J.F.K., M.C.K., аs Next Friends, Parents and Natural Guardians of O.K.K., a minor v. TROUP COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, ELIZABETH M. GADDY
No. 11-13297
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
May 3, 2012
D.C. Docket No. 3:09-cv-00142-WBH
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Before WILSON and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and ALBRITTON,* District Judge.
ALBRITTON, District Judge:
* Honorable W. Harold Albritton, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama, sitting by designation.
J.F.K., et. al., appeal the district court‘s grant of Troup County School District‘s (“Troup“) motion for summary judgment as to the Plaintiffs’ sexual harassment claim brought pursuant to Title IX,
The Appellants argue that the district court improperly applied a Titlе VII framework instead of the appropriate Title IX framework. Moreover, the Appellants argue that, although the district court offered a correct account of the facts, it erred by deciding that those facts, taken in a light most favorable to the Appellants, failed to create an issue of material fact as to the notice prong of the Title IX framework.
II. Legal Standards
A. Summary Judgment
This court reviews de novo a district court‘s grant of summary judgment, applying the same legal standаrds as the district court. Tiara Condo Ass‘ns, Inc. v. Marsh & McLennan Co., Inc., 607 F.3d 742 (11th Cir. 2010). This court will affirm if, after construing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-movant, it finds that no genuine issue of material fact exists and the movant is
B. Title IX Standard
While we agree with the result of the district court‘s decision, we write to correct the standard applied by it.
The Supreme Court has recognized an imрlied right of action under Title IX,
This court has explained that “the Supreme Court made plain that not all sexual harassment by teachers is sufficient to impose liability on a school district.” Doe v. School Bd. Of Broward County, Fla, 604 F.3d 1248, 1254 (11th Cir. 2010) (citing Gebser). In order to defeat summary judgment for such a claim, the plaintiff must satisfy threе different inquiries. Id. The plaintiff must be able to 1)
The district court combined Title VII workplace discrimination standards with Title IX teacher-on-student harassment standards when it articulated the Appellants’ burden as to inquiry two as follows:
To summarize, Plaintiffs bear the burden of demonstrating that a reasonable person in Principal Whatley‘s position would conclude, based on what he had learned, that O.K.K. had been subject to unwelcome harassment by Gaddy that was either gender based or sexual in nature and that the harassment was so severe and pervasive that it threatened to create a hostile (or abusive) environment in an educational program or activity.
The district court‘s articulation of the standard improperly added two provisions. First, the district court improperly included an inquiry as to whether or not the harassment by Gaddy was “unwelcome.” Such an inquiry has never been part of
The Appellants argue, and this court agrees, that the simple articulation of the stаndard in Broward is sufficient. Simply put, the actual notice must be sufficient to alert the decision-maker to the possibility of sexual harassment by the teacher.
The district court‘s reliance on the wrong standard does not necessarily mandate that this court must now reverse its decision and remand the case. Because this court reviews a district court‘s grant of summary judgment de novo,
III. Facts2
The facts of this case stem from circumstances surrounding the sexual molestation of a twelve year old boy, O.K.K., by his forty-five year old seventh grade homeroom teacher, Elizabeth Gaddy (“Gaddy“). As a result of an independent investigation begun in November, 2008, Gaddy was charged criminally with child molestation, pled guilty on October 19, 2009, to committing at least five acts of oral sex on O.K.K. between May 20, 2008 and August 7, 2008, and was sentenced to prison. J.F.K., O.K.K.‘s father, and M.C.K., O.K.K.‘s mother, brought this Title IX claim on behalf of O.K.K., alleging that Troup is liable under Title IX because the actions taken by Principal Whatley failed to protect O.K.K. from Gaddy‘s assaults. The content of Whatley‘s knowledge as to the circumstances in this case will be determinative of Appellants’ claims. Accordingly, the following facts, together with all justifiable inferences therefrom,
During the middle of the 2007-2008 school year, roughly January 2008, Principal Whatley received a complaint from a parent, Michelle Scarborough, about Gaddy‘s conduct towards her son, one of Gaddy‘s seventh grade students. She explained to Whatley that, although she had given Gaddy permission to take her son with a group of students to go bowling in Columbus, her son did not return until after midnight. She also informed Whatley that Gaddy had continued to call the Scarborough home to ask if her son could go on othеr non-school related trips. Whatley was also shown a text message sent to the student by Gaddy encouraging the boy to skip his class and to come to her classroom so that he could see his girlfriend. Moreover, Mrs. Scarborough showed Whatley a note in which Gaddy encouraged the student to lie to his parents about skipping class. Gaddy and the student‘s parents met with Whatley to discuss this incident, and Gaddy explained that her daughter sent the text message to their son. The end result of this incident wаs that the parents asked for their son to be moved to another set of teachers, which was subsequently granted.
