Ms. K Ex Rel. S.B. v. City of South Portland

407 F. Supp. 2d 290, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 569, 2006 WL 13199
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maine
DecidedJanuary 3, 2006
DocketCiv. 04-275-P-S
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 407 F. Supp. 2d 290 (Ms. K Ex Rel. S.B. v. City of South Portland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ms. K Ex Rel. S.B. v. City of South Portland, 407 F. Supp. 2d 290, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 569, 2006 WL 13199 (D. Me. 2006).

Opinion

ORDER ON DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

SINGAD, Chief Judge.

Before the Court is Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket #27). Through this motion, Defendants seek summary judgment on ten counts of Plaintiffs eleven-count Amended Complaint (Docket # 17). 1 For the reasons laid out below, the Court GRANTS Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment.

I. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Summary judgment is appropriate “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that *293 there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). An issue is “genuine” if “the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A “material fact” is one that has “the potential to affect the outcome of the suit under the applicable law.” Nereida-Gonzalez v. Tirado-Delgado, 990 F.2d 701, 708 (1st Cir.1993). The court views the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, drawing all reasonable inferences in that party’s favor. See McCarthy v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 56 F.3d 313, 315 (1st Cir.1995).

The party moving for summary judgment must demonstrate an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). In determining whether this burden is met, the court must view the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party and give that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences in its favor. Santoni v. Potter, 369 F.3d 594, 598 (1st Cir.2004). Once the moving party has made a preliminary showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists, the nonmoving party must “produce specific facts, in suitable evidentiary form, to establish the presence of a trialworthy issue.” Triangle Trading Co. v. Robroy Indus., Inc., 200 F.3d 1, 2 (1st Cir.1999) (citation and internal punctuation omitted); Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e). “As to any essential factual element of its claim on which the nonmovant would bear the burden of proof at trial, its failure, to come forward with sufficient evidence to generate a trialworthy issue warrants summary judgment to the moving party.” In re Spigel, 260 F.3d 27, 31 (1st Cir.2001) (citation and internal punctuation omitted).

II. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Ms. K is the mother of S.B., a minor. S.B. has a number of physical and mental disabilities, including cerebral palsy and cognitive deficits. Until November 2004, S.B. was enrolled in South Portland public schools. Because of his disabilities, S.B. participated in South Portland’s special education program, and a Pupil Evaluation Team (“PET”) was required to annually draw up an Individualized Education Program (“IEP”) to address his needs, including his transportation needs. Throughout middle school, S.B.’s IEP called for “special education transportation,” and, pursuant to this designation, S.B. was transported on a bus carrying only special education students. (S.B.’s Individualized Education Program (“IEP”) of November 4, 2003 (Ex. 1 to Docket # 43).) This bus carried S.B. directly from his home to the Memorial Middle School’s handicapped-accessible ramp.

S.B.’s IEP was not revised between the time he completed middle school and began high school. However, during the summer of 2003, shortly before S.B. began ninth grade at South Portland High School, his mode of transportation was changed. Sheila Godin, a bus system scheduler and dispatcher for the South Portland School Department, decided to place S.B. on a regular bus in order to reduce the time he would spend in transit. At the time she made this decision, Ms. Godin has not seen S.B.’s IEP. She informed Ms. K of the change, but does not recall if she spoke with anyone else regarding S.B.’s transportation. S.B. was placed on a bus driven by Robert Packer, who was not aware that S.B. was a special education student. S.B. sat in the front seat of the bus and got off the bus first, but otherwise received no special accommodation. The bus dropped students off *294 some distance from the high school’s main entrance.

In accordance with this transportation plan, on the morning of December 12, 2003, S.B., then a 15-year-old ninth grader, was transported to South Portland High School. He exited the bus and, while walking toward the school, slipped and fell on a patch of ice on the sidewalk. He suffered severe injuries leading to multiple surgeries, including a hip fusion. When he returned to school on January 5, 2004 he was provided with door-to-door transportation. In July of 2004, a Pupil Evaluation Team (“PET”) met regarding S.B.’s IEP and amended the IEP to explicitly require door-to-door transportation. On September 24, 2004, Ms. K filed a Dispute Resolution Request Form with the Due Process Office of the State of Maine Department of Education, initiating a special education due process hearing. (See K & B v. South Portland School Dept., No. 04.132H (Nov. 22, 2004) (Ex. 1 to Docket # 1) at 1.) She alleged that the South Portland School Department violated a number of S.B.’s constitutional, statutory, and common-law rights. Id. at 6.

At the pre-hearing conference before a Due Process Office hearing officer on October 19, 2004, the South Portland School Department made a motion to dismiss Ms. K’s administrative complaint, and the hearing officer gave both parties an opportunity to submit written arguments on the motion. Id. at 3. As a result of these written submissions, the hearing officer dismissed a number of the issues contained in Ms. K’s “Statement of Issues.” Id.

On November 4, 2004, the hearing officer conducted a hearing on the remaining issues. He issued his nine-page report, finding against the Plaintiff, on November 22, 2004. As explained in the report, the hearing officer determined that a number of the remedies sought by the Plaintiff, including monetary damages, injunctive relief, attorney’s fees, and rulings on constitutional rights, were beyond the hearing officer’s jurisdiction. With respect to Plaintiffs request that S.B.’s IEP be amended to clarify that S.B. was entitled to door-to-door transportation, the hearing officer found that the present IEP was clear as to the services that S.B. was to receive. Id. at 8.

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Bluebook (online)
407 F. Supp. 2d 290, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 569, 2006 WL 13199, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ms-k-ex-rel-sb-v-city-of-south-portland-med-2006.