a claim for damages due to a sexually hostile working environment created by co-workers and tolerated by the employer, Title IX encompasses a claim for damages due to a sexually hostile educational environment created by a fellow student or students when the supervising authorities knowingly fail to act to eliminate the harassment.5 Cf. Franklin, 503 U.S. at 74-75, 112 S.Ct. at 1037; see Murray, 57 F.3d at 249; Petaluma, 830 F.Supp. at 1575. But see Seamons v. Snow, 864 F.Supp. 1111, 1118 (D.Utah 1994).
In this case, by requiring that a school employee cоmmit the harassing action in order for Davis to state a claim, the district court failed to recognize the nature of a claim for hostile environment sexual harassment. The court dismissed the complaint because, in its view, “any harm to LaShonda was not proximately
Likewise, when an educational institution knowingly fails to take action to remedy a hostile environment caused by a student‘s sexual harassment of another, the harassed student has “be[en] denied the benefits of, or be[en] subjected to discrimination under” that educational program in violation of Title IX,
Having determined that Title IX encompasses a claim for a hostile learning environment created by peer sexual harassment, we must consider the sufficiency of Davis’ allegations. The elements a plaintiff must prove to succeed in this type of sexual harassment case are: (1) that she is a member of a protected group; (2) that she was subject to unwelcome sexual harassment; (3) that the harassment was based on sex; (4) that the harassment was sufficiently severe or pervasive so as to alter the conditions of her education and create an abusive educational environment; and (5) that some basis for institutional liability has been established. Cf. Meritor, 477 U.S. at 66-73, 106 S.Ct. at 2405-08; see also Harris v. Forklift Sys. Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 21-23, 114 S.Ct. 367, 370-71, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993); Lipsett, 864 F.2d
Assumed as true, the facts alleged in the complaint, together with all reasonable inferences therefrom, satisfy these elements. There is no question that the allegations satisfy the first three requirements. First, as a female, LaShonda is a member of a protected group. Second, she was subject to unwelcome sexual harassment in the form of “verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature.”
As to the fourth requirement, we recognize that a hostile environment in an educational setting is not created by simple childish behavior or by an offensive utterance, comment, or vulgarity. Rather, Title IX is violated “when the [educational environment] is permeated with ‘discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult’ that is ‘sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim‘s [environment] and create an abusive environment,‘” Harris, 510 U.S. at 21, 114 S.Ct. at 370 (quoting Meritor, 477 U.S. at 64-65, 106 S.Ct. at 2404) (internal citations omitted). In determining whether a plaintiff has established that an environment is hostile or abusive, a court must be particularly concerned with (1) the frequency of the abusive conduct; (2) the conduct‘s severity; (3) whether it is physically threatening or humiliating rather than merely offensive; and (4) whether it unreasonably interferes with the plaintiff‘s performance. Id. at 23, 114 S.Ct. at 371. The Court has explained that these factors must be viewed both objectively and subjectively. If the conduct is not so severe or pervasive that a
Turning to the case before us in light of the relevant factors, we find the five months of alleged harassment sufficiently severe and pervasive tо have altered the conditions of LaShonda‘s learning environment from both an objective and a subjective standpoint: (1) G.F. engaged in abusive conduct toward LaShonda on at least eight occasions; (2) the conduct was sufficiently severe to result in criminal charges against G.F.; (3) the conduct, such as the groping and requests for sex, was physically threatening and humiliating rather than merely offensive; and (4) the conduct unreasonably interfered with LaShonda‘s academic performance, resulting in the substantial deterioration of her grades and emotional health. The facts alleged go far beyond simple horseplay, childish vulgarities or adоlescent flirting.
Finally, we consider the fifth and final element—whether any basis for the Board‘s liability has been shown. Under Title VII, whether the harassing conduct of a supervisor or co-worker should be imputed to the employer is determined in accordance with common-law principles of agency. See Meritor, 477 U.S. at 72, 106 S.Ct. at 2408; Murray, 57 F.3d at 249. Under the agency theory of respondeat superior, this court holds employers liable for a hostile environment created by a co-worker where the plaintiff can
In this case, Davis has alleged that she told the principal—a higher level manager—of the harassment on several occasions. She also alleged that at least three separate teachers, in addition to the principal, had actual and repetitive knowledge from LaShonda, her mother and other students. Finally, Davis alleged that despite this knowledge, the school officials failed to take prompt and remedial action to end the harassment.7 These allegations regarding institutional liability, as well as the other allegations, are sufficient to establish a prima facie claim under Title IX for sexual discrimination due to the Board‘s failure to take action to remedy a sexually hostile environment.
IV. CONCLUSION
In light of the foregoing, we affirm the district court‘s judgment with the exception of its dismissal of the Title IX claim against the Board. We reverse the district court‘s dismissal of that claim and remand for proceedings consistent herewith.
AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part; REMANDED.
Although I concur in the court‘s affirmance of the district court‘s dismissal of Davis‘s section 1983 claim, I disagree with the majority‘s holding that Dаvis‘s allegations state a valid claim against the Monroe County Board of Education under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,
This case does not involve allegations that an employee of the school district sexually harassed LaShonda D., but rather that the school district negligently failed to prevent another student from harassing LaShonda. The majority is correct in noting that the Supreme Court has held that “Title IX is enforceable through an implied right of action.” Franklin v. Gwinnett County Pub. Schs., 503 U.S. 60, 65, 112 S.Ct. 1028, 1032, 117 L.Ed.2d 208 (1992) (citing Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 99 S.Ct. 1946, 60 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). However, Franklin involved a high-school student‘s allegations that a teacher had sexually harassed and assaulted her, and that school officials, who had actual knowledge of the teachеr‘s conduct, failed to intervene. Id. at 63-64, 112 S.Ct. at 1031-1032. The student-on-student sexual harassment alleged in this case is analytically quite distinct from that in Franklin, and the majority makes an unprecedented extension in holding that Title IX encompasses a claim of hostile environment sexual harassment based on the conduct of a student. There is no indication in the language of Title IX that such a cause of action was intended to be covered by its scope; rather, the statute states that “[n]o person in the United
Even if I were to accept the majority‘s conclusion that Title IX encompasses student-on-student sexual harassment, I would limit that holding to intentional conduct on the pаrt of the school board. Here, what is alleged is that the school board was negligent in failing to intervene to prevent the recurring student-on-student harassment. The majority relies on Franklin in reaching its conclusion that Title IX covers such behavior, even though the Franklin case involved intentional behavior on the part of a teacher; absent an indication to the contrary, Franklin should be limited to its facts. But rather than do this, the majority not only broadly reads it to cover student-on-student sexual harassment, but also to cover negligent behavior on the part of the school board.
Lastly, I would limit the remedy available to a plaintiff in the case of unintentional viоlations of Title IX to injunctive relief. Franklin involved intentional discrimination by the school
Accordingly, I CONCUR in part and DISSENT in part.