Jeanny v. City of Woburn

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JEANNY and KEVIN COUCELOS, Individually and on behalf of their minor child JOHN DOE, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF WOBURN, WOBURN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, WOBURN SCHOOL COMMITTEE, JESSICA CALLANAN, Principal of Woburn Memorial High School, JIM DURAN, Athletic Director of Woburn Memorial High School, JACK BELCHER, Head Football Coach for Woburn Memorial High School, CHASE ANDREWS, Assistant Football Coach for Woburn Memorial High School, CHARLOTTE WEBBER, Spanish teacher at Woburn Memorial High School, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 23-12063-GAO

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts

September 26, 2024

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS UNDER FED. R. CIV. P. 12(B)(6) (#20).

M. PAGE KELLEY United States Magistrate Judge.

I. Introduction

This case involves a high school's response to the report of a “student-on-student” sexual assault. Jeanny and Kevin Coucelos allege that while their 14-year-old son, John Doe, was a student at Woburn Memorial High School (“WMHS”), Woburn (“the City”), Woburn Public Schools (“WPS”), and the Woburn School Committee (“WSC”) (together, the “Municipal Defendants”) discriminated against Doe on the basis of gender in violation of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. § 1681) (Count I); the Municipal Defendants are liable for the “erroneous outcome” of the Title IX investigation (Count II); the Municipal Defendants are liable for retaliation against Doe for reporting the assault (Count III); Principal Callanan Athletic Director Jim Duran, Spanish teacher Charlotte Webber, and the Municipal Defendants violated Doe's constitutional substantive due process right to freedom from violation of bodily integrity (42 U.S.C. § 1983) (Counts IV and V); the Municipal Defendants discriminated against Doe on the basis of race under Title VI (42 U.S.C. § 2000(d)) (Count VI); Principal Callanan is liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress on plaintiffs (Count VII); the City and WPS are liable for both negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress on plaintiffs (Counts VIII and IX); and Principal Callanan and WPS are liable for Doe's parents' loss of consortium under Massachusetts law (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231 § 85X) (Count X).

On November 27, 2023, defendants moved to dismiss all claims against them for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (##20, 21.) Plaintiffs oppose. (#22.) As explained below, the court recommends that the motion to dismiss be ALLOWED in part and DENIED in part.

II. Facts

The facts are taken from the Complaint. (#1.)

A. The Parties.

Doe and his parents live in Woburn, Massachusetts. Id. ¶ 1. Doe is of Puerto Rican and Portuguese descent and identifies as Hispanic. Id. ¶ 18. The Municipal Defendants are the City of Woburn, WPS, a department operated by the City of Woburn, and WSC, which establishes educational goals and policies for WPS.^[1]Id. ¶¶ 2-4. The Municipal Defendants receive federal funding for educational programming and activities. Id. ¶ 22. During the time relevant to the Complaint: Jessica Callanan was the Principal of WMHS, id. ¶ 6; Jim Duran was the Athletic Director of WPS, id. ¶ 8; Jack Belcher was the head coach of the WMHS football team and had been since 2017, id. ¶ 9; Chase Andrews was an assistant coach of the WMHS football team, id. ¶ 10; and Charlotte Webber was Doe's Spanish teacher at WMHS. Id. ¶ 11.^[2]

B. The Locker Room Incident.

During the 2021-2022 school year, Doe was in the ninth grade at WMHS and played on the football team. Id. ¶ 19. On September 25, 2021, he was fourteen years old. Id. ¶ 27. On that day, he was in the locker room after a game between Woburn and Wakefield, changing out of his football gear with other members of the freshman team. Id. ¶ 28. Some sophomore players, who were in another locker room across the hall, “decided to go into the freshman locker room and attack John Doe because some players blamed Doe for a team punishment earlier in the season.” Id. ¶ 29.

A “large group of more than 20 football players” went into the freshman locker room, where they surrounded and attacked Doe, yelling, squirting water at him, and throwing bottles at him. Id. ¶ 30. Multiple students punched him, including in the face, injuring him. Id. Someone tried to take his Apple watch. Id. The attack was raucous and very loud. Id. One student, who was white and not Hispanic, pulled down Doe's pants and touched his genitalia through his boxers. Id. ¶ 31. Many students videotaped the incident, and videos of it were posted on social media. Id. ¶ 32. More than one of the recordings, with audio, are preserved. Id.

