Parks v. Buffalo City Sch. Dist.

CHRISTINA PARKS, Plaintiff, v. BUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant.

17-CV-631S

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

April 30, 2020

DECISION AND ORDER

I. INTRODUCTION

In this action, Plaintiff Christina Parks, an African-American female, alleges that her employer, Defendant Buffalo City School District ("the District"), discriminated and retaliated against her based on her race, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. ("Title VII"); the New York Human Rights Law ("NY HRL"), N.Y. Exec. Law § 296; the Civil Rights Act of 1991, 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (b); and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment through 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Presently before this Court is the District's motion to dismiss Parks's complaint under Rule 12 (b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. (Docket No. 4.) For the following reasons, the District's motion is granted in part and denied in part.

II. BACKGROUND

The following facts, drawn from Parks's complaint and the exhibits attached thereto, are accepted as true for purposes of adjudicating the District's motion to dismiss. See Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 572, 127 S. Ct. 1955, 167 L. Ed. 2d 929 (2007) ("[A] judge ruling on a defendant's motion to dismiss a complaint must accept as true all of the factual allegations contained in the complaint." (internal quotation marks omitted)).

Parks began working for the District in its Transportation Department in 1984 as a data control clerk. (Complaint, Docket No. 1, ¶ 8.) The District thereafter promoted her from civil-service-eligible lists to computer operator in 1989, computer programmer in 1990, systems analyst (grade 18) in 1999, and systems analyst (grade 19) in 2015. (Id. ¶¶ 9, 50.) But shortly after Parks's promotion to systems analyst in 1999, the District stopped promoting her or hiring her for more advanced positions in favor of hiring Caucasian employees who often had less experience and less seniority. (Id. ¶¶ 10-11, 78.)

For example, when Parks moved laterally in September 2002 to replace the retiring Guy Latona, a Caucasian male who had been the computer systems engineer coordinator (grade 21), the District downgraded Latona's vacated position to systems analyst (grade 18). (Id. ¶¶ 12-14, 20.) In 2007, the District denied Parks's request for a promotion to data base administrator. (Id. ¶ 16.) In August 2010, the District promoted two of Parks's systems analyst colleagues, both Caucasian, to system administrators (grade 20), but did not similarly promote Parks. (Id. ¶¶ 19, 31.) In 2011, James Kane, Chief of Staff, failed to act on Parks's request for a promotion and for additional training. (Id. ¶¶ 35, 75.) In January 2013, Parks applied for a systems administrator position but received no response. (Id. ¶ 40.) In June 2013, Parks applied for a senior systems administrator position, but did not receive the position after Paul Bonvissuto, an individual below Parks on the system-administrator list, was hired instead. (Id. ¶¶ 40, 67, 68.) In September2015, Parks emailed the Director of Transportation a request to be promoted, but he ignored her request. (Id. ¶¶ 47, 48.)

Parks also complains of harassment and disparate treatment over the years. For example, Parks's predecessor, Latona, had the assistance of a data control clerk and multiple computer programmers, but Parks did not. (Id. at ¶ 26.) Latona also had a job title and pay grade that "allowed him to do his job with recognition and the protection of IT," but Parks did not. (Id. ¶ 31.) Parks's co-workers (Karen Carnevale and Cheryl Kennedy) installed monitoring software on her computer to track her daily activities, and on an occasion during the summer of 2013, Parks's supervisor, Mary Ann O'Neil, sat directly behind her for a day to monitor what she was doing. (Id. ¶¶ 23, 41.) Also, beginning in June 2013, the District stripped Parks of her overtime opportunities, resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars per year. (Id. ¶¶ 37, 38.) On an occasion in August 2015, Parks's supervisor, Robin Craddock, reprimanded her for not completing a task that Parks was previously told was "no rush." (Id. ¶ 49.)

Parks maintains that she also experienced a diminution in her position. In 2004, the Transportation Department computer network that Parks controlled was incorporated into the Buffalo Public Schools network but remained under Parks's "total and sole control and administration." (Id. ¶ 12.) But in 2010, someone from the IT department physically removed one of the Transportation Department servers that Parks controlled to prevent Parks from claiming an upgrade or promotion, and Parks was forced by threat of insubordination to explain how the removed server worked. (Id. ¶ 22.) Other of Parks's tasks were permanently removed and given to management personnel. (Id. ¶ 24.) InFebruary 2012, Marta Clark from the Human Resources Department required Parks to prove her responsibilities by comparing her actual job tasks with the systems administrator job description, which Parks alleges was an impossible task. (Id. ¶¶ 28, 29.) Beginning in November 2013 through March 2014, Parks's access to servers and data bases was removed and she was forced to ask her subordinate, Carnevale, for permission to access the resources she needed to complete her work. (Id. ¶¶ 30, 46.) By 2014, Parks's workload had been "reduced to almost none," with only one weekly task and one monthly task, and Parks was no longer included in technology meetings with vendors or management. (Id. ¶¶ 42-45.)

