Stratton v. Oroville City Elementary School District

Opinion

BROCK STRATTON, NICOLE Case No.: 2:23-cv-00964-TLN-KJN STRATTON, C.S., a minor by and through his guardian ad litem BROCK STRATTON, O RER QD UE ER S G TR TA ON ST EIN AG L ED XE HFE IBN ID TA AN FT IS L’ ED IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANTS’ Plaintiffs, MOTIONS TO DISMISS

vs. SCHOOL DISTRICT, ELIZABETH BETTENCOURT, SPENCER HOLTOM; and DOES 1-30, Defendants. Defendants have filed a request to file under seal Exhibit A to the Declaration of Spencer Holtom, which 1s the video of the underlying incident referenced by Plaintiffs in paragraphs 25, 26, and 31 of their Complaint, in its entirety being filed in connection with Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss. For the reasons set forth below, the request is GRANTED. As noted in Defendants’ Request to Seal, because the document sought to be sealed is being filed in connection with a dispositive motion, Defendants must demonstrate “compelling reasons” to justify the sealing order. Kamakana v. City & Cnty of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1180 (9th Cir. 2006). Defendants have done so in this case. The document contains a video recording of Plaintiff C.S., a minor. In the video, Plaintiff C.S.’s face is shown and as such, so is his identity. As a minor, Plaintiff C.S. has a cognizable privacy } interest in not having his identity released to the public. See Breed v. U.S. Dist. Court for Northern Dist. of California, 542 F.2d 1114, 1115 (9th Cir. 1976) (recognizing minors’ privacy interest in not having their identities disclosed); Juo Huei Lee, 2014 US. Dist. LEXIS 20686 *7-8 (stating that the public’s interest in plaintiffs identity was low where the subject matter of the suit concerned sensitive information concerning a minor); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2(a)(3) (prohibiting the disclosure of the name of a person known to be a minor 1n any paper filed in federal court). Any interest that the public may have in seeing the content of the video recording of the incident underlying Plaintiffs’ Complaint is outweighed by the fact that it would require the disclosure of the identity of a minor. Based on the above, the following shall be filed under seal:

73 Holtom IT IS SO ORDERED. / {i / rsh cen ff DATED: August 7, 2023 “ . ) bia HW

Troy L. Nuhlep> United States District Judge