I.A. v. Seguin Independent School District

881 F. Supp. 2d 770, 2012 WL 3028350, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102845
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedJuly 24, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. SA-10-CA-0866-XR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 881 F. Supp. 2d 770 (I.A. v. Seguin Independent School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
I.A. v. Seguin Independent School District, 881 F. Supp. 2d 770, 2012 WL 3028350, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102845 (W.D. Tex. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER ON MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

XAVIER RODRIGUEZ, District Judge.

On this date, the Court considered Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment (docket no. 56), Plaintiff’s Response, and Defendant’s Reply. For the reasons stated below, Defendant’s motion is GRANTED.

Factual and Procedural Background

Plaintiff I.A. is a young boy who was enrolled as a student in the Seguin Independent School District. When I.A. was six years old, he was injured in an automobile accident that severely damaged his spinal column and caused paraplegia. As a result of the accident, I.A. uses a wheelchair for mobility. Defendant Seguin Independent School District (“Seguin”) is an independent public school district organized under the laws of Texas. I.A. was enrolled in Seguin from third grade until the beginning of eighth grade, from approximately August 2006 to October 2011. During his time in Seguin, I.A. qualified for and received aid and services under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (“§ 504”). While in Seguin, I.A. achieved passing grades and advanced through each grade level. However, he alleges that the District discriminated against him in certain respects during his time there, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and § 504.

The facts of the case are largely undisputed. Before attending Seguin, I.A. was enrolled in the Austin Independent School District, where he was evaluated and determined to be eligible for § 504 services. When I.A. began school in Seguin in third grade, Seguin followed AISD’s Accommodation Plan for the remainder of the 2006 school year, and convened a committee at the end of that year to design a new plan for the next year.

Plaintiff did not have an accessible desk during third and fourth grade, and was instead provided a table, which did not always provide an adequate view of the teacher and lacked a place to store I.A.’s supplies. During I.A.’s fifth-grade year, in the Fall of 2008, his class was scheduled to take a field trip to Natural Bridge Caverns as part of the fifth-grade Earth Science Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills [774]*774(TEKS) curriculum. Seguin wanted I.A. to attend the field trip even though I.A. would not be able to enter the caverns with the rest of the class. Ms. Kaye Rhodabeck,1 I.A.’s grandmother and legal guardian with regard to school matters, urged Seguin to cancel the trip entirely. Although there is evidence that the science teacher developed a specialized hands-on experience for I.A. to engage in while the other students explored the cave, his guardian testified that she was not adequately informed of this experience, and elected instead to take I.A. to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, which were wheelchair accessible. As a result, I.A. did not attend the field trip. Ms. Rhoda-beck further testified that there were issues with I.A.’s toileting needs, as he frequently missed classroom instruction time when attending to these needs, causing his teachers frustration.

In 2009, I.A. began attending a new school in the Seguin district, the Saegert Sixth Grade Center. At Saegert, the physical education (P.E.) class allowed students to participate in intramural sports (including swimming), specialized programs at the Seguin Outdoor Learning Center (SOLC), and a fitness program. I.A.’s lawsuit contends that he was discriminated against by being excluded from the swimming unit and by being inappropriately accommodated in other aspects of the P.E. program. I.A. missed the first swimming class because there was not a bus equipped with a wheelchair lift available to transport him, and as a result he was sent to the computer lab during the swimming period. Ms. Rhodabeck testified that I.A. missed the second class at the gym teacher’s direction because he was unsure how to keep I.A. safe in the water. In response, Saegert’s principal, Don Hastings, did arrange for transportation, and also asked Ms. Rhodabeck to have I.A.’s physician complete a form describing what medical issues might preclude him from participating in swimming and other P.E. activities. This form bore the caption “Medical Excuse from Physical Education.” Because of this caption, Ms. Rhodabeck thought the form was intended to exclude I.A. from P.E., and she refused to sign it. Ms. Rhodabeck asked Mr. Hastings to come up with a different form, but he did not do so. Ms. Rhodabeck did not fill out the form, and I.A. was unable to participate in swimming with the other students.

In addition to the field trip and swimming incidents, I.A. also complains of other incident during sixth grade. First, in another P.E. class, I.A. was precluded from playing floor hockey by a substitute teacher, who was concerned that I.A. might injure other players and was unaware that I.A. could safely participate. Second, when I.A. attended a ropes course with his peers at the SOLC, his wheelchair tipped forward while he was navigating the mulch trail to the ropes course. I.A.’s wheelchair is equipped with a seatbelt, but there was a problem with the wheelchair seatbelt, necessitating an alternative harness. In any event, when the school official grabbed I.A.’s chair to pull him back upright, this alternative harness cut painfully into I.A.’s abdomen. I.A. sought medical attention due to the pain. Further, in November 2009, I.A. arrived at a band concert, and when Ms. Rhodabeck inquired of the band director how I.A. would get onto the stage, it became clear that the band director had not considered how to accommodate I.A.’s disability when planning the concert location. At I.A.’s request, Ms. Rhodabeck [775]*775took him from the venue after it was suggested that I.A. play from the floor in front of the stage. It was later discovered that the facility had a ramp to reach the stage, but the band teacher was unaware of the ramp and appropriate arrangements had not been made.

In addition to these specific incidents, Ms. Rhodabeck also complains about general accessibility problems around the Saegert campus. Ms. Rhodabeck claims that I.A. did not have sufficient access to certain student bathrooms; that he had no access to bathrooms for the after-school program; that his desks were inappropriate; that there are cracks and a steep driveway on a route to a building that created mobility problems for I.A.; that there are no curb cuts at the entrance to the building; that there is no reserved space for a school bus carrying a student with a disability; that there is only one wheelchair ramp to the sidewalk, which was often blocked; that the playgrounds and tennis courts are inaccessible; and that there are accessibility problems with the athletic stadium.

Last, Plaintiff complains that the District failed to develop a transition plan or mobility assessment when I.A. was promoted to sixth grade at the new location and that the District failed to develop an adaptive P.E. program until two months into his sixth-grade year. Ms. Rhodabeck and Seguin officials met in October 2009 to address the asserted problems. Unfortunately, this did not resolve the issues to Ms. Rhodabeck’s satisfaction, and as a result Ms. Rhodabeck sought an impartial § 504 due process hearing in May 2010.

In July 2010, the § 504 hearing officer issued his report. Overall, the hearing officer concluded that there was no evidence that Seguin had acted intentionally or in bad faith in its accommodation of I.A., and he also noted that the teaching staff had the genuine heart to help and assist I.A. However, the hearing officer did find that Seguin had failed to properly accommodate I.A.

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881 F. Supp. 2d 770, 2012 WL 3028350, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102845, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ia-v-seguin-independent-school-district-txwd-2012.