There was no supervision by coaches in the locker room before the assault or any intervention by coaches during the assault. Id. ¶ 33. Defendant Chase Andrews, an assistant coach for the freshman football team, was in the coach's office when the attack happened. Id. ¶ 34. That office is across the hall “and only several feet away from the entrance to the freshman locker room, close enough to hear a commotion in the locker room.” Id. ¶ 35. Minutes after the attack, Doe went to the office and told Coach Andrews that he was “just jumped and assaulted in the locker room.” Id. ¶ 36. Coach Andrews did not ask Doe for more information, did not report the attack, and did not request or conduct any investigation of the incident. Id. ¶ 37.

C. Events After the Assault.

The Coucelos family reported the incident to the Woburn Police on October 12, 2021. Id. ¶ 38. The Woburn Police school resource officer, Edward Fumicello, told Principal Callanan about the attack that day. Id. Mr. and Mrs. Coucelos met with Principal Callanan the next day, October 13, 2021. Id. ¶ 39. She assured them that Doe would be safe when he returned to school and Doe and his parents relied on that assurance when Doe returned. Id. Principal Callanan interviewed about thirteen students who were involved in the incident. Id. ¶ 40. Defendant Jack Belcher, the head football coach at WMHS, and Defendant Jim Duran, the athletic director of WMHS, were present at times while students were interviewed. Id. Athletic Director Duran sometimes asked students questions. Id. Coach Belcher recalled later that players were asked questions including whether they saw anyone touch Doe's genitals; Principal Callanan later stated she did not ask about the alleged grabbing of Doe's genitals. Id. ¶¶ 41-42.

Principal Callanan did not preserve a video from surveillance cameras in the hallway outside the football locker room and coach's office, rather, “she allowed it to be deleted on or around October 25, 2021.” Id. ¶ 43. Officer Fumicello had access to the video and viewed it. Id. The reason given by WPS “for allowing the video to be destroyed was that the video was not relevant,” even though it would have shown “people going in and out of the freshman locker room, sophomore locker room, and the coach's office.” Id.

Over the next several weeks, Doe was “subjected to physical attacks, threats, intimidation, and cyber-harassment by several WMHS students.” Id. ¶ 44. On October 18, 2021, he was approached in a school bathroom by three students who taunted him by asking him, “Why didn't you stick up for yourself [during the locker room incident]?” Id. ¶ 45. One of the students punched him several times “in the upper body area.” Id. This incident was reported immediately to Principal Callanan. Id. That same day, she sent a safety plan for Doe to his parents “for implementation starting the next day”; she said that it was shared with Doe's teachers. Id. ¶ 46.

Students “sent offensive messages” to Doe, for example, “on or about October 18, 2021, a student called John Doe out as a snitch, said everyone hated him, and targeted him with vulgar language.” Id. ¶ 47. This was reported to Principal Callanan on October 19, 2021. Id. On November 9, 2021, a different student sent offensive messages to Doe, including: “you really want to get raped again, did you get brain damage from being raped, I'll do the same thing they did but only me.” Id. ¶ 48. This also was reported to Principal Callanan. Id.

On November 10, 2021, a different student entered Doe's Spanish class, grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him up, told him to stop snitching, and to delete the screenshots “of the messages with the student from the day before.” Id. ¶ 49. The teacher, Charlotte Webber, was in the classroom at the time of the incident “and did nothing to intervene.” Id. This incident was reported to Principal Callanan. Id.

John Doe “received little active play time on the football field for the rest of the season.” Id. ¶ 50. However, several players who had attacked him, including the one who sexually assaulted him, played on the team for the rest of the season, and at least three players, including the one who sexually assaulted him, played at the Thanksgiving game at Fenway Park on November 24, 2021. Id. “The WMHS Student Handbook states that students may lose the privilege of participation in interscholastic athletic events if the student violates the behavioral expectations of the school.” Id.

On December 1, 2021, the Coucelos family obtained a Harassment Protection Order from the Middlesex County Juvenile Court against the student who sexually assaulted Doe. Id. ¶ 51. Only then did Principal Callanan and the WPS put a safety plan in school for that student. Id.

D. The Title IX Investigation.

The family filed a Title IX complaint with Principal Callanan and the WPS on November 22, 2021. Id. ¶ 52. The family had delayed filing a complaint, because Principal Callanan had sent an email to Mrs. Coucelos on October 25 2021, in which she stated that “[u]sually a Title IX investigation involving a sexual assault takes place when the...