Lewis v. Eufaula City Bd. of Educ.

922 F.Supp.2d 1291

Crystal C. LEWIS, Plaintiff,

v.EUFAULA CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 2:11cv1093–MHT.

United States District Court,

M.D. Alabama,

Northern Division.

Dec. 4, 2012.

Theron Stokes, Alabama Education Association, Montgomery, AL, William Don Eddins, Attorney at Law, Auburn, AL, for Plaintiff.

Elizabeth Brannen Carter, James Robert Seale, Hill Hill Carter Franco Cole & Black, Montgomery, AL, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

MYRON H. THOMPSON, District Judge.

Plaintiff Crystal C. Lewis, an American of African descent, brings this case charging the defendants with discrimination (based on her race) and retaliation (based on her and her father's protected conduct) with respect to her employment. She names as defendants the Eufaula City Board of Education, its five board members, and its superintendent of education. Lewis charges that the defendants' actions violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended and codified at 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981a, 2000e to 2000e–17; the Civil Rights Act of 1866, as amended and codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1981; and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution as enforced through 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Jurisdiction is proper under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 (federal question) and 1343 (civil rights) and 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–5(f)(3) (Title VII).

This case is currently before the court on the defendants' motion for summary judgment. For the reasons that follow, the motion will be granted in part and denied in part.

I. SUMMARY–JUDGMENT STANDARD

Summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant[s] show[ ] that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant[s] [are] entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a). The court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of that party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Here, the defendants are the movants.

II. BACKGROUND

A.

Eufaula is a small city in eastern Alabama with a history of racial unrest relating to its public education system. For some time, the public schools operated under federal court monitoring due to the city schools' history of racial segregation. Despite the ending of court monitoring, many Eufaula residents continue to have grievances with the school system's treatment of the black community. A particular point of contention has been the numbers of black teachers and administrators employed by the board. While over half of the students in the school system are black, the portion of black teachers is roughly 15 %, which some city residents contend is far too low. Although members of the city school board profess that they have been making efforts at increasing the ranks of black teachers and administrators, these residents are skeptical. They point to a neighboring school system, where teachers are almost evenly divided between black and white, and they contend that discriminatory employment practices in the Eufaula City Schools must account for the difference in comparative racial percentages.

B.

Lewis grew up in Eufaula and worked as a physical-education teacher at Eufaula Primary School for about three years. During her first two years, she served under Principal Jessie Warren, who is black. Lewis received, generally, good performance evaluations. Her career, however, took a turn for the worse in the third year when Suzann Tibbs, who is white, replaced Warren as principal.

Because Lewis could obtain tenure only if she were rehired for a fourth year, the Eufaula City Board of Education had to decide at the end of each of these three academic years whether to renew her contract for the following year. As a general practice, a school principal would forward an initial renewal recommendation to Eufaula City Superintendent Barry R. Sadler; unless he had particular cause for concern, Sadler would, without making inquiry, forward the recommendation to the full board; likewise, unless the board had cause to do otherwise, it would adopt the principal's recommendation. In effect then, renewal decisions were made by principals. Once Tibbs became principal of Eufaula Primary School, she recommended that Lewis's contract not be renewed and, thus, in effect, that her employment be terminated. The recommendation was adopted by the board, and Lewis's employment contract was not renewed.

Lewis immediately suspected that something was afoul. Although Principal Tibbs purported to have recommended non-renewal on the basis of Lewis's poor performance (arguing that Lewis was too passive to be an effective physical education teacher and too hesitant to engage in outdoors activities), Lewis believed that Tibbs was not evaluating her performance in good faith. Lewis hypothesized that Tibbs wanted her position to open up so that a personal friend of Tibbs's, who is white, could be hired. Lewis felt that her theory was bolstered because Tibbs had attempted to act on Lewis's employment at least once before she became principal; on one occasion, Tibbs approached then-Principal Warren to discuss the possible non-renewal of Lewis's contract, but Warren rebuffed her, stating that, based on his observations of Lewis's performance, he was “not comfortable” with denying renewal. Regardless of Lewis's suspicion of Tibbs's intent, Tibbs's friend, ultimately, did not receive the position; instead, Lewis's replacement was, like Lewis, an African–American. Lewis filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), arguing that the decision to end her employment was discriminatorily made on account of her race.

Lewis began applying for other positions with the school system, but she had no success. One such position for which she applied was at her previous school, Eufaula Primary School, but she was not selected. Instead, Ciara Culverhouse, who is white, was chosen based on Tibbs's recommendation. Although Culverhouse had not yet obtained the licensing required for the job, she was hired with the understanding that it would be obtained sometime soon. Some members of the black community were outraged that allegedly more qualified black applicants were passed over in favor of a white applicant who was without the necessary licensing. A crowd of approximately 100 people attended a school-board meeting to protest the decision. Among them was a woman who vigorously protested that her daughter Andrea Guilford, who is black and was purportedly highly qualified, was passed over. Upon this public outpouring of discontent, the board reversed itself and chose to hire Guilford instead of Culverhouse.

Shortly after that public reversal, Lewis's father Ronnie Crews attended public meetings of the school board to express his displeasure with the school system's treatment of the black community in general and his daughter Lewis in particular. He made such appearances on two separate occasions. According to one board member, Crews's presentations were of a substantial length; he was “quite aggressive”; and he “was acting like a courtroom lawyer cross-examining a witness.” Allen N. White Dep. (Doc. No. 29), Exh. K, 27:11–15. In the opinion of that board member, the presentations were inappropriate and left a lasting impression with him. Crew's presentations to the board were also in line with those of his wife Earnestine Crews. The Crewses were well known in the community for their outspoken views and involvement in issues having to do with race relations; they regularly criticized the treatment afforded to African–Americans by the local government.

Although Lewis was having no luck with her applications to Eufaula City Schools, a county school expressed interest in her. But, before it could formally consider her, it needed a form signed by Lewis's prior employer, the Eufaula City Board of Education. Superintendent Sadler assured Lewis that he would expeditiously file the form, but he did not. As he understood the form, he was required to attest that Lewis's work had been performed “satisfactorily.” Given that her contract was not renewed, he was unsure whether he could make that attestation. His submission of the form was delayed while he sought permission to state on the form that he confirms her employment but does not confirm that her work was satisfactory. By the time he obtained this permission and submitted the form, the county school had already denied Lewis's application and hired another applicant.

Because Lewis was continuing to have no success with her job applications with Eufaula schools (and she had applied for over 25 different jobs there) and schools within a reasonable distance, her husband Michael Lewis approached Superintendent Sadler to ask whether anything could be done. Sadler responded that he would “never say never,” but, for the time being, “nobody is going to hire [Lewis] in Eufaula.” Michael Lewis Aff. (Doc. No. 29), Exh. G, ¶ 7.

C.

Lewis filed this lawsuit claiming that she was discriminated against because of her race and retaliated against because she had filed an EEOC charge and because of her father's speeches to the board. She names as defendants the Eufaula City Board of Education, its five board members (Allen N. White, Jim S. Calton, Jr., Louise Conner, Otis Hill, and James A. Lockwood), and Board Superintendent Sadler.

III. DISCUSSION

A.

Lewis's first claim is that the defendants did not renew her physical-education teaching contract at Eufaula Primary School because she is African–American. Lewis's complaint, which is not a model of clarity, does not specify the source of law for this claim-whether Title VII, § 1981, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, or all of these. The defendants assert defenses that apply to some, but not all, of those three legal sources. Nevertheless, it is unnecessary to know which basis Lewis is relying on, for, whatever the basis,...