Parks further claims that management positioned her to fail. (Id. ¶ 25.) For example, in early 2014, Parks could not connect to the necessary computer drives to access reports she needed to complete her work, which caused her to be unable to set up schools and terminals to access necessary data. (Id. ¶ 27.) Parks also alleges that Carnevale would change procedures without telling her, which resulted in Parks making mistakes when she had to "process jobs and run production" in Carnevale's absence. (Id. ¶ 33.) Parks alleges that this situation created severe challenges, stress, and anxiety, but Kane, the Chief of Staff, would not resolve the issues. (Id. ¶ 34.)

Parks alleges that other African-American District employees experienced similar discrimination based on race. (Id. ¶ 57.) Larry Smith, a laborer, was continuously and publicly harassed; Tilden Brown, a truck driver, was harassed and "railroaded;" Carson Scales, the head bus driver, had his position eliminated and was replaced by three male, non-African-American routing specialists. (Id. ¶¶ 57-60, 66, 69.) Lamont Perry,operations communications coordinator, had the majority of his tasks reassigned to his Caucasian co-workers who had less seniority and were less skilled. (Id. ¶¶ 57, 61.) Perry's requests for promotion were also ignored. (Id. ¶¶ 61, 62.)

In January 2015, Parks filed a grievance with her union concerning her lack of promotions. (Id. ¶ 70.) The grievance was settled in July 2016, when Parks was promoted to senior systems analyst (grade 21), which was permanently certified in December 2016, two weeks before her retirement. (Id. ¶ 70, 77.) In the interim, on May 31, 2016, with Parks only six months from a full-service retirement at age 55, her systems analyst position was cut from the budget. (Id. ¶¶ 51, 52.) Parks was told that her department would be reduced "to a one-person shop," and that person would be Carnevale, a Caucasian female with less seniority. (Id. ¶¶ 53, 56.) In July 2016, Parks obtained a "placeholder" position in Buffalo City Hall that allowed her to complete her years of service and obtain a full retirement. (Id. ¶¶ 54, 55.) Then, as mentioned above, Parks was promoted to senior systems analyst in December 2016 as a result of her grievance. (Id. ¶ 70.) She retired two weeks later. (Id.)

Before her retirement, Parks filed an official complaint with the District's Human Resources Department on April 28, 2016, but the complaint went uninvestigated. (Id. ¶¶ 71, 72.) Parks also advised the District's Human Resources Department that she had contacted the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("the EEOC"). (Id. ¶ 73.) On June 20, 2016, Parks filed complaints with the EEOC. (Id. ¶ 73 and Exhibit 1.) She was issued a Right to Sue Letter on April 13, 2017, and filed her complaint in this action on July 10, 2017. (Id., Exhibit 2.)

III. DISCUSSION

Parks asserts discrimination and retaliation claims in each of four causes of action. She alleges that the District engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination in the form of disparate treatment based on race and retaliated against her for having engaged in protected activity, in violation of Title VII (First Cause of Action¹), § 296 of the NY HRL (Second Cause of Action), 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (b) through 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Third Cause of Action), and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment through 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Fourth Cause of Action). (Complaint, ¶¶ 80-85, 86-90, 91-95, 96-100.)

The District seeks dismissal of each cause of action for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, or, in the alternative, dismissal of all claims falling outside the applicable statutes of limitations periods. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12 (b)(6).

A. Rule 12 (b)(6)

Rule 12 (b)(6) allows dismissal of a complaint for "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12 (b)(6). In addition, if it appears from the face of the complaint that a cause of action has not been brought within the applicable statute of limitations period, the defense of limitations "may be raised in a pre-answer motion pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12 (b)(6)." Santos v. Dist. Council of New York City, 619 F.2d 963, 967 n.4 (2d Cir. 1980); see also Ghartley v. St. John's Queens Hosp., 869 F.2d 160, 162 (2d Cir. 1989).

Federal pleading standards are...