Opinion ID: 2995199
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Retaliation based on the ADEA

Text: The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Board concerning Horwitz’s retaliation claim under the ADEA. Keeping in mind the standard we have outlined regarding our review of a district court’s summary judgment decision, we address whether Horwitz has presented a retaliation case that merits a jury trial. The ADEA provides that it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against any of his employees . . . because such individual . . . has opposed any practice made unlawful by this section, or because such individual . . . has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or litigation under this chapter. 29 U.S.C. sec. 623(d). Horwitz has pursued her retaliation case based on the ADEA under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework, as is permitted. See Sauzek v. Exxon Coal USA, Inc., 202 F.3d 913, 918 (7th Cir. 2000). In order to establish a prima facie case of retaliatory discharge in violation of the ADEA, Horwitz must show: (1) she engaged in statutorily protected activity; (2) she suffered an adverse employment action; and (3) there is a causal connection between the protected activity and the adverse action. See id.; Vanasco v. National- Louis Univ., 137 F.3d 962, 968 (7th Cir. 1998). Before proceeding to the last two steps of the McDonnell Douglas analysis, we explore whether Horwitz has made out a prima facie case of retaliation. Although Horwitz’s underlying discrimination claim based on the ADEA has failed, she still may pursue a claim that she was retaliated against for complaining about age discrimination. See Place v. Abbott Labs., 215 F.3d 803, 806 (7th Cir. 2000). There is no question as to whether Horwitz engaged in an activity protected under the ADEA. She filed her first charge of age discrimination with the EEOC on June 16, 1997 and then a second charge with the EEOC on June 23, 1998 alleging that she had experienced retaliation for filing her initial EEOC charge. In response to both of these charges, the EEOC sent Horwitz a notice of right to sue, dated September 2, 1998. Horwitz pursued her right to sue by filing a complaint against the Board and various other administrators in the Northern District of Illinois on October 16, 1998. Clearly, Horwitz engaged in protected activity under the ADEA when she filed the two EEOC complaints and the instant lawsuit. See McClendon v. Indiana Sugars, Inc., 108 F.3d 789, 796 (7th Cir. 1997). Likewise, it is apparent Horwitz suffered an adverse employment action when she was terminated on April 23, 1999 by the Board. See id.; Gleason v. Mesirow Fin., Inc., 118 F.3d 1134, 1146 (7th Cir. 1997). The district court, however, said that the Plaintiff fails to present evidence such that a reasonable jury could find that a causal connection exists between her protected activity and her dismissal. To establish the last element in a retaliation case,--that is, the causal connection requirement-- Horwitz needed to prove that the Board’s decision to terminate her and the EEOC charges and current lawsuit were not wholly unrelated. Vanasco, 137 F.3d at 969. As an initial matter, it is difficult to infer causation based solely upon the timing of her termination and the filing of this lawsuit. That is to say, we have said that for there to exist a telling temporal sequence, the employer’s adverse action should follow fairly soon after the employee’s protected expression. Davidson v. Midelfort Clinic, Ltd., 133 F.3d 499, 511 (7th Cir. 1998). More than six months elapsed between the time Horwitz filed this lawsuit (October 16, 1998) and the Board terminating her (April 23, 1999). Such a gap in time between her lawsuit and her termination cannot establish a causal connection. See Paluck v. Gooding Rubber Co., 221 F.3d 1003, 1010 (7th Cir. 2000) (collecting cases); Davidson, 133 F.3d at 511 (collecting cases). Nonetheless, Horwitz is not precluded from coming forward with other evidence supporting the casual connection element. Id. Horwitz attempts to argue that there is a causal connection between her protected activity and termination by reciting many of the facts that we have already discussed in the background and ADEA sections of this case. For instance, Horwitz argues that she met with Dr. Sloan in mid-November of 1996 to address her concerns about age discrimination at Avoca West and he responded by remarking that he would make a staff member’s life miserable if he or she escalates an issue. She claims that shortly thereafter she was moved from teaching fourth grade to teaching fifth grade over her objection. In June of 1997, she filed her first EEOC charge and three months later she was criticized for being