Opinion ID: 3015573
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: Linda McGreevy was employed as the school nurse at the Bermudian Springs School District Elementary School beginning in 1994. McGreevy is a licensed professional nurse, a pediatric nurse practitioner, and a certified school nurse. She holds a school nurse certificate from Millersville University, a Masters of Education from Penn State University, a certified nurse practitioner degree from the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Rutgers and a Bachelor of Science Nursing Degree from Fairleigh Dickenson University. She is also qualified to be a school principal. Between 1994 and 1999, McGreevy consistently received outstanding employment ratings, scoring 75 or higher out of a possible 80 points. Under the District’s categories of ratings, 75-80 is considered “excellent,” the highest possible category. In 1999, McGreevy began to speak out on four issues which the District Court concluded were constitutionally protected speech. She advocated on behalf of the mother of two orthopedically disabled children in order to gain them special assistance; she criticized the School District’s employment of an unlicensed individual to conduct pesticide spraying which caused many students and teachers to become ill; she communicated with the Pennsylvania Department of Health regarding her incorrect listing as supervising middle school nurse; and she filed two complaints with the state’s Office for Civil Rights, one with respect to the District’s handling of the two children and the other regarding her employment rating of 71 for the 1999-2000 school year. In advocating for the two disabled boys, McGreevy contacted the Bureau of Compliance of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and spoke with Brenda Tantow. The exact content of this conversation is in dispute. According to Tantow, McGreevy told her that the children were in danger of being physically injured, that the District kept two sets of records on the children, and that principal Stroup was gathering information against the boys’ mother to release to Children’s 3 Services in an effort to have them removed from their home. McGreevy denied making the latter two statements.2 There was a meeting involving McGreevy, Soltis, Stroup and the former assistant superintendent of the District to discuss McGreevy’s alleged statements to Tantow. Afterwards, Soltis prepared a memorandum summarizing the meeting, which was placed in McGreevy’s personnel file. Shortly after the conversation with Tantow, McGreevy informed the Pennsylvania Department of Health that unlicensed pesticide spraying had occurred at the school and that, as a result, a number of students and teachers had become ill. McGreevy’s information led to an investigation and ultimately the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture levied a fine on the District. Soon after the spraying incident, McGreevy learned that she was incorrectly listed as the middle school nurse and she so informed the Department of Health.3 As a result, the Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General, Office of Special Investigations, began an investigation of the School District and eventually ordered withholding of future reimbursements from the Pennsylvania Department of Health for school nurse services. At the end of the 1999-2000 school year McGreevy received a rating of 71, her lowest rating to date. According to McGreevy, shortly after the Auditor 2 The District Court noted in its opinion that the mother of the boys also confirmed that McGreevy did not give her the misinformation alleged. App. at 5-6. 3 The middle school had a Licensed Nurse Practitioner (LNP) but under the Practical Nurse Law a LNP must act under the supervision of a professional nurse. The Public School Code provision, 24 Pa. Const. Stat. §§ 1402(a.1), 1401(8), requires a school district to provide each student with school nurse service by a licensed, registered nurse properly certificated by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In this case, it was incorrect to list McGreevy, who was the certified nurse for the elementary school, as the certified nurse for the middle school because McGreevy did not supervise the LNP. 4 General began his investigation of the School District in December of 2000, the school officials significantly increased their harassment of her. McGreevy states that she was constantly criticized and berated by principal Stroup, assistant principal Tsosie and superintendent Soltis. McGreevy claims that because of this harassment, she suffered such constant and severe migraine headaches that she was compelled to take a twoweek leave and ultimately compelled to resign, which she attempted by letter dated March 20, 2001. According to the District, McGreevy’s March resignation was ineffective and hence not accepted. As a result, the District’s counsel sent McGreevy a letter dated May 7, 2001 stating that if she did not return to work by May 14, 2001 she would be deemed to have abandoned her employment, her employment would be terminated and she would be replaced. McGreevy did not return to work and was notified by letter, dated July 17, from the attorney for the School Board that she was deemed to have abandoned her position and the District was determining whether to dismiss her. That letter also warned her about the possible loss of her RN license. On June 1, 2001, McGreevy received a copy of her official rating of 40 for the 2000-2001 school year. On November 2, 2001, the District informed the Public School Employees Retirement Systems that McGreevy had been terminated as of November 2, 2001. On November 30th, the School Board sent her a written list of reasons for her dismissal and informed her that there would be a hearing to determine if she should be dismissed. It is McGreevy’s position that her employment had been terminated the previous spring. On August 2, 2001, McGreevy filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging violations of her First Amendment rights and unlawful taking of her intellectual property without due process of law. That complaint named as defendants the District and school officials Soltis, Stroup and Tsosie in their official and individual capacities. McGreevy filed a motion to amend her complaint on September 18, 2002, to add, inter alia, state law claims of libel, slander, tortious interference with 5 contract, common law conspiracy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The District Court denied McGreevy’s motion as to her intentional infliction of emotional distress and § 1983 takings claims, but permitted her to file an amended complaint asserting her § 1983 First Amendment claim, and her state law claims of defamation, tortious interference with contract and common law conspiracy. Following several pre-trial motions, the District Court issued a summary judgment order on March 26, 2003 dismissing McGreevy’s § 1983 claim against the District, stating that there was no “evidence of any policy, practice or custom” of its Board of Directors that violated McGreevy’s First Amendment rights. The same order dismissed McGreevy’s complaint against all three officials in their individual capacities on the ground that they were entitled to qualified immunity. Finally, the Court dismissed all remaining claims asserted in the amended complaint. The sole remaining issue left for trial was “whether Defendant Soltis, Stroup and Tsosie, acting in their official capacities, retaliated against Plaintiff by giving her a 40 out of 80 on her June of 2001 employment evaluation.” App. at 1. Trial commenced on September 2, 2003. At the close of McGreevy’s case, the District Court granted defendants’ motion for judgment as a matter of law, stating that “[p]laintiff presented no evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that either the District or the school officials in their official capacities had a practice or custom of using these evaluations for [a retaliatory purpose].” App. at 41. This appeal followed.