David A. Daniel v. Hancock County School District

626 F. App'x 825
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 11, 2015
Docket14-12429
StatusUnpublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 626 F. App'x 825 (David A. Daniel v. Hancock County School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
David A. Daniel v. Hancock County School District, 626 F. App'x 825 (11th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

In this case, members and coaches of two high-school football teams and sheriffs officers tasked with keeping the peace during a high-school football game were embroiled in an altercation that left Plaintiff-Appellant David Daniel seriously injured. Daniel contends that his injuries resulted from Appellees Hancock County School District and Hancock County off-duty sheriffs deputies Richard Mayweather, Tampa Lewis, and Patrick L. Williams’s violation of his Fourteenth Amendment substantive-due-process right to bodily integrity. Although the injuries Daniel described were serious, they do not implicate the constitutional protections of the Fourteenth Amendment. After careful review, and with the benefit of oral argument, we therefore affirm the district court’s dismissal of David Daniel’s complaint.

I.

David Daniel (“Daniel”) was employed by the Warren County School District as a teacher and the head football coach at Warren County High School (“Warren”). 1 Warren’s football team was scheduled to play against Hancock Central High School (“Hancock”) on October 14, 2011, for Hancock’s homecoming game. Hancock was a member school of the Hancock County School District (“District”).

In the time leading up to the game, several incidents occurred, elevating the risk of violence at the game. First, Daniel had replaced the former Warren football coach, who was subsequently hired as an assistant coach for Hancock’s football team. Hancock’s coaching staff and team saw the game as an opportunity to “get even” for what they believed had been the wrongful termination of their new colleague from the Warren football team.

Second, on October 7, 2011, one week before the game, members of the Warren football team attended a football game between Hancock and another high school. After that game, members of the Warren and Hancock football teams were involved in a verbal altercation that required law-enforcement intervention and culminated in the handcuffing of at least one player.

Third, in the week leading up to the game between Warren and Hancock, students and athletes from the two schools exchanged text messages and other communications taunting and threatening each other and warning of possible conflict at the game. Finally, Warren directly notified the District that it had concerns about the security that would be provided at the game, and a Warren County law-enforcement officer inquired into the security measures that would be employed. The *828 District advised the Warren County law-enforcement officer that twelve officers from the Hancock Sheriffs Department and the Sparta Police Department (the local city police department) would be at the game.

On October 14, 2011, Warren and Hancock played the football game. Despite the District’s statement that twelve officers would be present, only four off-duty sheriffs officers — Officers Richard May-weather, Tampa Lewi's, and Patrick L. Williams (collectively, “Officers”), who were all residents of Hancock County at the time — performed security at the game. Warren won the game by a score of 21-2, and at least one player was ejected for fighting during the game.

After the game, the Hancock players and coaches remained on the field while the Warren players and coaches exited. Before walking off the field with the Warren players, Daniel angered the Hancock players and coaches by approaching them to congratulate them on their well-played game.

While the Warren players walked to the locker room, at least two Hancock players, including Kendrez Mayweather (“Student Assailant”), 2 followed and taunted them. One of the Warren players responded to the Hancock players’ taunts, and the Student Assailant and other Hancock players rushed towards the Warren players. A fight ensued between the two football teams.

The Officers, who had been walking with the Hancock players as they left the field, ran in front of the Hancock players as the two teams advanced towards each other. When the two teams reached each other, the Officers sprayed the Warren players with pepper spray. In Daniel’s view, the Officers did not spray the Warren players for any legitimate law-enforcement purpose but intended to injure and disable the Warren players in order to assist the Hancock players in the altercation.

During the altercation, the Student Assailant intentionally struck a Warren player who had fallen to the ground after being peppered sprayed by the Officers. When the Warren player attempted to get up, the Student Assailant readied himself to strike the Warren player again. Daniel then positioned himself in front of the Student Assailant and yelled, “What are you doing?” In response, the Student Assailant intentionally struck Daniel in the face and head with a helmet. Daniel sustained serious and permanent injuries as a result.

The District took no action against the Officers or Student Assailant for their roles in the altercation and publicly expressed approval of the Officers’ and Student Assailant’s actions. The District also filed false charges against Daniel in relation to the altercation and sought to have the Georgia Professional Standards Commission revoke or suspend Daniel’s certification as an educator. The Georgia High School Association, of which both Hancock and Warren are members, investigated the incident and imposed penalties against Hancock. Hancock appealed the imposition of penalties and lost.

II.

On October 13, 2013, Daniel filed a complaint in the Middle District of Georgia that alleged federal and state claims. In particular, Daniel asserted claims under § 1983 against the District and the Offi *829 cers (collectively, “Appellees”) for violating Daniel’s Fourteenth Amendment right to bodily integrity and state tort claims against the Officers and the Student Assailant. 3 The District and the Officers (collectively), respectively, each filed a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), Fed. R.Civ.P. Daniel timely responded in opposition and also filed a motion for leave to file an amended complaint, attaching a proposed amended complaint.

Basing its review on Daniel’s proposed amended complaint, the district court granted Appellees’ motions to dismiss Daniel’s federal claims without prejudice. The court also concluded that further amendments of the complaint would be futile, so it denied Daniel’s motion to amend his complaint. Having dismissed Daniel’s federal claims, the district court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Daniel’s state-law claims and dismissed his state-law claims without prejudice.

For the reasons set forth below, we now affirm.

III.

We review de novo a district court’s dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Resnick v. AvMed, Inc., 693 F.3d 1317, 1324 (11th Cir.2012). Similarly, in instances “when the district court denies the plaintiff leave to amend due to futility, we review the denial de novo because it is concluding that as a matter of law an amended complaint ‘would necessarily fail.’ ” Freeman v. First Union Nat.,

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Bluebook (online)
626 F. App'x 825, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-a-daniel-v-hancock-county-school-district-ca11-2015.