Source: http://openjurist.org/138/f3d/754/davis-v-francis-howell-school-district
Timestamp: 2014-04-18 00:44:29
Document Index: 505221074

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 12131', '§ 504', '§ 794', '§ 1983', '§ 504', '§ 1983']

138 F3d 754 Davis v. Francis Howell School District | OpenJurist
138 F. 3d 754 - Davis v. Francis Howell School District	Home138 f3d 754 davis v. francis howell school district
138 F3d 754 Davis v. Francis Howell School District 138 F.3d 754
124 Ed. Law Rep. 840, 7 A.D. Cases 1614,12 NDLR P 83
Mary DAVIS, Individually and as next friend for a minorShane Davis; Bobby D. Davis, Individually and asnext friend for a minor Shane Davis,Plaintiffs--Appellants,v.FRANCIS HOWELL SCHOOL DISTRICT; Roger Russell; VickyStewart; Joan Powlishta, Defendants--Appellees.
No. 97-2379.
Submitted Jan. 12, 1998.Decided March 12, 1998.
Rebecca S. Stith, St.Louis, MO, argued (Stephen E. Rothenberg, on the brief), for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Robert J. Tomaso, St. Louis, MO, argued (Peter G. Yelkovac, on the brief), for Defendants-Appellees.
Before WOLLMAN, BRIGHT and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.
Mary and Bobby Davis sued the Francis Howell School District, claiming that its refusal to administer to their son Shane his prescribed dose of Ritalin SR to treat an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131 et seq., § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court1 granted summary judgment to the school district, and the Davises appeal. We affirm.
Shane's treating physician has prescribed a daily dosage of 360 milligrams of Ritalin SR to control his symptoms of ADHD, up to 120 milligrams of which must be administered during the school day in one or two doses. The nurse at Shane's elementary school, Joan Powlishta, had been administering his school time dose for over a year when she expressed concern to Mrs. Davis that his prescription might be dangerous or harmful because it far exceeded the recommended maximum of 60 milligrams in the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR).2 After hearing a news story in March 1996 about a nurse in a nearby school district who had refused to administer a high dosage of Ritalin prescribed by the same doctor, Powlishta consulted the district's Nurse Coordinator and its regular consulting pediatrician about the safety of Shane's prescription; both agreed with Powlishta that the prescription was excessive.
Although the Davises provided a second doctor's opinion that the prescribed amount of Ritalin was not having any harmful effects on Shane, Powlishta notified them on April 12, 1996 that she would no longer administer his school time dose because his prescription exceeded the maximum recommended in the PDR, and the Assistant Superintendent supported her position when the Davises appealed to him. According to the district's policy on medication procedures, the school nurse has the right and obligation to question and verify potentially inappropriate prescriptions and "to refuse to give any medication that he/she feels does not meet the criteria established in Board Policy for giving medications." The school district offered to allow one of the Davises or their designee to come to the school to administer the medicine, and Mary Davis, who is a trained nurse, rearranged her work schedule in order to do so or else arranged for Shane's grandmother to give him his school time dose.
The Davises sued the school district alleging that its refusal to administer the drug as prescribed violated Title II of the ADA and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and deprived them and their son of rights protected by § 1983. The district court initially granted them a temporary restraining order, but its denial of their request for a preliminary injunction was affi