Carlisle v. St. Charles School Dist.

507 F. Supp. 2d 1018, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34759, 2007 WL 1018760
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 11, 2007
Docket4:05CV2417 CDP
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 507 F. Supp. 2d 1018 (Carlisle v. St. Charles School Dist.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carlisle v. St. Charles School Dist., 507 F. Supp. 2d 1018, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34759, 2007 WL 1018760 (E.D. Mo. 2007).

Opinion

507 F.Supp.2d 1018 (2007)

George W. CARLISLE, Jr., Plaintiff,
v.
ST. CHARLES SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant.

No. 4:05CV2417 CDP.

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, Eastern Division.

April 2, 2007.
Order Denying Reconsideration May 11, 2007.

*1019 *1020 *1021 George W. Carlisle, Jr., St. Peters, MO, pro se.

Celynda L. Brasher, Michelle H. Basi, Tueth and Keeney, St. Louis, MO, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

CATHERINE D. PERRY, District Judge.

Pro se plaintiff George Carlisle, a sixty-year-old African-American male, alleges that defendant St. Charles School District failed to hire him for the position of building computer technician because of his race, age, and sex. He seeks relief under Title VII. The School District claims that it did not hire Carlisle because he was not the most qualified candidate for the position.

Both parties have moved for summary judgment on all of Carlisle's claims. The District also requests that the Court strike Carlisle's motion in opposition to summary judgment for failure to file in a timely manner. Carlisle has not offered any evidence that could lead to an, inference that the District's reasons for not hiring him are pretextual or otherwise unworthy of credence. There is no evidence suggesting discrimination based on race, sex, or age. Because there are no genuine issues of material fact and the undisputed evidence shows no discriminatory motive, I will grant St. Charles School District's motion for summary judgment on Carlisle's claims. I will deny Carlisle's motion for summary judgment and the District's motion to strike.

I. Background

In January of 2005, St. Charles School District posted a job opening for the part-time position of Building Computer Technician at the Lewis and Clark Career Center, a technical and vocational school that is operate& by the St. Charles School District. The job posting listed the qualifications for the position as: high school graduate, basic knowledge of computer hardware, basic knowledge of computer software, and ability to work with teachers and students on computer usage. The job responsibilities included, but were not limited to: assisting with the instruction of students, instructing staff, maintaining the computer labs, low level maintenance and repair of building software and hardware problems, and serving as a resource for students and faculty.

Kathy Frederking, director of the Lewis and Clark Career Center, was responsible for reviewing applications, interviewing *1022 candidates, and selecting an individual to recommend to the District's Board of Education for employment in the position. The District received applications, including resumes, from seven candidates and Frederking selected three for interviews: Katherine Peters, Joshua Dunnagan, and plaintiff George Carlisle. Frederking interviewed the three candidates with Dennis Ryan, the vocational evaluator for the District. Each applicant was asked the same 10 questions and Frederking and Ryan completed the same summary interview forms for each.

Notes taken by the interviewers concerning Carlisle's responses to interview questions indicate that Carlisle laughed inappropriately before answering some questions. When asked about his experience working with digital cameras, fonts, and PowerPoint presentations, Carlisle responded that he could "figure it out." The interviewers found his experience with web design and his experience writing database programs to be limited. On the other hand, the interviewers' notes on Dunnagan indicate that he had experience with digital cameras and PowerPoint, and that he knew HTML/JAVA for web design.

Upon completion of the"interview, each interviewer rated the candidates on a paper screening form. Carlisle received ten "outstanding" marks, eight "good" marks, one "outstanding/good" mark, and one mark of "fair" in the "communicates effectively" category. He was not recommended for employment by either interviewer. One of the interviewers noted on the evaluation that Carlisle commonly redirected questions to fit his answers. Another note mentioned that Carlisle was both overqualified in some areas and lacking in others.

After the interviews and a review of the qualifications of the applicants, Joshua Dunnagan, a twenty-six year old white male, was recommended for employment with the District in the computer technician position, and he was eventually hired. The interviewers had rated Dunnagan with fourteen "outstanding" marks, four "good" marks, two "outstanding/good" marks, and no "fair" marks. Overall, one interviewer described him as an "outstanding candidate" and the other interviewer as a "very good candidate." The notes on the evaluation form indicate that the interviewers felt that Dunnagan would work well with the staff, that his hardware and software skills looked good, that he currently uses databases, and that he knows HTML.

Carlisle filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC and the Missouri Commission on Human Rights on April 4, 2005, alleging discrimination based on race and age. He did not check "SEX" as a basis for his discrimination claim, nor did he mention any facts relating to sex in the particulars section of the charge. The EEOC issued a right to sue letter on September 28, 2005, and on December 30, 2005, Carlisle filed this suit.

II. Motion to Strike

The District requests that the Court strike Carlisle's opposition motion to summary judgment in its entirety because it was not timely filed. The Case Management Order (CMO) issued on March 17, 2006, established that opposition briefs to dispositive motions were due no later than February 22, 2007. Carlisle admits to having mailed his opposition brief on February 26, 2007, four days after the deadline. However, he argues that the CMO deadlines were chosen "in error" and are "inappropriate" because they do not allow time for service delivery by mail. Carlisle relies on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6, which explains how time deadlines are computed.

*1023 When the Court issues an order establishing deadlines, those deadlines are the dates when actions must be taken, and no additional time for mailing is added. Carlisle mistakenly assumes that he was allowed to compute his own deadlines under the Federal Rules, but the Court has already established them and no computation under Federal Rule 6 is required. As for Carlisle's suggestion that the deadlines were chosen "in error" and are "inappropriate," the Court can give no credence to such suggestions because Carlisle failed to appear for the scheduling conference which established the deadlines and he has no right to complain now. The Court has used the same general schedule as the one used in this case in hundreds of other cases, including cases involving pro se plaintiffs, without problem or complaint from the parties. In any event, because there has been no prejudice to the District, I will overlook Carlisle's mistake in this instance and deny the motion to strike, but he is warned that failure to follow court-ordered deadlines will not normally be excused.

III. Summary Judgment

The standards for summary judgment are well settled. In determining whether summary judgment should issue, the Court views the facts and inferences from the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Matsushita Elec.

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Bluebook (online)
507 F. Supp. 2d 1018, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34759, 2007 WL 1018760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carlisle-v-st-charles-school-dist-moed-2007.