Opinion ID: 168639
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: First Four Instances of Speech

Text: 16 In its order granting summary judgment, the district court determined the first two instances of Deschenie's speech were unprotected as a matter of law and the next two instances were not substantial factors in any adverse employment action taken by the School Board. With respect to the first four instances of speech, this court need not decide whether the first two prongs of the Pickering analysis are satisfied because Deschenie has presented insufficient evidence to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to the third prong. Thus, this court may assume, without deciding, the first two prongs are satisfied. 17 The third step in a claim of First Amendment retaliation requires the employee to show the exercise of constitutionally protected speech was a substantial motivating factor in the employer's decision to adversely alter the employee's conditions of employment. Maestas v. Segura, 416 F.3d 1182, 1188 (10th Cir.2005). To meet this burden, the employee need not prove that his speech was the sole reason for [the] defendants' action, but need only show the speech played a substantial part in the adverse employment action. Copp v. Unified Sch. Dist. No. 501, 882 F.2d 1547, 1553 (10th Cir.1989). In the context of a summary judgment motion, the employee must establish genuine issues of material fact as to whether his protected speech substantially motivated the adverse employment actions. Baca, 398 F.3d at 1220. 18 The parties first dispute which actions taken by the Board constitute adverse employment actions for purposes of Deschenie's First Amendment retaliation claim. The district court determined only the position reclassification and the termination constituted sufficiently adverse actions. On appeal, Deschenie urges this court to recognize the May 15 reprimand, in addition to the position reclassification and the termination. 6 On the other hand, the School Board contends only the termination may be considered an adverse employment action. Because this court concludes there is no link between the first four instances of speech and any of these actions, it is unnecessary to decide this issue for purposes of Deschenie's claim. 19 To prevail on her appeal as to the termination, Deschenie must present sufficient evidence linking her termination to any of these four instances of speech. Maestas, 416 F.3d at 1188. In support of her position, Deschenie relies mostly on circumstantial evidence, including her ongoing criticism of the School Board and the Board's opposition and hostility toward her speech. As evidence of this hostility, she offers written correspondence by Besett to the State Superintendent, in which Besett appears to blame the public criticism of the administration on Deschenie. In addition, Deschenie attempts to cast doubt on the stated reasons for her termination. Deschenie contends she was given an unrealistic workload in the summer of 2003 in an effort to produce a paper trail sufficient to fire her. She also argues the rejection of the bilingual funding applications was not her fault, but rather a direct consequence of the inadequacies of the bilingual program she sought to improve. 20 Under the facts of this case, however, the lengthy time period between the protected speech and the termination, combined with Deschenie's intervening poor job performance, are insurmountable. An inference of retaliatory motive may be undermined by a long delay between the employee's speech and [the] challenged conduct or by evidence of intervening events. Id. at 1189. Here, both of these circumstances are present. The four instances of speech preceded the termination by fifteen months, fifteen months, thirteen months, and eleven months, respectively. The termination was therefore too temporally remote to permit an inference of retaliatory motive without additional evidence. Further, the Board has presented overwhelming evidence Deschenie's job performance suffered greatly in the months between the last of these instances of speech and the termination. During this time, Deschenie repeatedly missed deadlines, failed to perform assigned tasks, and received poor performance evaluations. Although Deschenie argues the Board's stated reasons are pretextual and Besett's actions toward Deschenie were designed to cause her to fail, she has presented insufficient evidence to support this conclusion. 7 In opposing a motion for summary judgment, [s]peculation or hunches amidst rumor and innuendo will not suffice. Id. Significantly, there is no evidence in the record of any statements made by the Board to directly suggest Deschenie was terminated because of her speech. Thus, Deschenie has failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to whether her termination was substantially motivated by these first four instances of speech. 21 With regard to the reprimand and position reclassification, Deschenie's claim as to the first four instances of speech fails for the same reasons discussed above. The reprimand and position reclassification followed the four instances of speech by nine months, nine months, seven months, and five months, respectively, and Deschenie's failure to submit the bilingual education applications by the April 25 deadline constituted a significant intervening event. Further, to the extent Deschenie's speech was mentioned at the time of these actions, it was her April 30 letter to the editor and not these previous four instances that was discussed. 8 Therefore, Deschenie has failed to present sufficient evidence to permit an inference that the Board's actions were in any way motivated by the first four instances of allegedly protected speech.