Case Name: B.L. and R.W.H., Appellants, v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1989-03-28
Citations: 545 So. 2d 289
Docket Number: Nos. 88-1825/88-1920
Parties: B.L. and R.W.H., Appellants, v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, Appellee.
Judges: WENTWORTH, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 545
Pages: 289–293

Head Matter:
B.L. and R.W.H., Appellants, v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, Appellee.
Nos. 88-1825/88-1920.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
March 28, 1989.
Rehearing Denied July 20, 1989.
Brian T. Hayes, of Brian T. Hayes, P.A., Monticello, for appellant B.L.
Ronald G. Meyer, of Meyer, Brooks and Cooper, P.A., Tallahassee, for appellant R.W.H.
B. Elaine New, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Dept, of HRS, Tallahassee, and Hala Mary Ay-oub, of Fowler, White, Gillen, Boggs, Villa-real & Banker, P.A., Tampa, for appellee.
Mary Charlotte McCall, Law Offices of Paula Walborsky and Mary Charlotte McCall, Tallahassee, and Sandra C. de Pury and Elahna R. Strom, of Latham & Watkins, New York City, for amicus curiae The Nat. Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse.

Opinion:
WIGGINTON, Judge.
These consolidated appeals are from final orders of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services adopting the hearing officers' recommended orders and denying appellants' requests for expunction of reports of confirmed child abuse. Because we hold that there was competent and substantial evidence in the records to support the hearing officers' conclusions that the bruises inflicted constituted "child abuse" as contemplated by section 415.-503(3), we affirm.
The facts in each case are nearly identical and involve the infliction of corporal punishment against two students by R.W.H., a dean of students, and B.L., a school principal. The punishment was administered in each instance according to statute and the administrative rules for disruptive behavior, and with parental consent. However, in each case, extensive bruising resulted that lasted approximately a week.
Determinations were made by the Department that appellants were confirmed child abusers, which fact was reported to appellants by letter. Each appellant then requested expunction of the record. Each request was denied.
Thereafter, administrative hearings were held wherein the hearing officers recommended that the requests for expunction be denied on the express basis that appellants' using a length of board to inflict bruises on a child that lasted longer than a week amounted to causing "temporary disfigurement" within the meaning of chapter 415, Florida Statutes (1987), even though a conscientious and dedicated educator was wielding the paddle. The Department adopted and incorporated by reference the findings of fact and conclusions of law of the hearing officers and in the case of B.L., ruled that the immunity provided by section 232.275, Florida Statutes, relates only to civil or criminal liability and does not relate to administrative classification, and furthermore, clearly states that immunity does not avail where "excessive force" has been used. The Department also specifically ruled that "[p]unishment which inflicts bruises on a child that lasts six to seven days is excessive force."
The statute relevant to a determination of child abuse in this case is section 415.-503. Paragraph (3) defines child abuse as "harm or threatened harm to a child's physical or mental health or welfare by the acts or omissions of the parent or other person responsible for the child's welfare." "Other person responsible for a child's welfare" is defined in paragraph (12) as including an employee of a public or private school. Section 415.503(8)(a)l, defines "harm" to a child's health or welfare as occurring when the other person responsible for the child's welfare "inflicts, or allows to be inflicted, upon the child physical or mental injury. Such injury includes, but is not limited to . [1.] injury sustained as the result of excessive corporal punishment_" In turn, section 415.-503(13) provides that "physical injury" can mean temporary disfigurement.
In accordance with the statutory framework, the hearing officer in R.W.H. observed that "harm is proven by a showing of 'temporary disfigurement or impairment,' . unless 'nonexcessive' corporal punishment causes the disfigurement or impairment." The hearing officer then determined that the case "presents the question whether striking a child's buttocks with a wooden paddle, so as to inflict bruises that last a week, constitutes excessive corporal punishment, where the child is not abnormally susceptible to bruises." The hearing officer considered R.W.H.'s concern that excessive force should not be inferred from the nature of a child's injuries and his argument that "[t]o conclude that the mere existence of a bruise or red mark lasting more than one hour can be proof of 'excessive force' is an arbitrary and capricious presumption," where different people bruise based upon different degrees of force or physical makeup. Nonetheless, the hearing officer noted that not only did the marks last longer than an hour, the child's bruises lasted more than a week. The hearing officer also pointed out that the uncontroverted evidence was that the child did not bruise easily and that R.W.H.'s use of a length of board to inflict bruises on the child that lasted longer than a week amounted to causing "temporary disfigurement" even though R.W.H. was a recognized conscientious and dedicated educator.
The hearing officer in B.L. couched the issue in the same manner and found that the conclusions of the hearing officer in R. W.H. were equally applicable to B.L. In each instance, the hearing officers dismissed appellants' arguments that section 232.275 applied (providing for limited immunity from civil or criminal liability for any action carried out in conformity with the state board and district school board rules regarding discipline), on the basis that the statute has no application "in the case of excessive force."
Appellants' primary argument on appeal is their contention that the Department's use of "temporary disfigurement" as the "litmus test" for establishing child abuse has the effect of establishing an invalid conclusive presumption. In other words, it is appellants' contention that the Department has presumed a bruise equals child abuse in light of certain testimony by HRS personnel that the Department has a policy to determine excessive force based on whether there is a mark visible for either more than sixty minutes or more than twenty-four hours. Although appellants' argument might be meritorious under different circumstances where the Department's so-called "60-minute" nonrule policy was challenged or where the bruises inflicted in the instant cases lasted only sixty minutes or twenty-four hours, such argument has no application in the instant case where the hearing officers' conclusions are obviously based solely on the evidence presented.
In this case, the hearing officers and the Department were justified in concluding that the evidence of bruising lasting a week or more constituted evidence of excessive corporal punishment where it was established by evidence that the children were not abnormally susceptible to bruising, especially in the face of a statute that condemns excessive corporal punishment but fails to define "excessive." Although one might argue that the Department's remark in its final order entered against B.L. to the effect that "[pjunishment which inflicts bruises on a child that last six to seven days is excessive force," would appear to establish a conclusive presumption based on a 6- or 7-day "bruising rule," it is our opinion that that statement must be read in light of the hearing officer's findings of fact and conclusions of law in his recommended order which were based on the evidence and which were adopted and incorporated by reference by the Depart ment in its final order. However, to whatever extent the Department may have intended its statement to establish a conclusive presumption that bruising lasting six to seven days constitutes excessive force, we reject that position as amounting to a denial of due process. Public Health Trust of Dade County v. Valcin, 507 So.2d 596 (Fla.1987).
Although we are acutely aware of the stigma that may attach to appellants' careers as educators in light of these confirmed reports of child abuse, as well as the precarious position in which we place other educators in this State when they determine to discipline unruly or obstreperous students by means of corporal punishment that is legislatively sanctioned and in accordance with school board policy, we must nonetheless affirm the orders of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in the instant cases since they are based on competent and substantial evidence establishing child abuse as that term is specifically defined in section 415.503.
AFFIRMED.
WENTWORTH, J., concurs.
THOMPSON, J., dissents with written opinion.
. Thus, based on the foregoing analysis, we need not reach appellants' argument regarding the applicability of the immunity provided in section 232.275 to an administrative hearing since the evidence in any event established the inapplicability of that section on the basis that these cases indicated the use of excessive force.
. We do take note of appellee's representation, however, that employees of public schools are not among those who are statutorily disqualified from their employment by reason of a confirmed report of abuse on the abuse registry.