Harden v. W. Side Career & Tech. Ctr.

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SA'RAYA HARDEN, Plaintiff, v. WEST SIDE CAREER AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER, et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 3:23-CV-01631

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania

August 2, 2024

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Susan E. Schwab United States Magistrate Judge

I. Introduction.

The plaintiff, Sa'Raya Harden (“Harden”), has filed a complaint based on the treatment of her daughter Adreya Harden (“Adreya”), prior to Adreya's death by suicide. Harden brings claims against Adreya's school, school district, principal, five of her teachers (collectively “the school defendants” or “the movants”) and five of her classmates. Currently pending is the school defendants' partial motion to dismiss. For the reasons that follow, we will grant in part and deny in part the partial motion to dismiss.

II. Background and Procedural History.

Harden initiated this action by filing a complaint on October 2, 2023. Doc. 1. Harden filed the complaint as Adreya's mother, and the administrator of Adreya's estate. Doc. 1 ¶ 16. Harden names 13 defendants: (1) Wyoming Valley School District (“the District”); (2) West Side Career and Technology Center (“Tech”); (3) Richard Rava, the Principal of Tech (“Principal Rava”); (4) “Doe(s) 1-5[,]” “students within Tech and/or the District” (“the unidentified student defendants”); and (5) “Doe(s) 6-10[,]” “adult employees and/or agents of Tech and/or the District” (“the unidentified employee defendants”). Id. ¶¶ 1, 21, 25, 28, 30, 32-35. Harden brings the following claims: (1) Title IX claims against both the District and Tech for deliberate indifference to student-on-student sex-based harassment and intentional sex-based discrimination by a school administrator (contained in counts one, two, three, and four) (id. ¶¶ 123-71); (2) § 1983 claims for failure to train against the District, Tech, Principal Rava, and the unidentified employee defendants (contained in counts five and six) (id. ¶¶ 172-215); (3) § 1983 claims for sex-based discrimination in violation of the equal protection clause against the District, Tech, Principal Rava, and the unidentified employee defendants (contained in counts seven, eight, nine, and ten) (id. ¶¶ 216-59); (4) state law claims for gross negligence and/or recklessness against the unidentified student defendants (contained in count eleven) (id. ¶¶ 260-66); and (5) state law claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress against the unidentified student defendants (contained in count twelve) (id. ¶¶ 267-70).

The movants filed a partial motion to dismiss, which is now pending (“pending motion to dismiss”). Doc. 8. After the pending motion to dismiss was fully briefed (docs. 11, 13), the parties consented to Magistrate Judge jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636 (c) (doc. 18). The case is currently governed by a case management order, with fact discovery to conclude on or before October 30, 2024. Doc. 21.

A. Events Depicted in the Complaint.^[1]

The impetus of the present case is Adreya's death by suicide, which occurred on October 5, 2021, when Adreya was 15 years old. Doc. 1 ¶¶ 37, 41. Although when she was born her parents named her Andrew, “[a]t Adreya's request, [her] family and friends began calling her ‘Adreya[.]'” Id. ¶¶ 42, 43. Adreya was a “transgender female” (id. ¶ 1) and “came out publicly as LGBTQIA+ in sixth . . . grade as a student in the District” (id. ¶ 44).

“After coming out, Adreya was not comfortable in a traditional school setting” “due, in relevant part, to the harassment and bullying” Adreya experienced at the hands of her classmates, including the unidentified student defendants. Id. ¶¶ 45, 46. “Instead of addressing the bullying and harassment . . ., the District allowed Adreya to receive her education through private after-hours instruction by a teacher at the local library” (“alternative instruction”). Id. ¶ 47. Thus, for the remainder of the 2018-2019 school year, and for the entirety of the 2019-2020 school year, Adreya participated in this alternative instruction and completed the sixth and seventh grades. Id. ¶ 47.

Because the alternative instruction was unavailable for the 2020-2021 school year due to COVID-19, for eighth grade Adreya attended school at the District over Zoom. Id. ¶¶ 48, 49. Throughout the eighth grade, “Adreya repeatedly asked her teachers, including [the unidentified employee defendants] to call her ‘Adreya' or, at the very least, refer to her by her last name[.]” Id. ¶ 50. Adreya's teachers, including the unidentified employee defendants, “refused her request” and “continued to call her ‘Andrew' in front of her classmates.” Id. ¶¶ 51, 52. “This treatment caused Adreya to feel humiliated, depressed, and isolated from her peers.” Id. ¶ 54. As a result of her teachers' “adverse treatment[,]” “Adreya's grades, participation in school, and mental health suffered tremendously.” Id. ¶ 56. “Adreya stopped participating in her [eighth] grade classes to avoid being singled out and mistreated by her teachers, [the unidentified employee defendants].” Id. ¶ 57. Moreover, the teachers' treatment of Adreya “emboldened” Adreya's classmates, including the unidentified student defendants, “to bully and harass Adreya[.]” Id. ¶ 55.

