Opinion ID: 795169
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Related Case Law

Text: 57 Our holding that Sanford has failed to make out a state-created danger claim is consistent with the case law of other circuits that have addressed similar cases involving student suicides. In fact, we are aware of only one such instance in which a state-created danger case against school officials survived summary judgment. 58 Sanford argues that this case is analogous to Armijo v. Wagon Mound Public Schools, 159 F.3d 1253 (10th Cir.1998), in which the Tenth Circuit found sufficient evidence for the plaintiff to survive summary judgment in a state-created danger claim against certain school officials. However, Armijo presented a far more compelling case. There, a sixteen-year-old special education student committed suicide after he was suspended from school. Id. at 1256-57. He was driven home in the middle of the day, while angry. Id. at 1257. Armijo's parents were not notified and the boy was left to remain alone at home, in contravention of school policy. Id. Additionally, school officials were aware that Armijo had access to firearms at home, id. at 1264, and that he had previously threatened suicide. For example, Armijo had said to a school aid: I'm just going to shoot myself and maybe I'd be better off dead. Id. at 1256. Armijo is a far cry from this case because there was much more evidence there that school officials actually created the danger to Armijo. 59 This case is more properly analogized to Wyke v. Polk County School Board, 129 F.3d 560 (11th Cir.1997). Like this case, Wyke focuses on a failure to intervene. A thirteen-year-old boy named Shawn committed suicide at home after twice attempting suicide at school. Id. at 563. School officials were somewhat aware of these incidents but failed to hold Shawn in custody, contact his mother, or provide him with counseling services. Id. Another boy who was aware of Shawn's first suicide attempt alerted his own mother, who in turn notified the school's dean of students. Id. at 564. The dean made the assurance that he would take care of it but only read Shawn some verses from the Bible. Id. The mother who reported the incident to the dean testified that she would have contacted Shawn's mother directly had she known that the dean would not intervene in a more meaningful way. Id. at 570. 60 The Eleventh Circuit concluded that Shawn's mother's claim failed as a matter of law because nothing in the Due Process Clause required that school officers protect Shawn's life. Id. at 569. The school did not make a decision to prevent anyone from helping Shawn and it could not be held liable. Id. While we do not express agreement or disagreement with the Eleventh Circuit's holding, we note that, like Armijo, Wyke presented much more urgent circumstances than those we review here. Still, Wyke's claim failed. 61 The First and Seventh Circuits have also denied claims involving similar or more pressing risks than those we confront here. In Hasenfus v. LaJeunesse, 175 F.3d 68 (1st Cir.1999), the First Circuit rejected parents' Due Process claim after their daughter attempted suicide on school grounds. The child, a known rape victim, attempted suicide after being reprimanded in front of her schoolmates by a teacher. Id. at 73. Seven other students in the girl's middle school had attempted suicide in the three months prior. Id. at 70. In affirming the district court, the First Circuit stated: 62 The federal courts have no general authority to decide when school administrators should introduce suicide prevention programs, or whether an unruly or upset school child should be sent out of class, or what should be said to other parents about a tragic incident at school. Substantive due process is not a license for judges to supersede the decisions of local officials and elected legislators on such matters. 63 Id. at 74. 64 Finally, in Martin v. Shawano-Gresham School District, 295 F.3d 701, 704 (7th Cir.2002), a seventh grade student committed suicide after she was suspended for possessing a cigarette on school property. The student, Timijane, went home crying pretty hard. Id. It was later discovered that she had shown some signs of suicide risk — for example, she had a book in her locker called After a Suicide, and there had been other suicide attempts at the school. Id. at 704, 710. The Seventh Circuit refused Timijane's parents' claim, holding that [b]ecause the defendants did not create or increase a risk that Timijane would commit suicide ... the ... substantive due process claim must fail. Id. at 712. 65 Given this case law, we are confident that we have reached the correct decision in this case.