Opinion ID: 1248763
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Is the challenged conduct of the nature the legislature intended to shield from liability?

Text: In moving away from the more strict planning/operational dichotomy in Goodman, we did not expand the scope of the governmental function immunity to include all decisions based on policy. Rather, we must consider whether the challenged action was grounded in social, economic, and political policy. City of Cedar Falls, 617 N.W.2d at 19 (quoting Berkovitz, 486 U.S. at 536-37, 108 S.Ct. at 1959, 100 L.Ed.2d at 541); see, e.g., Bustamente v. Jefferson Parish Inspection & Code Enforcement, 683 So.2d 822 (La.Ct. App.1996) (dismissing building code violations is immune); Martin County v. Indiantown Enters., Inc., 658 So.2d 1144 (Fla. Dis.Ct.App.1995) (county officials' oral representations regarding an informal extension of a demolition order is immune). The shield applies if the School's challenged conduct involved considerations of public policy. Id. The more the School's judgment involved policy-making the more it is to be recognized as immune from judicial process. See Kansas State Bank & Trust Co., 819 P.2d at 600. If the challenged conduct involved a high degree of discretion and judgment ... in weighing alternatives and making choices with respect to public policy and planning, the School should be immune from liability. Hacking v. Town of Belmont, 143 N.H. 546, 736 A.2d 1229, 1232 (1999). Based upon the facts before us, we conclude the School's judgment concerning this teacher did not involve the permissible exercise of policy judgment. The School cites a number of cases purporting to support its contention that a school district's decision to hire, retain, and supervise a teacher is immune from judicial process. However, none of these cited cases articulates any policy reasons behind the schools' actions that our legislature intended to insulate from liability. In Gordon v. Ottumwa Community School District, the federal district court for the southern district of Iowa predicted that this court would conclude employment decisions relating to hiring, supervision, and retention of employees are protected by the discretionary function immunity. Gordon v. Ottumwa Cmty. Sch. Dist., 115 F.Supp.2d 1077 (S.D.Iowa 2000). However, noticeably absent from this case is any discussion of specific policy considerations involved in such decisions. Rather, the court simply found hiring, retention, training and supervision of public employees involves discretionary, policy-related decisions for which a public entity is immune from liability. Gordon, 115 F.Supp.2d at 1087. Both the court in Gordon and the School have cited a number of other cases that merely assert policy considerations were involved without articulating the substance of such policies. See, e.g., Davis v. DeKalb County Sch. Dist., 996 F.Supp. 1478, 1484 (N.D.Ga.1998); Does 1, 2, 3 & 4 v. Covington County Sch. Bd., 969 F.Supp. 1264, 1285-87 (M.D.Ala. 1997); Willoughby v. Lehrbass, 150 Mich. App. 319, 388 N.W.2d 688, 700 (1986); Doe v. Park Ctr. High Sch., 592 N.W.2d 131, 135-36 (Minn.Ct.App.1999) (applying operational/planning dichotomy, the court discussed policies relating to investigation of allegations of misconduct). The School has not shown any social, political, or economic factors existed at the heart of its decisions concerning this teacher. The choice to hire, retain, and supervise a particular teacher does not involve policy decisions entitled to protection from judicial review. See, e.g., Willis v. Dade County Sch. Bd., 411 So.2d 245 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1982) (applying the planning/operational dichotomy rejected by us in Goodman, court concluded filling a position of employment in the school district is not a discretionary function for which a school district is immune from suit in tort for negligent retention and hiring); Doe v. Estes, 926 F.Supp. 979, 989 (D.Nev.1996) (applying the planning/operational dichotomy, court found discretionary immunity doctrine did not bar claims against school for negligent retention and supervision of teacher). The administrative act of hiring, retaining, and supervising an individual teacher does not involve the careful balancing of competing interests, risks, and advantages. It is merely a choice made by a school district to offer or not offer a position of employment within the district to a particular individual. It is possible, with minimal effort, to articulate some notion of policy considerations involved in any decision. Although a school administration may very well make policy decisions concerning teachers and their conduct, a decision concerning an individual teacher with these policies as a backdrop does not catapult those decisions into the zone of immunity of the discretionary function. Decisions about individual teachers that may have policy implications do not elevate such decisions to the level of economic, political, or social policy-making. Only decisions grounded in economic, political, or social policy considerations are exempt from liability. City of Cedar Falls, 617 N.W.2d at 19. The