“The District failed to take any steps to address the bullying and harassment [Adreya] suffered” (id. ¶ 59), despite the fact that Harden “notified the District [that] Adreya experienced sex-based harassment by her classmates” (id. ¶ 139). During her time as a student at the District, “Adreya was prohibited from attending the programming of her choice; her grades and academic performance suffered; and she suffered serious emotional and psychological harm, including depression, self-cutting, and suicidal thoughts.” Id. ¶ 143. And, according to the complaint, “the District, through [the unidentified employee defendants] . . . knew that Adreya was experiencing serious mental health issues, including depression, suicidal ideation, and self-harming behavior.” Id. ¶ 163.

“Eventually, Adreya's mental health declined to such an extent that she began missing class and was considered truant.” Id. ¶ 58. As a result, “Adreya was brought before Magisterial District Judge Hagerty on truancy charges.” Id. ¶ 60. After Magisterial District Judge Hagerty “heard about the harassment and mistreatment that Adreya suffered[,]” however, “he refused to find Adreya truant.” Id. ¶ 61. “Instead, [he] ordered that Adreya be allowed to enter the 2021-2022 school year in ninth . . . grade.” Id. ¶ 62. Adreya, who loved cosmetology, was excited to enroll in Tech “for her ninth . . . grade year[.]” Id. ¶ 70, 71.

“At or about” the time of Magisterial District Judge Hagerty's decision, “Adreya had already begun transitioning from male to female” and “was preparing to start hormone therapy.” Id. ¶ 63, 64. Adreya and Harden also “filed a Petition in Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas to legally change Adreya's name from ‘Andrew' to ‘Adreya.'” Id. ¶ 65. Adreya referred to Andrew as her “dead name.” Id. ¶ 76. “Due to COVID-19, the hearing on Adreya's name change petition was continued several times” but it “was finally scheduled for November 1, 2021.” Id. ¶ 66, 67. Accordingly, Adreya began the school year prior to her name being legally changed. Cf. ¶ 68. In fact, Adreya's name was legally changed posthumously. Id. ¶ 69.

“After the school year started,” Harden brought Adreya's then-pending name change petition and the legal paperwork from Magisterial District Judge Hagerty to a meeting between herself, Adreya, and Adreya's counselor at Tech, Mr. Ogurkis. Id. ¶ 72, 74. “Immediately upon meeting with Mr. Ogurkis, Adreya and [Harden] felt unwelcome and uncomfortable.” Id. ¶ 73. Harden “explained to Mr. Ogurkis that Adreya was transitioning and preferred to be referred to as Adreya, not Andrew.” Id. ¶ 75. “Mr. Ogurkis was unwelcoming to Adreya and told her that she might ‘have a hard time fitting in' at Tech.” Id. ¶ 77. When Harden “asked Mr. Ogurkis about how supporting Tech was of the LGBTQIA+ community[,]” (id. ¶ 82) “Ogurkis told [Harden] and Adreya that she would be the only transgender student but there were classes where she ‘could go' if she needed a safe space” (id. ¶ 83). During this meeting, Harden and “Adreya also asked to enroll Adreya in the cosmetology program at Tech.” Id. ¶ 78. “Mr. Ogurkis refused” and instead enrolled Adreya in the Food Marketing and Distribution program. Id. ¶¶ 79, 80. Harden “and Adreya left the meeting with Mr. Ogurkis feeling even more uncomfortable and unsupported.” Id. ¶ 84. “After Adreya's death, [Harden] spoke with the director of Tech's Cosmetology program[;] they said that they were not informed that Adreya wanted to enroll in Cosmetology, but had they known, they would have allowed Adreya in the program.” Id. ¶ 81.

“Adreya started at Tech on Monday, September 27, 2021, several weeks after the school year had already started.” Id. ¶ 85. “Adreya told her mother that some of the teachers, including [the unidentified employee defendants] called Adreya by her ‘dead name[,]' Andrew[,] in front of the whole class during roll call.” Id. ¶ 86. “Adreya's teachers, including [the unidentified employee defendants] refused to call her ‘Adreya' despite requests to do so.” Id. ¶ 87. “Adreya's classmates, including [the unidentified student defendants,] bullied and harassed Adreya incessantly about her sex during the short amount of time that Adreya attended Tech.” Id. ¶ 88. For example, the unidentified student defendants asked Adreya “if she still had male genitalia and whether she was going to ‘chop that [penis] off.'” Id. ¶ 89 (alteration in original). By way of further example, “[a]s Adreya was leaving school one day, a car pulled up alongside her on the school driveway and blew the horn loudly enough that...