B. (§8.2) Qualified Immunity of School Officials
Individual board members and administrators enjoy qualified good-faith immunity from liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, discussed in §8.1 above. In Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308 (1975), plaintiff students were expelled from school for violating a regulation prohibiting intoxicating beverages at school or school activities. The students sued the school board members for damages and other relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the expulsions violated procedural and substantive due process. The district court directed a verdict for the defendants on the ground that they were immune as a matter of law because there was no proof of malice in the sense of ill will toward the plaintiffs. Wood, 420 U.S. at 314. The jury had earlier been instructed that such ill will was necessary in order to find for the plaintiffs. Disagreeing, the Eighth Circuit stated: “[I]t need only be established that the defendants did not, in the light of all the circumstances, act in good faith. The test is an objective, rather than a subjective, one.” Id. at 314 (quoting Strickland v. Inlow, 485 F.2d 186 (8th Cir. 1973)).
Writing for a five-justice majority, Justice White first noted the confusion in the circuits regarding qualified immunity: “[T]he courts have either emphasized different factors as elements of good faith or have not given specific content to the good-faith standard.” Wood, 420 U.S. at 315. After analyzing its earlier cases on qualified immunity, the Court observed that “state courts have generally recognized that [school board members] should be protected form tort liability under state law for all good-faith nonmalicious action taken to fulfill...
