Opinion ID: 77594
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether the District Court Erred in Dismissing Williams's Title IX Claims

Text: 26 Williams argues that the district court erred in dismissing her Title IX claims against UGA, the Board of Regents, and UGAA. The district court concluded that Williams's claims failed because she was unable to meet the deliberate indifference requirement of the Title IX cause of action. 27 This case presents a factually distinct scenario from our and the Supreme Court's precedents. In each of those cases, the defendant did not learn about the alleged harasser's proclivities until the alleged harasser became a teacher or a student at the defendant's school. Davis v. Monroe County Bd. of Educ., 526 U.S. 629, 119 S.Ct. 1661, 143 L.Ed.2d 839 (1999) (student); Gebser v. Lago Vista Indep. Sch. Dist., 524 U.S. 274, 118 S.Ct. 1989, 141 L.Ed.2d 277 (1998) (teacher); Hawkins v. Sarasota County Sch. Bd., 322 F.3d 1279 (11th Cir.2003) (student). Here, however, Williams has alleged that Adams, Dooley, and Harrick knew about Cole's past sexual misconduct when they recruited him and gained his admission to UGA. Furthermore, UGA and UGAA knew about student-athletes' suggestions that the athletic coaches should inform student-athletes about the applicable sexual harassment policy. Although, a Title IX recipient cannot be held liable for misconduct that occurred before the alleged harasser was affiliated with the recipient, as we explain later, Adams, Dooley, and Harrick's preexisting knowledge of Cole's past sexual misconduct and the student-athletes' suggestions are relevant when determining whether Williams alleged facts sufficient to survive the defendants' motion to dismiss her Title IX complaint. 28 Title IX states, in pertinent part: No person ... shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a). Although Title IX does not expressly permit private enforcement suits, the Supreme Court has found an implied private right of action for individuals to enforce the mandates of Title IX. Cannon v. Univ. of Chi., 441 U.S. 677, 717, 99 S.Ct. 1946, 60 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). The Court also has held that private individuals can obtain monetary damages. Franklin v. Gwinnett County Pub. Sch., 503 U.S. 60, 76, 112 S.Ct. 1028, 117 L.Ed.2d 208 (1992). 29 `[S]exual harassment' is `discrimination' in the school context under Title IX and in certain narrow circumstances, a plaintiff may be able to recover for student-on-student harassment. Davis v. Monroe County Bd. of Educ., 526 U.S. 629, 650, 119 S.Ct. 1661, 143 L.Ed.2d 839 (1999). A plaintiff seeking recovery for a violation of Title IX based on student-on-student harassment must prove four elements. First, the defendant must be a Title IX funding recipient. Floyd v. Waiters, 133 F.3d 786, 789 (11th Cir.), vacated on other grounds, 525 U.S. 802, 119 S.Ct. 33, 142 L.Ed.2d 25 (1998), reinstated, 171 F.3d 1264 (11th Cir.1999). Second, an appropriate person must have actual knowledge of the discrimination or harassment the plaintiff alleges occurred. Gebser v. Lago Vista Indep. Sch. Dist., 524 U.S. 274, 290, 118 S.Ct. 1989, 141 L.Ed.2d 277 (1998). [A]n `appropriate person' ... is, at a minimum, an official of the recipient entity with authority to take corrective action to end the discrimination. Id. Third, a funding recipient is liable for student-on-student harassment only if the funding recipient acts with deliberate indifference to known acts of harassment in its programs or activities. Davis, 526 U.S. at 633, 119 S.Ct. 1661. In considering this element, we analyze the conduct of the funding recipient, not the alleged harasser; we do this to ensure that we hold the funding recipient liable only if the funding recipient's deliberate indifference subjected the plaintiff to discrimination. Id. at 640-41, 119 S.Ct. 1661. Therefore, we will not hold a funding recipient liable solely because a person affiliated with the funding recipient discriminated against or harassed the plaintiff. Hawkins v. Sarasota County Sch. Bd., 322 F.3d 1279, 1284 (11th Cir.2003). Fourth, the discrimination must be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively bars the victim's access to an educational opportunity or benefit. Davis, 526 U.S. at 633, 119 S.Ct. 1661. 30
