Oldham ex rel. Young v. Cincinnati Public Schools

118 F.Supp.2d 867

Deetroy OLDHAM, a Minor, Through his Mother and Next Friend, Stephanie YOUNG, Plaintiff, v. CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS, et al., Defendants.

No. C-1-00-433.

United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, Western Division.

October 24, 2000.

Robert Forsythe Croskery, Croskery & Associates Co LPA, West Chester, OH, Melinda Weissenberger, West Chester, OH, for plaintiffs.

Ian R Smith, McCaslin, Imbus & McCaslin—1, Cincinnati, OH, Ralph Gary Winters, McCaslin Imbus & McCaslin, Cincinnati, OH, for defendants.

ORDER

SPIEGEL, Senior District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (doc. 3); Plaintiff's Response (doc. 4); and Defendants' Reply (doc. 5). In addition, the Court held a Preliminary Pretrial Conference in this matter on October 19, 2000 (see doc. 6).

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Deetroy Oldham, a minor, who was born on October 20, 1984, is the son of Stephanie Young (hereinafter, "Plaintiff"), who is his legal custodian and who brings this lawsuit as his next friend and as his mother, filed this action against Defendants Cincinnati Public Schools and Steven Adamowski, in his official capacity as Superintendent of the Cincinnati Public Schools (hereinafter, "Defendants") for violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,¹ pursuant to Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (doc. 1). That Clause provides that no State shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, § 1.

This Court has federal question jurisdiction, pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. § 1331, over Count One of the Complaint (see id.). In addition, this Court may properly exercise its supplemental jurisdiction, pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. § 1367, over Court Two of the Complaint, as this claim is so related to the federal claim that it forms part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution (Id.). See United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 725, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966).

The following short recitation of the facts, though disputed by Defendants, are taken from Plaintiff's Complaint (see doc. 1).

On or about May 12, 1999, Plaintiff Deetroy Oldham went to school at North Fairmount School, which is located within the Cincinnati Public Schools. Plaintiff was wearing red clothing. Upon Plaintiff's arrival at school, Plaintiff was threatened by another student by the name of ... [hereinafter, referred to as "TT"] because he was wearing red clothes. Plaintiff properly reported this threat to his teacher Mr. Dodds and to the assistant principal, David Knox. Plaintiff's teacher, Mr. Dodds, heard TT threaten Deetroy Oldham. Plaintiff's teacher heard about the threat, was made aware of the threat[;] one other teacher, Mr. Franklin and the principal were also aware of the threat. Specifically, the teachers and principal heard TT tell Deetroy Oldham "I will get you at lunch." At lunch, TT initially pushed Plaintiff Deetroy Oldham. One of Plaintiff's teachers told Plaintiff that if TT did hit him, "you can hit him back." After stating that, the teacher walked away.

TT then assaulted Plaintiff, hitting him in the face. It was immediately evident that Plaintiff was severely injured. The principal did not call the paramedics, nor did he take any action to take care of the situation, but rather had a security officer take Deetroy Oldham home. Plaintiff was taken to the emergency room by his mother Stephanie Young, and was determined to be almost completely blinded in his right eye. Similar incidents have occurred at North Fairmount School, and the school has had problems with the staff and the principal, including every day fights, milk throwing, students bringing knives to school, and other incidents of students not [being] supervised properly. The students who attend North Fairmount School are primarily people of color, and the school has had consistent problems associated with the School District's failing to recognize and deal with the minority students in the same manner that it deals [with the] majority population in other schools.

(doc. 1).

On May 31, 2000, Plaintiff Deetroy Oldham, a minor, through his mother, filed this civil rights action against Defendants (Id.). See 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In the Complaint, Plaintiff asserts two causes of action against Defendants. Plaintiff's first cause of action alleges that Defendants violated Plaintiff's right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and is asserted as a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that, "[t]he failure of [Defendants] to properly provide a safe education and to treat [Plaintiff] equally with other persons not of minority heritage amounts to a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment ..." (doc. 1). The second cause of action is for the negligent hiring and supervision of the staff and principal of North Fairmount School, which, according to the Complaint, was a "direct and proximate cause of the injury" to Plaintiff's eye (Id.).

