Coffelt v. Omaha Sch. Dist.

309 F.Supp.3d 629

Randy COFFELT, Plaintiff

v.OMAHA SCHOOL DISTRICT; and Jacob Sherwood, Individually and in his Official Capacity as Superintendent, Defendants

CASE NO. 3:17–CV–3101

United States District Court, W.D. Arkansas, Harrison Division.

Signed May 11, 2018

Stephen Lee Wood, Stephen Lee Wood, P.A, Rogers, AR, for Plaintiff.

Angela C. Artherton, Marshall S. Ney, Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP, Rogers, AR, George J. Bequette, Jr., William Cody Kees, Bequette and Billingsley P.A., Little Rock, AR, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

TIMOTHY L. BROOKS, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Currently pending before the Court are a Motion for Preliminary Injunction (Doc. 5) and Brief in Support (Doc. 6) submitted by Plaintiff Randy Coffelt and a Response (Doc. 12) and Brief (Doc. 13) in Opposition submitted by Defendants Omaha School District ("OSD" or "District") and its Superintendent, Dr. Jacob Sherwood. The Court heard oral argument on the Motion on January 19, 2018. In response to the Court's questions, the parties requested to submit additional briefs. Following an additional two-week period, the parties submitted their post-hearing briefs (Docs. 20 and 21, respectively). After considering these filings and the arguments made during the hearing, the Court will GRANT the Motion for a Preliminary Injunction (Doc. 5).

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

Mr. Coffelt is an alumnus of OSD and a parent of two of its former students, one graduate and a daughter who transferred from the District to neighboring Alpena School District. By all accounts, he is an involved citizen who has attended OSD events without incident for the past 20 years.¹ In addition, both of his children did, and the youngest still does, play organized sports, which means that he often attends sporting events held on OSD school grounds. Finally, as a very small town,² Omaha's many community events, including Christmas programs, pee-wees, pageants, rodeos, school board meetings, etc., are held on OSD property. Indeed, Mr. Coffelt testified during the hearing, and Dr. Sherwood confirmed, that community life in Omaha largely revolves around events at OSD.

According to the Complaint and testimony during the motion hearing, Mr. Coffelt's older daughter allegedly experienced harassment and bullying for three years (2015–2017) at the hands of a coach (Jimmy Lincoln) employed by OSD. The Complaint alleges that Mr. Coffelt met numerous times with Dr. Sherwood in an effort to resolve this issue, to no avail. As a result, on April 10, 2017, Mr. Coffelt met with Dr. Sherwood again to inform him that he was moving his younger daughter to another district to avoid these same problems. Subsequently, the Complaint alleges that Dr. Sherwood informed Mr. Coffelt's wife, an OSD employee, that an investigation into Coach Lincoln's conduct had begun at the behest of an OSD School Board member. Dr. Sherwood testified during the hearing that although this investigation ultimately did not allow him to either confirm or deny the reports of bullying, it did uncover that Coach Lincoln had used profanity in front of OSD students during games and during "heated moments."

A closed-door meeting was held a couple of weeks later, on April 21, 2017, between Mr. Coffelt, Dr. Sherwood, and Coach Lincoln in Dr. Sherwood's office, which is in a building with no classrooms but with rooms down sometimes used for student purposes such as counseling.³ The meeting apparently got heated and ended when Mr. Coffelt called Dr. Sherwood a liar and Coach Lincoln a "chicken shit" after they refused to answer his questions about the way his older daughter had been treated. The parties dispute what occurred next,⁴ but it is undisputed that Dr. Sherwood asked Mr. Coffelt to leave, following him out of the office and telling him to "get the hell off my property." Dr. Sherwood admitted that this was not the first animated discussion he's had with parents where profanity was used. The day after this incident, Mr. Coffelt returned to OSD grounds to watch a Softball game. Although Coach Lincoln was also present that day, there was no disturbance or commotion of any kind.⁵

On April 27, 2017, Dr. Sherwood sent Mr. Coffelt a letter stating that his conduct on April 21 substantially disrupted and disturbed the educational function in the District and that, effective immediately, Mr. Coffelt was forbidden from entering upon any District property until further notice. However, certain narrow exceptions to this categorical ban were made, including that Mr. Coffelt could attend a Graduation scheduled for May 12th (for his older daughter) and an Athletic Banquet scheduled for May 19th, and that he could enter District property in the event of an "extreme emergency involving [his] child after first contacting Mrs. Green (the school's principal)." (Doc. 1, p. 3). However, his attendance at those events would only be permitted if he was accompanied by a police escort, the costs of which were not to be borne by the District. Id. He was not permitted to attend any other events of any kind, as he was informed that attendance at any other event would result in a report to the police.