31 As an initial matter, we hold that the district court properly dismissed Williams's Title IX claim against the Board of Regents. Even if we construe Williams's initial complaint and first amended complaint broadly and construe all the allegations in her favor, we cannot find any allegations that an appropriate person with the Board of Regents had actual knowledge of discrimination in the recipient's programs and fail[ed] adequately to respond. Gebser, 524 U.S. at 290, 118 S.Ct. 1989. Williams alleged that the Board of Regents appointed Adams and ceded substantial control over UGA to him. Adams, however, is not a member of the Board of Regents, and Williams failed to allege that Adams has authority to take action to change the policies of the Board of Regents. In the absence of any allegations that an appropriate person with the Board of Regents had actual knowledge of the acts that Williams alleges constitute discrimination, Williams's Title IX claim against the Board of Regents cannot survive a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. United States v. $121,100 in U.S. Currency, 999 F.2d 1503, 1507 (11th Cir.1993) (holding that an appeals court can affirm for any reason supported by the record, even if not relied upon by the district court).
32 Turning to the Title IX claims against UGA and UGAA, for the reasons that follow, we hold that the district court erred in dismissing those claims.
33 As to the first element, the parties agree that UGA is a funding recipient properly subject to Title IX liability. Although UGAA disputes that it is a funding recipient, we believe that Williams has presented sufficient facts at this stage to show that we should treat UGAA as a funding recipient. Here, Williams has alleged that UGA, a funding recipient, has ceded control over one of its programs, the athletic department, to UGAA and provided extensive funding to UGAA. Notably, the Court has not resolved whether this is sufficient to make an entity a funding recipient subject to Title IX liability. NCAA v. Smith, 525 U.S. 459, 470-71, 119 S.Ct. 924, 142 L.Ed.2d 929 (1999); see also Alston v. Va. High Sch. League, Inc., 144 F.Supp.2d 526, 531 (W.D.Va.1999). We are persuaded, however, by the analysis of the Western District of Michigan, noting that if we allowed funding recipients to cede control over their programs to indirect funding recipients but did not hold indirect funding recipients liable for Title IX violations, we would allow funding recipients to receive federal funds but avoid Title IX liability. Cmtys. for Equity v. Mich. High Sch. Athletic Ass'n, 80 F.Supp.2d 729, 733-34 (W.D.Mich.2000). We hold that Williams's complaint sufficiently alleges this element, and we leave for the discovery process and the district court to determine whether to treat UGAA like a funding recipient.
34 As to the second element, we agree with Williams that an appropriate person at both UGA and UGAA had actual knowledge of the harassment. According to Williams, Adams, the President of UGA and UGAA, and Dooley, the Athletic Director of UGAA, had actual knowledge of the three forms of discrimination or harassment that Williams allegedly faced: (1) Cole's recruitment and admission despite his past misconduct at several other schools; (2) the January 14, 2002 incident involving Cole, Brandon Williams, and Thomas; and (3) the discrimination that Williams faced as a result of UGA's failure to respond adequately to her allegations against Cole, Brandon Williams, and Thomas. Additionally, Williams has sufficiently alleged — and Adams and Dooley do not dispute — that Adams and Dooley had authority to take corrective measures for UGA and UGAA to end the alleged discrimination. Thus, we must turn to the final two elements of a Title IX cause of action.