Instead of filing an Answer to Plaintiff's Complaint, Defendants submitted a Motion to Dismiss on July 31, 2000, moving this Court to dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (doc. 3). Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff submitted his Response and moved for this Court to allow him to amend his Complaint in order to add as additional Defendants the principal and teachers involved in the aforementioned incidents (doc. 4).

However, Plaintiff fails to identify by name or by official/individual capacity the teachers and school principal that he wishes to add to the Complaint, nor does he attach a proposed Amended Complaint to his Response (see id.). See also Fed. R.Civ.P. 15(a).

Having reviewed this matter, the Court has decided to address Plaintiff's motion to amend at the end of this Order in order to determine if Plaintiff's motion to amend is possibly moot due to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss.

On September 1, 2000, Defendants filed their Reply in which they did not object to Plaintiff's motion to amend his Complaint (doc. 5). Accordingly, this matter is now considered ripe for the Court's determination.

STANDARD OF REVIEW FOR A MOTION TO DISMISS

A motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) "requires the Court to determine whether a cognizable claim has been pleaded in the complaint." Roberts v. Alan Ritchey, Inc., 962 F.Supp. 1028, 1030 (S.D.Ohio 1997). In making this inquiry, the Court must view the motion in a light most favorable to the party opposing it. See Great Lakes Steel v. Deggendorf, 716 F.2d 1101, 1105 (6th Cir.1983). In other words, a court must accept as true all of the allegations in the well-pleaded complaint that is under attack. See Miller v. Currie, 50 F.3d 373, 377 (6th Cir.1995). The Court may then grant the motion only if "it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).

A Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss requires the Court to determine whether a cognizable claim has been pleaded in the complaint. The basic federal pleading requirement is contained in Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a), which states that, a pleading "shall contain ... a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Westlake v. Lucas, 537 F.2d 857, 858 (6th Cir.1976). In its scrutiny of the complaint, the Court must construe all well-pleaded facts liberally in favor of the party opposing the motion. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974). Rule 8(a)(2) operates to provide the defendant with "fair notice of what plaintiff's claim is and the grounds upon which it rests." Conley, 355 U.S. at 47, 78 S.Ct. 99. A court examines a complaint in light of the objectives of Rule 8 using the standard articulated in Jones v. Sherrill, 827 F.2d 1102, 1103 (6th Cir.1987):

In reviewing a dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6), the court must accept as true all factual allegations in the complaint. Windsor v.. The Tennessean, 719 F.2d 155, 158 (6th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 826, 105 S.Ct. 105, 83 L.Ed.2d 50 (1984). The motion to dismiss must be denied unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of the claim which would entitle her to relief. Id. at 158; Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).

Jones, 827 F.2d at 1103.

The admonishment to liberally construe the plaintiff's claim when evaluating a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal does not relieve a plaintiff of his obligation to satisfy federal notice pleading requirements and allege more than bare assertions of legal conclusions. 5A Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: § 1357 at 596 (1969). "In practice, a complaint ... must contain either direct or inferential allegations respecting all of the material elements [in order] to sustain a recovery under some viable legal theory." Car Carriers, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., 745 F.2d 1101, 1106 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1054, 105 S.Ct. 1758, 84 L.Ed.2d 821 (1985) (quoting In Re: Plywood Antitrust Litigation, 655 F.2d 627, 641 (5th Cir. 1981), cert. dismissed, 462 U.S. 1125, 103 S.Ct. 3100, 77 L.Ed.2d 1358 (1983)); see also Sutliff, Inc. v. Donovan Companies, Inc., 727 F.2d 648, 654 (7th Cir.1984); 5 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: § 1216 at 121-23 (1969). The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit clarified the threshold set for a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal:

[W]e are not holding the pleader to an impossibly high standard; we recognize the policies behind Rule 8 and the concept of notice pleading. A plaintiff will not...