Mr. Coffelt did in fact attend both his older daughter's graduation on May 12, 2017, and the Athletic Banquet on May 19, 2017, with police escorts. Although there were no incidents during these events, Mr. Coffelt's police escorts were no more than eight feet from him at all times and apparently at one point inserted themselves in between Mr. Coffelt and his family to make their presence known.

Mr. Coffelt subsequently wrote the OSD School Board seeking permission⁶ to appear in front of it to ask it to reconsider Dr. Sherwood's action. The School Board granted him permission to appear and speak. After Mr. Coffelt appeared at the July 17, 2017 Board Meeting to deliver his five-minute prepared remarks, the Board had no questions for him and did not make any public comments about his request.

Mr. Coffelt subsequently received a letter from Dr. Sherwood that mentioned his appearance at the School Board meeting and modified the restrictions that the District was placing upon him. This letter informed Mr. Coffelt that he would be "allowed to enter District property ONLY for the athletic events in which your student may participate and when a police officer is on duty." (Doc. 1, p. 5). In addition, he was required to contact the High School Principal by phone or in writing at least 24 hours in advance if he planned to attend the event so that the District could be aware of his presence and could verify police presence. Other than these athletic events at which his student was competing, he was not to be present at any other event.

It appears that, after Mr. Coffelt's counsel sent a cease-and-desist letter to the school, Mr. Coffelt's access to OSD campus buildings was further modified. In a letter sent to Mr. Coffelt on October 5, 2017, counsel for OSD repeated the District's prior statement that Mr. Coffelt could attend events at OSD if Mr. Coffelt's children were participating. In addition, this letter stated that if there were other events or occasions where Mr. Coffelt believed he needed to enter OSD school property for any reason, he was to similarly give one day advanced notice.

Pursuant to this last letter, Mr. Coffelt did in fact request permission to attend events held on OSD school property on October 31, 2017; November 27, 2017; November 30, 2017; December 2, 2017; December 11, 2017; January 19, 2018; January 23, 2018; and February 5th–10th.⁷ Though the tone of the last letter indicated that Mr. Coffelt would be allowed to attend events where his daughter was in attendance, OSD, through Dr. Sherwood, responded on October 26, 2017, that Mr. Coffelt would only be allowed to attend events on February 5 and February 8 (the two days his daughter had athletic games against OSD teams and, on those dates, ONLY during his daughter's games). He was denied permission to attend any other events.

The Complaint and the testimony during the hearing revealed that despite several instances where other parents engaged in similar (if not worse) conduct, Mr. Coffelt was the only one who had been banned from the District. Those other instances of parental conduct included:

• One parent who observed a teacher yelling at his child and pointing her finger in the child's face told Dr. Sherwood that the parent would have "slapped the shit out of her" if she were a man but that he would "take care" of the situation himself if this type of event happened again. That parent testified at the hearing in response to a question about what "take care of" meant that he would do "whatever it took" to right the situation, including slapping the teacher. That same parent cursed at Principal Amanda Green in Green's office after banging on the door to get into the office.

• Another parent verbally assaulted a teacher during an awards ceremony at OSD.

• In the Fall of 2015, a parent stopped a school bus, banged on the door, entered the bus, and cursed at its driver for not waiting long enough for a child. The same parent then later appeared at school to yell and curse at the principal.

• In October 2014, the sister of a student enrolled at OSD posted a threat toward a coach on Facebook.

• In the Spring of 2014, a former member of OSD's school Board threatened a coach with physical violence if the coach ever again called the former member's son "lazy."

B. Procedural Background

Mr. Coffelt filed his Complaint (Doc. 1) against OSD and Dr. Sherwood on November 9, 2017, alleging that the District's actions violated various of his First Amendment rights, including his right to free speech, assembly, and association, as well as his right to due process and equal protection. Submitted contemporaneously with that Complaint was the present Motion for Preliminary Injunction (Doc. 6). After the Motion was fully briefed, the Court heard oral argument during its scheduled Rule 16 case management...