G.D.S. v. Northport-East Northport Union Free School District

915 F. Supp. 2d 268, 2012 WL 6734686, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182976
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedDecember 22, 2012
DocketNo. 12-CV-2191 (ADS)(GRB)
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 915 F. Supp. 2d 268 (G.D.S. v. Northport-East Northport Union Free School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
G.D.S. v. Northport-East Northport Union Free School District, 915 F. Supp. 2d 268, 2012 WL 6734686, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182976 (E.D.N.Y. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

ARTHUR D. SPATT, District Judge.

On May 3, 2012, the plaintiff G.D.S., a minor child, by his father and natural guardian Robert Slade (“the Plaintiff’), commenced this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action by filing a Complaint against the defendants Northport-East Northport Union Free School District (“Northport School [271]*271District”); Dr. MaryLou McDermott, Superintendent of Northport School District (“McDermott”); and Irene McLaughlin, Principal of Northport High School (“McLaughlin” and collectively “the Defendants”). The Plaintiff seeks a declaratory judgment, a permanent injunction, compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees and costs for the Defendants’ alleged violation of his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Plaintiff further alleges that the Defendants violated his rights under Article One, Section 11 of the Constitution of the State of New York, the New York State Human Rights Law (“NYSHRL”); and the New York Civil Rights Law (“NYCRL”) §§ 40-c and 40-d.

Presently before the Court is a motion by the Defendants to dismiss the Plaintiffs Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Fed. R. Civ.P.”) 12(b)(6). For the reasons set forth below, the motion is denied in part and granted in part.

I. BACKGROUND

The following facts are derived from the Plaintiffs Complaint, filed on May 3, 2012. In the resolution of this motion, the facts are construed in the light most favorable to the Plaintiff.

The Plaintiff is currently a 16-year-old resident of Suffolk County and a New York State citizen. From September 2002 until June 2011, he was a student in the Northport School District, and from September 2010 to June 2011, he attended Northport High School. The Northport School District is an education corporation in Suffolk County, New York, and exists pursuant to New York Education Law. The Northport School District receives federal financial assistance and is non-sectarian and exempt from taxation under § 408 of New York State’s real property tax law. Northport High School is a school within the Northport School District. At all relevant times, McDermott was the Superintendent of the Northport School District and McLaughlin was the principal of Northport High School.

Starting in about November or December 2010, the Plaintiff became the target of bullying and harassment from other students at Northport High School due to his religion, which is Judaism. In this regard, about 15 to 20 Northport High School students began to make overtly anti-Semitic comments and jokes to the Plaintiff. At first, the Plaintiffs classmates would regularly call the Plaintiff “Jew” or call to him by saying “Hey, Jew.” (PI. Compl., ¶ 14.) However, the insults and jokes grew worse in severity during the school year and included “Jews are disgusting,” “You dumb Jew,” “Being Jewish must suck,” “Hitler was a good person,” “My love for you burns like a thousand Jews in an oven,” “How many Jews can fit into a car? Two in the front, three in the back, and six million in the ash tray,” and “What’s the difference between a Jew and a pizza? A pizza doesn’t scream when it goes into the oven.” (PI. Compl., ¶¶ 1,13.) In addition, on Valentine’s Day 2011, a student approached the Plaintiff in the Northport High School cafeteria and read the following poem “Roses are red, violets are blue. My love for you is burning hotter than 100 Jews burning in the oven.” (PI. Compl., ¶ 15.) The Plaintiffs classmates would also drop coins in front of the Plaintiff and say “Get them, Jew,” or “Pick it up, Jew.” (PI. Compl., ¶ 1.)

The students who were harassing the Plaintiff also shared anti-Semitic slurs online through the social networking website Facebook. It appears that these anti-Semitic slurs were not directed at the Plaintiff, but were available to the Plaintiff and his classmates to see. For example, on [272]*272January 4, 2011, one of the students who regularly bullied the Plaintiff with antiSemitic slurs posted in a “wall-to-wall” Facebook conversation with another North-port High School student that “many nazi convos make my life.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 17.)

On February 23, 2011, these same two students, in another wall-to-wall conversation, shared a picture of Anne Frank with the words “Just gonna stand there and watch me burn” and “That’s alright because I like the way it hurts.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 23.) The responses to this picture included “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA” repeated many times in all capital letters. (Pl. Compl., ¶ 24.) The original poster of the picture wrote back “HAHAHAHAH IM SORRY, ITS SOOO FUNNY, i had to.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 24.)

Aso on February 23, 2011, these same students shared a second picture of Anne Frank on Facebook with the caption “I don’t answer knock-knock jokes.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 25.) In the comments for this second picture, the two students, as well as other students from Northport High School, wrote “oh my gosh! I am laughing so hard im about to fall in the gas chambers,” “don’t worry! The piles of shoes will catch you,” “hopefully they don’t smell so strongly of gas from the chamber,” “BRB [be right back] somones at the door;)” and “Brb shower:].” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 25.)

Another Northport High School student shared a third picture of Anne Frank on Facebook on February 23, 2011. The caption on the picture read “Knock Knock, Whose There? 0 God Dammit.” The student posting the picture wrote “FOOLED AGAIN.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 26.) In response, one of the other students who regularly harassed the Plaintiff wrote “this is the funniest one I’ve ever seen hahaha.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 26.) A few weeks later, on March 14, 2011, the same student who shared the third picture of Anne Frank posted a YouTube video entitled “Top 60 Jewish Ghetto Names” on the Facebook wall of another student who had been involved in the February 2011 anti-Semitic Facebook postings mentioned above. (Pl. Compl., ¶ 27.)

On or about January 7, 2011, the Plaintiff wrote an essay for his English Class entitled “Anti-Semitism.” In the essay, the Plaintiff stated that while he loves being Jewish, it “gets lonely in school” and he recounted specific incidents in which he was the subject of an anti-Semitic slur (Pl. Compl., ¶ 19.) He explained that when he walked down the hallway at school, classmates would say “hey Jew,” or when he sneezed, classmates would say “God bless Jew.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 19.) In addition, the Plaintiff recounted that another student said to his face “What’s the difference between a Jew and a pizza? A pizza doesn’t scream when it goes in the oven.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 20.) The Plaintiff did not know how to respond to this insult and just stood there in total shock. The Plaintiff concluded his essay by saying “Anti-Semitism does exist [sic] in Northport, [and] I’m a Key victim.” (Pl. Compl., ¶ 20.) A-though the Plaintiffs teacher read and edited this essay, it appears that the Plaintiff and his parents were never contacted about its contents and neither the teacher nor the administration of Northport High School took any action with regard to the contents of the essay.

On May 23, 2011, after the Plaintiffs parents became aware of the extent of the harassment the Plaintiff was enduring at school, they initiated a meeting with McDermott and McLaughlin. The Plaintiff was also present at this meeting.

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Bluebook (online)
915 F. Supp. 2d 268, 2012 WL 6734686, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182976, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gds-v-northport-east-northport-union-free-school-district-nyed-2012.