Doe v. S & S Consolidated I.S.D.

149 F. Supp. 2d 274, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13526, 2001 WL 726776
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Texas
DecidedJune 26, 2001
Docket4:99CV00238
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 149 F. Supp. 2d 274 (Doe v. S & S Consolidated I.S.D.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doe v. S & S Consolidated I.S.D., 149 F. Supp. 2d 274, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13526, 2001 WL 726776 (E.D. Tex. 2001).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER.

PAUL N. BROWN, District Judge.

At its root, this case is about whether S & S Consolidated I.S.D.’s (“SS CISD”), Joe Wardell’s (“Wardell”), and Missy Im-bert’s (“Imbert”) (together, the “Defendants”) treatment of an emotionally, disturbed elementary school student — Jane Doe — violated the student’s constitutional rights. Specifically, Mrs. Doe, individually and as next friend of Jane Doe, charges the Defendants with having violated Jane Doe’s substantive due process rights by wrapping her in a blanket in order to restrain her during behavioral disturbances. Having considered the arguments of all parties and their evidence, this Court has concluded that, under the circumstances of this case, the acts Mrs. Doe has alleged do not make for a violation of such rights. The Court has also determined that Mrs. Doe’s related state and federal claims fail as a matter of law.

I. INTRODUCTION.

To properly understand that the Defendants’ treatment of Jane Doe has not violated the law, it is necessary to say a bit about Jane Doe’s home life and behavior. It is undisputed that such life was not ideal. Indeed, Mrs. Doe acknowledges that prior to attending school, Jane Doe was sexually abused by one of her former boyfriends. According to Mrs. Doe, Jane Doe reported that the boyfriend “had made her touch him” and “made her kiss it.” (Defs.’ Mot. Summ. J. Supporting Br., Ex. C at 97, 103.) Jane Doe apparently endured abuse at the hands of family *278 members too. 1 Possibly due to the abuse she suffered, Jane Doe behaved violently and suicidally at home. Testimony from Mrs. Doe confirms such behavior:

She was depressed. She wasn’t sleeping and she wasn’t eating. She would lay out in the road and tell people to drive by. She wouldn’t move.

(Defs.’ Mot. Summ. J. Supporting Br., Ex. C at 50.)

[S]he became very explosive, and she was screaming. The neighbors down the road could hear her screaming ... she was screaming that loud[ly].

(Defs.’ Mot. Summ. J. Supporting Br., Ex. C at 53.)

She wouldn’t go to sleep until 3:00 or 4 o’clock in the morning. And it was hard to watch her because I would find her out in the yard. She would just sneak out.

(Defs.’ Mot. Summ. J. Supporting Br., Ex. C at 54.)

[S]he would bite herself. She would threaten to jump up on the house and jump off the house, hang herself.

(Defs.’ Mot. Summ. J. Supporting Br., Ex. C at 88.)

Jane Doe’s state was so troublesome that she experienced two hospitalizations during her 1997 and 1998 summers outside of school. During her first ten-day stay, hospital personnel advised Mrs. Doe that Jane Doe needed long-term, hospitalization, but Mrs. Doe rejected their advice. Perhaps predictably then, Jane Doe experienced a second hospital visit (for two weeks). As a precursor to this second visit, Doe had been hitting her mother and stating that she hated everyone including herself. Actually, Mrs. Doe admits that: “[Before the second hospital visit] ... she had come up from behind me and had a knife and stuck it to her chest ... I said what are you doing?.... [She said,] T just don’t care, Mother. I just don’t care.’” (Defs.’ Mot. Summ. J. Supporting Br., Ex. C at 85.)

It is not clear how much of Jane Doe’s troubles school officials understood when she entered kindergarten at SS CISD’s Sadler Elementary School. Mrs. Doe insists that the school was aware by mid-October 1998 that Jane Doe had been diagnosed as Bi-polar. 2 The deposition testimony Mrs. Doe cites as an admission of this indicates only that Imbert vaguely acknowledges receiving some materials on Bi-polar disorder from Mrs. Doe around mid-October. Imbert states that she thinks she received the materials roughly at the same time Mrs. Doe requested information on testing Jane Doe for Bi-polar disorder. Mrs. Doe also insists, and Im-bert confirms, that SS CISD knew Jane Doe had been Post Traumatic Syndrome diagnosed by December 3, 1998. The SS CISD’s general position is that “[s]chool personnel were not ... fully aware of Jane Doe’s severe emotional problems [during the 1998-99 school year].” (Defs. Mot. Summ. J. Supporting Br. at 6.) Regardless of this, the school did not advance Jane Doe to the first grade for the 1997-98 school year. She finally entered first grade in the 1998-99 academic year, and the SS CISD’s awareness of and efforts to *279 deal with Jane Doe’s problems indisputably intensified.

Jane Doe’s first-grade teacher, Ms. Connie Mitchusson, recorded “difficulties” Jane Doe began to have in class at the start of such academic year. SS CISD presents Jane Doe’s difficulties to the Court by her teacher’s sworn affidavit submitting documentation of incidents occurring on November 6 and December 1 and 2. These incidents allegedly included Jane Doe’s writing on furniture, making paper messes in the classroom and not cleaning them up, cutting her tongue with scissors, defying the teacher, shouting curse words at her teacher, “exposing” herself to her teacher and fellow students, refusing to do schoolwork, and accosting other students.

November 9, 1998 marks the first major single incident, however, underlying Mrs. Doe’s allegations in this case. On that date, SS CISD asserts that after being-sent to in-school-suspension at SS CISD’s high school for her behavior on November 6, Doe became “noncompliant” and then began being “rageful.” SS CISD describes Jane Doe’s behavior as including the screaming of obscenities not to be expected from an average first grader and hitting even Mrs. Doe upon her arrival at the school. Mrs. Doe retorts that two women “sat” on Jane Doe until she got there and was able to get the women off of Jane Doe. She does agree that even as she tried to calm Jane Doe down, “she just went out of control, and she hit [Mrs. Doe] in the mouth with her head and busted [Mrs. Doe’s] mouth.” 3 (Defs. Mot. Summ. J. Supporting Br., Ex.C at 133.) An ambulance came and Jane Doe was transferred from one hospital to a second one at which she was admitted. Then, Mrs. Doe removed Jane Doe to another hospital that did not admit her. She was finally admitted to a fourth hospital. Medical personnel associated with all four hospitals used restraints on Jane Doe, because, as Mrs. Doe admits, Jane Doe “raged” for much of the journey from hospital to hospital.

Jane Doe’s return to SS CISD marks the next major milestone in this case. Upon her return after Thanksgiving, she allegedly behaved in a manner described by Ms. Mitchusson as “out-of-control.” The Court has noted the general parameters of this supposed behavior supra. 4 Thus, on December 1, 1998, Mitchusson says she sent Jane Doe to Principal Im-bert’s office. Imbert in turn escorted Jane Doe to school counselor Tim Kemp’s office. While in Kemp’s office, Jane Doe reportedly began throwing things, yelling, and kicking.

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Bluebook (online)
149 F. Supp. 2d 274, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13526, 2001 WL 726776, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doe-v-s-s-consolidated-isd-txed-2001.