Cudjoe v. Independent School District No. 12

297 F.3d 1058
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJuly 23, 2002
DocketNo. 01-6008
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 297 F.3d 1058 (Cudjoe v. Independent School District No. 12) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cudjoe v. Independent School District No. 12, 297 F.3d 1058 (10th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant, Brenda Cudjoe, individually and as next friend of Adam “Scottie” Carrington, brought suit against the Edmond Public School District and Ysleta Hansen (collectively “Appellees”) for alleged violations of federal privacy and nondiscrimination laws and the United States Constitution. Specifically, Appellant brought an action against the District and Hansen pursuant to 20 U.S.C. § 1232g,, (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, hereinafter referred to as “FER-PA”) and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Appellant also claimed that Hansen and the District violated Scottie’s right to privacy incorporated into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Appellant alleged that the District discriminated against Scottie on the basis of his disability in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the “ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of - 1973 (“Section 504”), 29 U.S.C. § 794. Finally, Appellant brought suit against the District for discrimination against Scottie on account of his race,1 in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000d.2

The district court granted summary judgment to the District and Hansen on all claims. Appellant appeals that judgment with respect to all claims except for the District’s alleged violation of the ADA. Exercising our jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Appellees.

I. Background

Scottie began kindergarten in the District in the fall of 1989. At the conclusion of that school year, he was evaluated by his teacher and the school counselor, and they recommended that he be placed in developmental first grade the following year. These evaluations and recommenda[1061]*1061tions were recorded in a “Placement Form” dated April 11, 1990. Developmental first grade is not a special education placement. Appellant agreed with this recommendation. Scottie began the following year in Hansen’s developmental first grade class. After three weeks in the class, Appellant removed Scottie from the class and the District.3

After Scottie’s removal, the next time Appellant saw Hansen was eight and a half years later when Hansen purchased the condominium above Appellant. Hansen leased this condominium to Kathy Garrison. Over the next few months, Appellant and Garrison became involved in unfriendly encounters, which included each side calling the police on the other, and allegations of threats and racial epithets. Appellant also learned that someone had been making comments around the condominium property about herself and Scottie. She hired a private investigator, Christie Spencer, to discover the substance of the comments and their source.

Spencer arranged a meeting on March 22, 1999, in the condominium owned by Hansen. The meeting was tape recorded and attended by Hansen, Garrison, and Spencer. Hansen viewed the meeting as a “neighborly kind of dispute,” not a school matter. Hansen’s comments at that meeting about Scottie’s social skills, behavior, and academic progress constitute the basis of Appellant’s Fourteenth Amendment privacy claim.4

Scottie returned to the District for third grade and has been enrolled ever since. In the 1994-95 school year, his fifth-grade year, Scottie became ill, underwent surgery, and was placed on “homebound” status. Scottie was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus, which fatigues him to the point where he cannot attend classes. As such, he has remained on homebound status ever since his fifth-grade year. An individual accommodation plan (“IAP”) was developed for him pursuant to Section 504 to deliver homebound services,5 and these IAP’s have been revised annually. Appellant has participated in these meetings and her requests for educational services for Scottie have been complied with by the District, but at times, the District was late in providing some teaching materials to Scottie’s homebound teacher. In the last two or three years, the associate superintendent, counselors not assigned to Scottie, psychologists, and a psychomotrist have attended these IAP meetings.

Appellant was allowed to request teachers from outside the District to teach Scottie for his seventh through tenth-grade years. Her recommendation to teach Scottie during his tenth-grade year, Carmen Heath, did not complete the District’s employment forms until the spring semester of that year, because she was hired through the unconventional process of Appellant’s selection. Upon receipt of these forms and completion of a background check, the District discovered that Heath had a prior felony conviction. The District allowed her to finish the remaining school year but did not continue her employment the next year.

Appellant was unhappy with this decision by the District because Scottie and Heath had a good relationship and she was pleased with Heath’s performance. The [1062]*1062District once again permitted Appellant to request a teacher for Scottie’s eleventh-grade year. She selected an African-American male with twenty-three years of teaching experience and a master’s degree. This candidate was interviewed by the District but was not hired. Instead, the District assigned Andrea Luster, who previously had taught Scottie in his fifth and sixth-grade years, to serve as his teacher for his junior year. Upon being notified that Luster would replace Heath, Appellant informed the District that she disapproved of this decision because Luster had had difficulty teaching Scottie sixth-grade math. Appellant had not expressed her dissatisfaction with Luster before this time, however. Because Appellant refused to let Luster teach Scottie, he was without a teacher for his eleventh-grade year.

The District’s tardy provision of teaching materials, selection of Scottie’s teachers, and attendance of additional personnel members at Scottie’s IAP meetings provide the primary basis for Appellant’s Section 504 disability discrimination and Title VI racial discrimination claims.

II. Standard of Review

We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same legal standard used by the district court. See Bullington v. United Air Lines, Inc., 186 F.3d 1301, 1313 (10th Cir.1999). Summary judgment is appropriate if the pleadings, affidavits, and other evidence “show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). When applying this standard, we review the evidence “and inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.”

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Bluebook (online)
297 F.3d 1058, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cudjoe-v-independent-school-district-no-12-ca10-2002.