Ferraro v. Glendale Unified School Dist. CA2/4

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 17, 2016
DocketB262428
StatusUnpublished

This text of Ferraro v. Glendale Unified School Dist. CA2/4 (Ferraro v. Glendale Unified School Dist. CA2/4) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ferraro v. Glendale Unified School Dist. CA2/4, (Cal. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Filed 5/17/16 Ferraro v. Glendale Unified School Dist. CA2/4 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

JOHN FERRARO et. al., B262428

Plaintiffs and Appellants, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. EC059784) v.

GLENDALE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT,

Defendant and Respondent.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, William D. Stewart, Judge. Affirmed. Lieber Williams & Labin, Stanley P. Lieber and Rachel K. DiBiase for Plaintiffs and Appellants. McCune & Harber, Stephen M. Harber and Dominic A. Quiller for Defendant and Respondent. INTRODUCTION On February 10, 2012, 15-year-old Drew Ferraro tragically committed suicide by jumping off the third-story roof of his high school. Plaintiffs John and Deana Ferraro,1 Drew’s parents and successors-in-interest, sued defendant Glendale Unified School District, contending defendant failed to adequately respond to harassment and bullying suffered by their son at school, and ultimately caused Drew’s death. The trial court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that plaintiffs failed to establish a triable issue of fact that defendant’s negligence was the proximate cause of Drew’s death. We affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY A. Complaint Plaintiffs filed their lawsuit against defendant on December 7, 2012. Their complaint alleged that Drew enrolled in ninth grade at Crescenta Valley High School, part of the Glendale Unified School District, in September 2010. In November 2010, he began to be harassed by “certain female assailants” at school, including through “harassing and intimidating text messages,” “physical/in-person altercations” and “the use of electronic media such as Facebook.” Plaintiffs claimed Drew was the target of harassment and bullying because of “his small size, demeanor and style,” his “‘non- conforming’ manner of dress,” and because he had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Plaintiffs further claimed that Drew was “harassed for not liking a certain female classmate,” and was “consistently” called various derogatory names.2 In addition to generally alleging ongoing harassment and bullying, plaintiffs identified several specific incidents in the complaint. On January 18, 2011, Drew was

1 We refer to members of the Ferraro family individually by first name because they share a surname. No disrespect is intended. 2 While not clearly articulated in their complaint, plaintiffs later argued that Drew was harassed for “the perception of being gay.” Plaintiffs did not allege that Drew identified as gay, but they contended that he was called various homophobic slurs by his assailants and, on one occasion, was “forced to look at some football players’ private areas because of their contention that he was gay.” 2 “spat on, physically pushed, and slapped on the back” by other students at school; plaintiffs alleged Drew had no choice “but to verbally attack the assailants in attempts to terminate the abuse.” Plaintiffs, Drew, and Drew’s sister filed harassment reports with the school regarding the incident, but plaintiffs alleged defendant “took no course of action” in response. Next, on May 2, 2011, plaintiffs alleged Drew was “attacked and hit in the face by one of the original harassers” and was further threatened by an associated group of male students, forcing Drew to fight back “for his own survival.” Drew was suspended from school for a week as a result. Upon his return to school on May 11, 2011, plaintiffs alleged Drew was again punched in the face “by an assailant.” Plaintiffs contended they complained to the school and Drew completed incident reports following each incident. As Drew entered tenth grade in August 2011, he continued to face a “hostile and unsafe environment” at school. In October 2011, Deana found some text messages from Drew that “contemplated suicide because of the ‘haters’ at School.” Plaintiffs alleged Drew was diagnosed with depression, and his depression was “exacerbated by the environment at School and Defendant[’s] failure to take any meaningful action.” Drew’s grades began to slip and he was suspended from the football team in November 2011. Plaintiffs alleged that when the second semester of tenth grade began in January 2012, Drew’s academic performance continued to decline. The continued harassment caused Drew to experience worsening anxiety attacks and “further signs of fear and dislike for School.” On February 10, 2012, Drew “left third period early and did not show up for fourth period.” At approximately 12:22 p.m., he climbed a tree to gain access to the school roof and jumped off, “killing himself instantly.” Plaintiffs further alleged that defendant was “placed on notice of the harassment and bullying” that Drew encountered at school “on a daily basis,” but defendant “implemented weak investigation techniques” and took “little to no action” to curtail the abuse. Based on defendant’s purported failures, plaintiffs asserted causes of action for violations of various sections of the Education Code, violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civil Code §§ 51, 51.5), negligence, and wrongful death.

3 B. Summary Judgment 1. Defendant’s Motion Defendant moved for summary judgment or, in the alternative, summary adjudication. As relevant here, defendant provided evidence to support its claim that Drew engaged in verbal and physical altercations with a female student after he broke up with her. Defendant contended that the school responded appropriately to each incident, including by holding a “conflict mediation” with the two students and an assistant principal in January 2011, suspending Drew and the other two students involved in the physical altercation on May 2, 2011 and requiring them to agree to leave each other alone, and suspending the student who punched Drew on May 11, 2011. Further, defendant argued there was no evidence of any bullying or harassment, or any report to the school of such behavior, between May 2011 and Drew’s death in February 2012. Defendant also offered the deposition testimony of Drew’s English teacher, who testified she had not noticed anything unusual about Drew on the day of his death and that he left class with the other students when class ended. Defendant also pointed to undisputed evidence that Drew wrote four suicide notes before he died, but there was no evidence as to when they were written. Based on this evidence, defendant argued that any failure on its part to respond to alleged bullying was not the proximate cause of Drew’s suicide. The parties agreed on the relevant standard of causation under California law in a suicide case: that a defendant’s negligence may give rise to liability for a suicide where the negligent acts cause the decedent to suffer from an uncontrollable suicidal impulse. (See Tate v. Canonica (1960) 180 Cal.App.2d 898, 915 (Tate).) Defendant argued the undisputed evidence established that Drew’s decision to commit suicide was not based on an uncontrollable impulse, but rather by his independent decision to end his life. 2. Opposition, Supplemental Opposition, and Response Plaintiffs filed an initial opposition to summary judgment in June 2014. On the issue of proximate cause, plaintiffs argued that Drew committed suicide because he encountered daily bullying and harassment up to the day of his death and defendant

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Bluebook (online)
Ferraro v. Glendale Unified School Dist. CA2/4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ferraro-v-glendale-unified-school-dist-ca24-calctapp-2016.