choices inherent in hiring, retaining, and supervising a particular teacher are not policy choices our legislature intended to immunize. They do not affect the big picture but rather have impact on a very small scale. These decisions must be made by every school district when a teaching position is vacant and must be filled. Such decisions are no different than a government employee's decision to turn left or right at a stop sign. Actions of this nature are not immune from liability because they are not real policy decisions implicating governmental functions. Under the present facts, the School received an application, reviewed it, presumably interviewed Lindsey and decided whether or not to hire him. Once on staff, the School's decision to renew his contract did not involve policy considerations. Finally, the School's choice to either supervise Lindsey or not supervise him was not based on social, economic, or political policy. All of these decisions were merely ad hoc decision[s] based on the situation confronting [the School]. See Alake v. City of Boston, 40 Mass.App.Ct. 610, 666 N.E.2d 1022, 1025 (1996) (chaperones supervising school children not immune from suit). The School's actions were nothing more than the application of professional judgment to a given set of facts. Its conduct was not entwined in a layer of policy-making that exceeded the mere application of rules to facts. Oslin v. State, 543 N.W.2d 408, 416 (Minn.Ct.App.1996). These ultimate decisions do not affect social, political, or economic policy any more than the decision itself is based on these considerations. See Kansas State Bank & Trust Co., 819 P.2d at 600 (discretionary function must involve some sort of policy formulation when following the nature and quality test articulated in Downs, 522 F.2d at 990). The burden is on the School to prove its actions are entitled to the shield of discretionary function immunity. 18 Municipal Corporations § 53.04.20, 162 (3d ed.1993). The School did not offer and the district court did not articulate any policies at the heart of the School's decision to hire, retain, or supervise Lindsey. It has not even attempted to satisfy this burden with the exception of mere assertions that policy considerations were involved. The required demonstration is completely absent in this case. At the time the School made decisions regarding Lindsey's hiring, retention, and supervision, considerations were not immediately involved that directly related to the exercise of governmental policy judgments. See Ex Parte Cranman, 792 So.2d at 404. Rather, the School's actions were nothing more than a product of ordinary, day-to-day operations. The decisions the School made in hiring, retaining, and supervising Lindsey did not implicate policy formulation at any level. Given these facts, the School has not satisfied the second prong of the discretionary function immunity test. As such, the School does not enjoy immunity from the Does' suit for negligent hiring, retention, and supervision. As a matter of public policy, surely, our legislature, in enacting Iowa Code section 670.4(3), did not intend to allow a school district to hire, retain, or leave unsupervised a teacher with known propensities for child abuse with total impunity. The School had an affirmative duty to take all reasonable steps to protect its students. See Rodriguez v. Inglewood Unified Sch. Dist., 186 Cal.App.3d 707, 715, 230 Cal.Rptr. 823 (1986). In protecting its children, a school must exercise the same care toward them as a parent of ordinary prudence would observe in comparable circumstances. City of Cedar Falls, 617 N.W.2d at 18. Teaching and learning cannot take place without the physical and mental wellbeing of the students. The school premises, in short, must be safe and welcoming. The public school setting is one in which governmental officials are directly in charge of children and their environs .... Further, the responsibility of school officials for each of their charges, the children, is heightened as compared to the responsibility of the police for the public in general. Virginia G. v. ABC Unified Schl Dist., 15 Cal.App.4th 1848, 1854, 19 Cal.Rptr.2d 671 (1993). Based upon this special relationship between a school and its students, claims against a school district based on its own negligence may be pursued. Id. at 1855, 19 Cal.Rptr.2d 671 (claims against a school district for negligent hiring and supervision are permitted). The negligence claim before us is no different from the judgments of private individuals which are reviewed every day through the mechanism of an action in tort. Personal injury from ... the negligence of those into whose care [children] are entrusted is not a risk that school children should, as [a] matter of public policy, be required to run in return for the benefit of a public education. Alake, 666 N.E.2d at 1025 (citation omitted). Applying traditional tort principles, the courts are perfectly capable of adjudicating the reasonableness of hiring, retaining, and supervising a particular teacher. Because the discretionary function immunity does not apply, summary judgment should not have been granted.