allegedly uncooperative and told to list cooperation as a goal for the next school year. Her essay was posted on the internet in the fall of 1997, and after this, she requested that the Board investigate her claims of age discrimination. The Board refused to investigate her concerns and instead issued its first notice of remedial warn ing. Horwitz advances that she took a medical leave in April of 1998 and that she was improperly asked to see the Board physician, an internist, before she could return to work and later the Board said she had to see a psychiatrist. In June of 1998, she filed her second EEOC charge and then the Board issued another notice of remedial warning concerning her behavior in July of 1998. The Board when it terminated Horwitz relied, she alleges, specifically on 105 ILCS 5/10- 22.4, which states that any teacher who does not complete a one-year remediation plan with a satisfactory or better rating can be dismissed. Horwitz claims that the Board must have concluded that her deficiencies were correctable, and thus since a one-year remediation plan was mandatory, she urges that we consider the causation issue in light of this time frame. Finally, Horwitz asserts that she should not be prejudiced by the fact that the Board was told to methodically prepare a file against her, which does take time. Horwitz attempts to show that the timing between the various protected activities (the two EEOC charges and the filing of this lawsuit) that she engaged in and events that occurred immediately thereafter, which she apparently perceives as adverse employment actions, reveals the existence of a causal connection. Horwitz is unable to label certain events as adverse employment actions and tie them to her protected activities in light of the fact that we have found that her termination is the only adverse employment action that she has suffered. Therefore, all of the evidence that Horwitz has provided with relation to the causal connection issue is merely speculative. Thus, Horwitz cannot establish the causal connection element of her prima facie case. In any event, even if Horwitz were able to present evidence sufficient to establish a prima facie case of retaliatory discharge, she has not successfully shown that the Board’s proffered reasons for terminating her were pretextual. The district court found that the Board had produced evidence of non-discriminatory reasons for Horwitz’s termination and that the Board had pointed to several occasions of insubor dination, complaints from parents, occasions of unprofessional behavior on the part [of the] Plaintiff towards her fellow faculty members, administrators and outside support staff. Defendants further produce evidence that [the] Plaintiff failed to adequately prepare lesson plans for use during her extended absences and that Plaintiff was not available for consultation during those absences. The Notice of Charges and Bill of Particulars detail Horwitz’s shortcomings as a teacher--both cite thirty-one reasons for her termination. Horwitz asserts that the reasons given for her termination in the Notice of Charges and Bill of Particulars differ from the reasons Dr. Sloan gave for her termination at Horwitz’s unemployment compensation hearing. Horwitz notes that the hearing officer asked Dr. Sloan, In the final analysis, was she discharged because of this extended absence or because during this absence . . . she failed to comply with policy regarding lesson plans? Or was it a combination thereof?, to which Dr. Sloan replied, A combination thereof. Furthermore, according to Horwitz, Dr. Sloan had-hand- delivered to her a letter saying the primary reason for her dismissal was her absence without sufficient medical documentation beginning on March 16, 1999 and her failure to supply lesson plans during this period. Horwitz also alleges in her brief that the Defendants’ written evaluations of Plaintiff’s performance through March, 1997 showered her with praise and described her as an ’excellent’ employee. Finally, Horwitz claims that during a hearing before the Illinois State Board of Education concerning her dismissal, Dr. Sloan said, we needed to build a case against Horwitz, rather than stating that the school desired to document what was occurring at the time between Horwitz and the school. All of this, Horwitz asserts, supports a finding of pretext. Upon reviewing the record, we cannot conclude that the school district’s legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for terminating Horwitz are pretextual. For example, Dr. Sloan initially requested and was allowed to read a prepared statement at the unemployment compensation hearing, in which he summarized how Horwitz over a three-year- period exhibited a pattern of gross insubordination and