Thread: CA-Appeals court upholds dismissal of civil rights lawsuit

Appeals court upholds dismissal of civil rights lawsuit







10:00 PM PDT on Monday, June 1, 2009

By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY


An appellate court on Monday upheld a federal judge's dismissal of a civil-rights lawsuit filed after an Ontario boy fatally shot himself following discipline for ditching school to attend an immigration rights march in 2006.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson correctly ruled that 14-year-old Anthony Soltero's suicide was not the result of a constitutional rights violation by a school administrator.

The appellate panel also agreed that there was no evidence of intent to harm Soltero by the disciplinary lecture of Gene Bennett, then the vice principal of De Anza Middle School in the Ontario-Montclair School District. It also ruled that while Bennett's words were harsh, they were not shocking to the conscience.

Soltero shot himself at home with a .22-caliber rifle in March 2006 after Bennett disciplined him and three other students for leaving campus without permission of the school or their parents.

The students had ostensibly walked away to join others in a march to protest pending federal legislation that would have criminalized helping illegal immigrants. The two campuses the De Anza students walked to were without marches to join.

Bennett had, according to one account, told the students their actions could result in a $250 fine, involvement by the police and the possibility of going to Juvenile Hall.

Soltero had been placed on probation stemming from an incident the previous spring in which he carried a knife to school, the appellate panel said, and his mother said he could face three years in jail if he were found in violation of his probation.

But the court noted the only consequence Bennett actually imposed was the loss of a school year-end field trip privilege. Soltero's suicide, the court said, was unforeseeable and extraordinary.

"Plaintiffs cannot show that Bennett's harsh lecture proximately caused Anthony's death," the judges ruled.

The lawsuit also contended that Soltero's First Amendment rights were violated. The appellate judges agreed with Larson that in the case of minor students, school administrators' duties to ensure student safety trump free speech protections.

To rule otherwise, the judges said, "Would be to allow 12- to 14-year-old students to leave school without the permission of their parents or school authorities to engage in any claimed First Amendment activity, no matter the danger."

Reach Richard K. De Atley at rdeatley@PE.com

http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/st ... 73fc1.html

Soltero shot himself at home with a .22-caliber rifle in March 2006 after Bennett disciplined him and three other students for leaving campus without permission of the school or their parents.

Was this child in America illegally? And yes, this Mr. Bennett is a bit overboard with children.

But this child is overboard, too. Should have been in a supervised schooling environment.

Two negatives do not make a positive.

I don't think the principal went overboard at all. IF anything had happened to these kids when they left the school campus, the school could have been held responsible for not watching them close enough. California is a dangerous place for anybody, let alone kids. He was trying to scare them into following the rules, which is a policy that has worked many times before. It was kind of like his version of "scared straight". I applaud what he tried to do.

cayla99 wrote:

He was trying to scare them into following the rules, which is a policy that has worked many times before. It was kind of like his version of "scared straight". I applaud what he tried to do.

These children should not have been in regular school. But people in the school system cannot see nothing but $$$. A principal is not there to scare children straight.

These two young children thought they could do what they did. And this is not the first time these children or principal had been in a battle it seems.

This principal thinks he can use scare tactics on all children with success, but not this time. It should always be on this principal's mind that he should have done something different.

I have heard of poor behavior in my local school from school police officers about the school administrators actually getting up into young students' faces. When the children put their arms up in front of their faces they are arrested. The principal will tell the police officers to arrest the students for touching them in the act of simple putting their arms up in their personal space. Favorite students get favorite treatment, too.

The students had ostensibly walked away to join others in a march to protest pending federal legislation that would have criminalized helping illegal immigrants. The two campuses the De Anza students walked to were without marches to join.

The principal and students both are out of control. And police officers in the schools do not always side with the principal.

vmonkey wrote:

I have heard of poor behavior in my local school from school police officers about the school administrators actually getting up into young students' faces. When the children put their arms up in front of their faces they are arrested. The principal will tell the police officers to arrest the students for touching them in the act of simple putting their arms up in their personal space.

Your heard? I for one don't always believe what I hear. Heck, these days I occasionally have a hard enough time believing what I actually see.

I believe we have a lot more issues with undisciplined children now days than we do with school administrators and teachers. It's hard to teach children that refuse to attend class, cut up, and refuse to learn. IMO, the problems start at home, not in the schools. All to often I think we blame the schools for our own shortcoming when it comes to raising well behaved children.

Just what do you think would have happened to that principal if any of these kids were killed or kidnapped while they were out walking around? What if they were arrested at the protest, which they were not even supposed to be at, while in his care? He only pointed out and drove home to these kids what could happen if they went for the maximum charges and penalties under the law for the kids actions. He was trying to drive home the seriousness of the offense.

Yes, this is something PARENTS SHOULD be dealing with, but it is quite obvious that these parents were not dealing with it and somebody had to. When I was in school, we all had a fear of the principal and we had very few behavioral problems in our school.

"I believe we have a lot more issues with undisciplined children now days than we do with school administrators and teachers. It's hard to teach children that refuse to attend class, cut up, and refuse to learn. IMO, the problems start at home, not in the schools. All to often I think we blame the schools for our own shortcoming when it comes to raising well behaved children."

MW, you hit the nail on the head. Of course I was never comfortable with the "need" to have uniformed police officers in schools.

But I do agree that there are some bad school administrators who like to bully children; I think these are the exceptions. Most school administrators are too busy signing up to gather more tax money from the states and the feds to educate the ILLEGALS.

MW: I guess I have to be totally on the dot today, the actual police officer to do the arresting told me the story first hand. (Is that good enough for hearing?)

I have seen way to much in the school systems both good and bad.

Often the problems are more than the PARENTS. And there is a point in which the child has to be willing to cooperate within a system.

Between systems that thinks parents have no say, children have no rights, cheating in school of both students and administration, illegal students being educated, all non-caring people ranging from students, administrative, parents, and even society; even corporate America is there for greed, children and teachers bullying and being bullied; there is even sex going on and off the property of school on minor children (who is responsible for this action?), etc...

I guess I can view all sides to well is all I can say, THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE A MESS.

Just recently a young recent graduate of a local school had visited with a teacher and said that the teacher had confronted the food manager with putting less than an ounce of meat on a wrap in which should have two ounces of meat. Corruption is everywhere

Another problem is DON'T DRINK THE RUST WATER AT THE LOCAL SCHOOL.
Teachers have their lounge and don't have to drink from the fountains.

The LAST School Board Meeting I went to there was a young fifth grade young student telling about sexual activities in her classroom to the board.

Go to the PUBLIC MEETING, listen, and watch.

Why are more PARENTS homeschooling? More parents would homeschool if they had the skills, time, and patience.

I could go on and on with all areas and problems within our school system, but I think I have said enough here.