Some time after these incidents, likely in April 2008, Smith contacted J.F.K. about Gaddy‘s conduct during a spring break trip which Smith‘s family and Gaddy‘s family had taken together in early April 2008. J.F.K. testified in his deposition that Smith‘s conversation with him about the spring break trip concerned the fact that he needed to check O.K.K.‘s phone because Gaddy had been constantly sending O.K.K. text messages. Smith testified to the same and explained that she told J.F.K. that she would not want a forty-five year old to have that much control over her twelve year old. She also testified that she told him that she did not think anything was going on except that Gaddy appeared to enjoy the attention. After receiving this information, J.F.K. spoke with Principal Whatley.
During the conversation with Whatley, J.F.K. expressed some of his concerns about Gaddy. He told Whatley that Gaddy was texting O.K.K. too much
In late April 2008, Whatley contacted Superintendent Ed Smith about the complaints against Gaddy, including other complaints from the parents of the cheerleaders that Gaddy coached and presumably J.F.K.‘s complaint to Whatley. A decision was made to search Gaddy‘s computer for evidence of any inappropriate behavior. The search was conducted by Dan Drake, a Troup employee, on May 2, 2008. Drake reported that there was no inappropriate content found on Gaddy‘s computer. Drake said that Gaddy‘s computer did have a photo of some students including one of a teenage boy, and there was evidence that Gaddy had been online shopping for a baseball uniform even though Gaddy
Smith also expressed her concerns to Whatley about Gaddy‘s behavior. Although Smith explains that she spoke to Whatley a couple of weeks after the spring break trip, she clarifies that the convеrsation took place during the next to last week of school, which would have been in May. That conversation began when Whatley called Smith to ask her if she would be willing to switch from her seventh grade social studies position to an eighth grade science position. Smith agreed so quickly that it surprised Whatley. When Whatley asked why she was so willing to move, Smith explained that Gaddy was texting the students too much. Moreover, she told him that she was worried that Gaddy had grown too fond of O.K.K. and that she еnjoyed the attention too much. She also repeated what she told J.F.K. about Gaddy‘s spring break behavior. Smith testified that she “truthfully did not think anything was going on at that point.”
At the end of the 2007-2008 school year, on May 20, 2008, Gaddy had a group of students over to her house for an Honors Day pool party. It is undisputed that O.K.K.‘s mother, M.C.K., gave permission for O.K.K. to go to the pool party. While at the pool party, O.K.K. was seen sitting close to Gaddy on the same towel
Some of the complaints that Whatley was made aware of included complaints by several parents that Gaddy was excessively involved in their children‘s lives, that she verbally abused the female students by calling them “sluts and whores,” and that she referred to one girl that O.K.K. liked as an “ugly Asian.” One parent, Kristie Thompson, made a complaint to Whatley that Gaddy was possessive of O.K.K., and that the only girl that was allowed to “like” O.K.K. was Gaddy‘s daughter. Another parent, Mrs. Berryhill, told Whatley in August of 2008 that she had gone to the Gaddys’ home and had seen Gaddy and O.K.K. on a sofa with their bodies touching and a blanket covering their legs. When Whatley confronted Gaddy about these accusations, Gaddy always provided а plausible explanation. As to the sofa incident, Gaddy explained that her husband was on the same sofa and that her dog had urinated on the sofa earlier, thus limiting available seating space.
Smith testified that at the end of July, a couple of weeks before school was supposed to start, Whаtley called both Smith and Gaddy into his office to discuss some allegations made by Gaddy about Smith. During that meeting, Smith explained that Gaddy was angry with her because she told O.K.K.‘s family that O.K.K. had been coming over to the Gaddys’ residence without their permission. She also explained that Gaddy was upset about how, according to Gaddy, Smith, as a co-coach of the cheerleaders, had told false things to some of the cheerleaders and their parents. Gaddy explained that she could not work on cheerleading anymore with Smith, but Whatley kept them both on as coaches.
J.F.K. took both O.K.K. and another of his sons to school to register just before the start of the 2008-2009 school year. While at the school, he met with Whatley to discuss the Gaddy situation. He explained that this was O.K.K.‘s eighth grade year, and he did not want Gaddy to be involved with O.K.K. He wanted there to be no interaction between Gaddy and O.K.K., and Whatley told him that he would look into it. The Appellants argue in their brief that Whatley never did anything to actively correct the problem. Whatley‘s deposition,
After the 2008-2009 school year commenced, Gaddy continued to contact O.K.K. through calls, emails, and letters even though he was no longer in any of her classes. Seeing that Gaddy was continuing to make contact with O.K.K., O.K.K.‘s parents, J.F.K. and M.C.K., arranged to meet with Whatley in the school‘s conference room around late October 2008. At this meeting, the third between Whatley and J.F.K. in six months, O.K.K.‘s parents told Whatley about Gaddy‘s continued contact with O.K.K. despite her not being his teacher anymore. At this time, O.K.K.‘s parents reiterated that they did not want Gaddy around O.K.K. anymore, and Whatley explained that he had banned Gaddy from the eighth grade hall after his last meeting with J.F.K. The Appellants conceded that Whatley did ban Gaddy from the eighth grade hall, but argue that he did so because of her involvement in the cheerleader controversy and not because of his meeting with J.F.K. in August of 2008.
Also during that October 2008 meeting with Whatley, Whatley asked O.K.K.‘s parents if they thought anything was going on between O.K.K. and Gaddy. M.C.K. testified that they told Whatley that they did not think anything was going on. However, M.C.K.‘s undisputed testimony is that before the October
The last incident that Whatley was told about relating to O.K.K. and Gaddy was that on one occasion in October 2008, which was after Gaddy had been banned from the eighth grade hall, Gaddy went down that hall looking for O.K.K. According to one of the teachers at the school, O.K.K. saw Gaddy coming and hid from her in the boys’ restroom.
IV. Discussion
The first step for the Appellants to defeat summary judgment as to their Title IX claim is to identify a person with the authority to take corrective measures in response to actual notice of sexual harassment. Since it is not contested that Principal Whatley fits this description, the Appellants have satisfied their burden as to the first factor. With this factor satisfied, the court will turn to the notice inquiry.
There are different ways by which such actual notice may be satisfied. One, of course, would be if it were shown that Whatley had knowledge that Gaddy was actually sexually harassing O.K.K. That was not the case. A second way would
From the record, it appears clear that Whatley was never put on notice of any single act, or combination of acts, of actual sexuаl harassment by Gaddy of other students of the type to which O.K.K. was subjected. Instead, the Appellants argue ithe theory that reports of lesser levels of inappropriate conduct can be enough to put the school official on sufficient notice as required by Title IX. The Appellants rely on the facts in our Broward case to make this argument.
The teacher in Broward sexually assaulted the plaintiff, Doe. Id. at 1250 n. 1. While this was the first incident of sexual harassment from the teacher against Doe, there had been two highly similar complaints lodged against the same teacher by other female students directly to the principal. 604 F.3d at 1250-53. The complaints alleged, inter alia, that the male teacher put his hands on the two nonparty victims, lifted their shirts up to expose their stomachs or told them to do it, tried to blackmail one of the victims into having sexual intercourse with him, and
The Appellants attempt to analogize Gaddy‘s behavior to that of the teacher in Broward. Like the teacher from Broward, Gaddy had been the subject of a complaint involving another male student who received text messagеs and letters from Gaddy encouraging the student to skip class to meet up with his girlfriend in Gaddy‘s classroom and to lie to his parents about skipping class. The key difference is that Gaddy‘s conduct towards this other student did not involve the
Looking to the rest of the facts of the present case, Whatley knew about complaints from teachers and parents that Gaddy was constantly sending O.K.K., and other students, text messages. He knew that Gaddy bought Christmas gifts for O.K.K. that J.F.K. thought were inappropriately expensive, and that Gaddy took O.K.K. home in her car against J.F.K.‘s wishes. He knew that Gaddy had been shopping for a baseball uniform despite having no sons. He knew that Gaddy and O.K.K. had been seen sharing a towel at a pool party and spending time alone inside the house, and later sharing a blanket with their legs touching on Gaddy‘s sofa. He also knew that Smith thought that Gaddy was too fond of O.K.K. and that another student‘s parent worried that Gaddy was “possessive” of O.K.K. by not letting any other girl “likе” O.K.K. but her daughter. He knew that several parents, including those of cheerleaders, were complaining of Gaddy‘s excessive involvement in their children‘s lives and that Gaddy called some female students
Another instructive case is Davis v. DeKalb County School District, 233 F.3d 1367, 1373 (11th Cir. 2000), in which this court found that a prior complaint about the teacher-abuser by a non-party victim was not enough to put the principal and school board on notice. The non-party student‘s complaint alleged touching on that prior student‘s bottom during a football game in which the teacher was thе quarterback and the student was the center. The complaint also alleged that at the water fountain after the football game the teacher walked inappropriately close to the student. Id. It is true that Whatley did have knowledge of another non-party student‘s complaint in the form of Mrs. Scarborough‘s complaint to Whatley about Gaddy encouraging her son to skip class to meet up with his girlfriend in Gaddy‘s classroom and to lie to his parents about skipping class. Hоwever, as in Davis, this conduct contains no sexual harassment or gender discrimination component,
Ultimately, a comparison of Gaddy‘s conduct, including the leg-to-leg contact under the blanket, buying of expensive gifts, extensive phone contact, “possessiveness” of O.K.K., and other conduct mentioned above, with the conduct of the teachers in Davis and Broward leads this court to the conclusion that Gaddy‘s conduct was more in line with that of the teacher in Davis. Like the principal in that case, Whatley‘s knowledge was not enough to put him on actual notice that there was a risk of sexual harassment against O.K.K. by Gaddy. This is even more clear in light of the fact that Whatley knew that Gaddy‘s daughter and O.K.K. were friends, and, according to the briefs, dated for a while; that O.K.K. was often a guest of the Gaddy family; and that O.K.K.‘s parents told Whatley that they did not suspect anything was going on.
Accordingly, after considering the factual record and drawing all justifiable inferences in favor of the Appellants, this court finds that the information of which Whatley had knowledge is not enough to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Whatley had actual notice sufficient to alert him to the possibility of sexual harassment of this twelve year old boy by his forty-five year old female teacher.
Although for different reasons than the district court, the district cоurt‘s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Appellee-Defendants is
AFFIRMED.