United States Second Circuit

In a plaintiff's suit, on behalf of her biracial son, against a town, its Board of Education, and various educators and administrators under 42 U.S.C. sections 1981 and 1983 and state law for alleged discrimination in connection with the child's enrollment in the kindergarten and first-grade classes at a public elementary school, district court's denial of defendants' motion for summary judgment on the ground of qualified immunity is affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded where: 1) with respect to plaintiff's claims of deliberate indifference by defendants, the principal and kindergarten teacher, to kindergarten students' allegedly using racial epithets to disparage a classmate, these two defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity because there are disputed questions of fact for which the district court identified sufficient evidence on the record to support a verdict in favor of plaintiff; but 2) with respect to plaintiff's claims of deliberate indifference by all defendants to allegedly racially motivated physical misbehavior by kindergarten and first-grade students toward a classmate, defendants are entitled to qualified immunity because no clearly established law permits a finding that defendants had actual knowledge that commonplace physical misbehavior by children of this age was racially motivated in the absence of some objective evidence connecting the physical misbehavior to the earlier racial name calling.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/21/2012
• Published 08/21/2012

Judges

• Raggi

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel