S.N.B. v. Pearland Independent School District

120 F. Supp. 3d 620, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72688, 2014 WL 2207864
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedMay 28, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 3:13-CV-441
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 120 F. Supp. 3d 620 (S.N.B. v. Pearland Independent School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
S.N.B. v. Pearland Independent School District, 120 F. Supp. 3d 620, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72688, 2014 WL 2207864 (S.D. Tex. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

GREGG COSTA, District Judge.

■ After Plaintiff S.B.’s junior high school principals discovered that she sent what they termed a “lewd” image of a female friend to other students,- they sent her. to a disciplinary learning program for 30 days. In the year preceding that transfer, S.B. alleges that she was subject to repeated bullying on and off campus. She now asserts a variety of federal and state law claims — including due process- violations, negligence, and failure to report suspected child abuse — against Defendants Pearland Independent School District and the principal and assistant principal of her school, Jasoñ Frerking and Tony Barcelona. Defendants argue that S.B.’s claims should be dismissed on immunity grounds and for failure to state a claim. They-also contend that S.B. should be denied leave to amend her complaint because' the three new [624]*624claims she wants to raise — most notably, a free speech claim — would be futile.

I. Background 1

■ Plaintiff S.B. attends Pearland Junior High School South in the Pearland Independent School District (PISD). During the 2012-2013 school year — when she was 12 years old — her classmates started to bully her. They physically assaulted her, sent her harassing messages, and wrote lewd comments about her on the internet. Docket Entry No. 10 at 5-6. She told school officials about the harassment, and the officials alerted her father. Although he lodged numerous verbal and written complaints, the bullying continued, and the officials told Bailey that they could “do nothing” about it. Id.

At the beginning of the next school year, her assistant principal, Defendant Tony Barcelona, called her into his office. He wanted to discuss what he termed “lewd” images of S.B. and her friend that had circulated between students off campus. The complaint is unclear as to what, exactly, the images displayed; in fact, S.B. alleges that Barcelona never showed her or her father the particular photographs that the school considered problematic because they “no longer existed.”2 Id. at 7. After the meeting with Barcelona, S.B. was transferred to PISD’s Alternative Learning Academy, which is a disciplinary alternative education program, for 30 days. The program provides “an alternative educational process for students who have committed persistent or serious violations of the Student Code of Conduct” and works “toward changing student attitudes and behavior toward a more positive experience.”3 Barcelona explained to S.B.’s father that she was being punished for sending inappropriate pictures of herself and! her friend to other students off school grounds. Defendant Jason Frerking, the school’s principal, cited PISD’s Student Code of Conduct and Handbook, which prohibits students from:

Sending], post[ing] or possessing] electronic messages that are abusive, obscene, sexually oriented, threatening, harassing, damaging to another’s reputation or .illegal, including cyber-bulling and ‘sexting1 either on or off school property, if the conduct causes a substantial disruption to the educational environment.

Docket Entry No. 10 at 8.

S.B. did not challenge her transfer to Alternative Learning Academy through PISD’s internal appeals process. Rather, she filed this suit through her father in state court, which Defendants then removed to this Court. Although the state court petition detailed the bullying that S.B. allegedly faced at Pearland South, it did not set out any causes of action related to that bullying. Rather, it sought injunc-tive relief to prevent transfer to the alternative program and damages under section 1983 for violations of her procedural due process rights. Docket Entry No. 1-1 at 9-11. After removal, S.B. amended her complaint to assert state law claims related to the bullying. Because she is now back at Pearland Junior High School [625]*625South, she no longer seeks injunctive relief, but only damages and a declaratory judgment. She seeks those remedies based on the following six claims asserted against PISD and against Barcelona and Frerking in their official and individual capacities: (1) a claim that four terms in PISD’s Code of Conduct — “obscenity,” “sexually oriented,” “sexting,” and “substantial disruption” — are unconstitutionally vague; (2)' a federal procedural due process claim; (3) a state due process claim; (4) a negligence claim based on Defendants’ failure to stop S.B. from being bullied; (5) a state law claim for failure to report suspected child abuse; and (6) a state law claim for fading to develop a policy for reporting suspected child abuse. Defendants argue that all of these claims should be dismissed.

After Defendants filed their motion to dismiss, S.B. requested an opportunity to file a second amended complaint, through which she would assert three new claims: (1) a claim that Defendants violated her constitutional free speech and privacy rights; (2) an equal protection claim that Defendants treated her more harshly than male and. female students with similar infractions; and (3) a retaliation claim based on criminal charges that she alleges Defendants caused to be brought against her after she filed this lawsuit. Defendants oppose the motion to amend, primarily on the basis that that the amendments would be futile but also on the ground that S.B. aeted with undue delay in asserting them. Docket Entry No. 19. The Court first addresses the issues raised by Defendants’ motion to dismiss before considering the motion for leave to amend.

II. - Rule 12 Standard of Review

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) allows dismissal if a plaintiff fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). In evaluating a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the “court accepts ‘all well-pleaded facts as true, viewing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.’ ” Martin K. Eby Constr. Co. v. Dallas Area Rapid Transit, 369 F.3d 464, 467 (5th Cir.2004) (quoting Jones v. Greninger, 188 F.3d 322, 324 (5th Cir.1999)). The court does not look beyond the face of the pleadings to determine whether the plaintiff has stated a claim. Spivey v. Robertson, 197 F.3d 772, 774 (5th Cir.1999). To survive a motion to dismiss, a claim for relief‘must be “plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).

III. Motion to Dismiss

A. Vagueness

S.B. was punished under PISD’s student code of conduct, , which forbids students from sending electronic messages that are, among other things, “abusive, obscene,. [or] sexually oriented.” Docket Entry No. 10 at 8. She seeks a declaratory judgment under, the federal Due Process Clause4’ that four of its terms are unconstitutionally vague: obscenity, sexually oriented, sexting, and substantial disruption. A law is unconstitutionally vague when persons “of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application.” Connally v. Gen. Constr. Co.,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
120 F. Supp. 3d 620, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72688, 2014 WL 2207864, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snb-v-pearland-independent-school-district-txsd-2014.