unprofessional conduct. He then noted that she had refused to follow school district procedures and policies after being repeatedly directed to do so in three written notices to remedy issued by the Board. The culminating event, Dr. Sloan said, that led to her discharge was . . . generated by the fact that on March 16th, 1999, Mrs. Horwitz began an extended absence that would last through April 23rd, 1999, when she was terminated. At this point, the hearing officer interrupted Dr. Sloan and the dialogue recited above, wherein the hearing officer posed a question about Horwitz’s absence and lesson plans, took place. Dr. Sloan, however, made it clear initially that there was no sole reason for the termination of Horwitz and he never retreated from such a position. Dr. Sloan, in a letter dated April 21, 1999 that he sent to Horwitz, said: Your repeated refusal to respond to the District’s requests for verification of the basis for your extended absence from your full-time teaching duties and your unprofessional conduct in failing to communicate with the District’s Principal regarding lesson plans for substitutes has adversely affected the District’s students and has disrupted necessary planning for students’ educational programs. Based upon this continued insubordinate conduct and your established pattern of unprofessional and insubordinate conduct as evidenced by issuance of Three (3) Board Notices of Remedial Warning, I will submit an administrative recommendation to the Board of Education for your termination as a tenured teacher. There is no doubt that Dr. Sloan quite clearly communicated to Horwitz that her previous three notices of remedial warning along with her recent absence and failure to provide lesson plans for that period caused him to recommend her termination to the Board. As for the comment that Dr. Sloan made during the hearing before the Illinois State Board of Education regarding establishing a case against Horwitz, it is necessary that we place Dr. Sloan’s comment within the proper context. The hearing officer had inquired why it took Dr. Sloan so long to recommend to the Board that Horwitz be terminated. Dr. Sloan responded that the school tried to help Horwitz and ensure that she would succeed, but there came a point where it became apparent she was not going to be successful, therefore Dr. Sloan remarked, [A]t that juncture, as the law requires, we needed to build a case and document the harm that she was doing to the school district, and I believe that we did that, and unfortunately it was a process, and the law calls for a process that when you’re firing a person for incompetence and unprofessional behavior, you have to have a wealth of proof and substantiated documentation to prove that that’s what is occurring. Dr. Sloan was simply attempting to account for why it took the school as long as it did to terminate Horwitz. We cannot read into Dr. Sloan’s comment any motive on the school’s part to fabricate, or put another way, build a false case against Horwitz. He merely was explaining the practical realities involved in removing an employee from the workplace. While it may be true that Dr. Biancalana rated Horwitz as an excellent teacher for the 1993 to 1994, 1994 to 1995, and 1996 to 1997 school years, she also stated in her 1996 to 1997 report that she would like to see more emphasis on these areas at the fourth grade level. The areas Dr. Biancalana was referring to included maintaining positive professional interactions with others and establishing relationships with colleagues which reflect mutual respect. Dr. Biancalana had expressed some unease with Horwitz’s professional relationships in her 1997 school year evaluation of Horwitz. Prior to this time, as discussed above, Horwitz had acted in a grossly insubordinate man ner when in June of 1995 she abruptly left a meeting with Dr. Biancalana. As we have already recounted, the Board issued its first notice of remedial warning on April 20, 1998, and two more notices followed thereafter. Horwitz was experiencing difficulties in her interactions with faculty and other individuals at the school. Her positive teacher evaluations in no way detract from such problems. It is quite apparent that Horwitz has not proven that the reasons the Board has given for terminating her are in any way pretextual. Horwitz’s subjective belief that the Board’s actions were retaliatory and that the Board’s claimed reasons for terminating her are pretextual in nature does not create a genuine issue of material fact. See Johnson v. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 70 F.3d 469, 479-80 (7th Cir. 1995). Thus, the district court properly entered summary judgment in favor of the Board on Horwitz’s retaliatory discharge claim based on the ADEA.