35 The Davis Court held that funding recipients are deliberately indifferent only where the recipient's response to the harassment or lack thereof is clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances. Davis, 526 U.S. at 648, 119 S.Ct. 1661. As the defendants note, the Court also stated that district courts can identify a funding recipient's response as not `clearly unreasonable' as a matter of law and dispose of the claim on a motion to dismiss. Id. at 649, 119 S.Ct. 1661. Nevertheless, we believe that Williams has alleged sufficient facts in her complaint to demonstrate that UGA and UGAA were deliberately indifferent to the alleged discrimination and that the district court erred in concluding that the response was not `clearly unreasonable' as a matter of law. 36 The factual distinctiveness of this case is most relevant when determining whether UGA and UGAA were deliberately indifferent to the alleged discrimination. In Gebser, the Supreme Court adopted the deliberate indifference standard for determining when a Title IX recipient would be liable for teacher-on-student harassment, Gebser, 524 U.S. at 290-91, 118 S.Ct. 1989, and in Davis, adopted the same standard for determining liability for student-on-student harassment. Davis, 526 U.S. at 633, 119 S.Ct. 1661. Prior to Gebser, the Court adopted the deliberate indifference standard when determining a municipality's liability for claims under § 1983 alleging that a municipality's actions in failing to prevent a deprivation of federal rights was the cause of the violation. Gebser, 524 U.S. at 291, 118 S.Ct. 1989 (citing Board of Comm'rs of Bryan County. v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997); Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989)). In adopting the deliberate indifference standard in Title IX cases that do not involve allegations of discrimination resulting from the Title IX recipient's official policy, the Gebser Court noted that comparable considerations — namely, to impose liability only for official decisions by the defendant not to remedy the violation and not for the independent actions of employees — supported the use of the deliberate indifference standard in both Title IX and § 1983 municipality liability cases. Id. at 290-91, 118 S.Ct. 1989. 37 In the municipality liability context, this circuit has held that a plaintiff can show deliberate indifference by proving that the municipality knew of a need to ... supervise in a particular area and the municipality made a deliberate choice not to take any action. Gold v. City of Miami, 151 F.3d 1346, 1350-51 (11th Cir.1998). This precedent guides our decision here to the extent that we deal with a scenario that is factually distinct from Gebser, Davis, and Hawkins, but we stress that Title IX has important requirements for establishing deliberate indifference that cannot be scuttled simply because the plaintiff can meet the standard applicable to municipality liability cases. 38 First, Title IX requires that the plaintiff prove that the deliberate indifference occurred in response to discrimination she faced. Davis, 526 U.S. at 633, 119 S.Ct. 1661. Second, as Davis requires, a Title IX recipient may not be liable for damages unless its deliberate indifference `subject[s]' its students to harassment. That is, the deliberate indifference must, at a minimum, `cause [students] to undergo' harassment or `make them liable or vulnerable' to it. Id. at 644-45, 119 S.Ct. 1661 (citing Random House Dictionary of the English Language 1415 (1966)) (defining subject as to cause to undergo the action of something specified; expose or to make liable or vulnerable; lay open; expose); Webster's Third New International Dictionary 2275 (1961) (defining subject as to cause to undergo or submit to: make submit to a particular action or effect: EXPOSE). Based on the Davis Court's language, we hold that a Title IX plaintiff at the motion to dismiss stage must allege that the Title IX recipient's deliberate indifference to the initial discrimination subjected the plaintiff to further discrimination. 39 As stated earlier, Adams, Dooley, and Harrick's decision to recruit Cole and admit him through UGA's special admission process was a form of discrimination that Williams suffered. According to Williams, Adams, Dooley, and Harrick knew at that point of the need to supervise Cole for two reasons. First, UGA and UGAA officials had received suggestions from student-athletes that UGA and UGAA ensure that athletic coaches inform their athletes about the sexual harassment policy applicable to student-athletes. Second, and more importantly, Williams alleges that Adams, Harrick, and Dooley knew about Cole's past sexual misconduct. Nevertheless, even with its knowledge of the need to inform its student-athletes about the applicable sexual harassment policy and of Cole's past sexual misconduct, UGA and UGAA failed to adequately supervise Cole. Williams's allegations of UGA and UGAA's failures are sufficient at this stage to establish deliberate indifference under our municipality liability precedent. But to satisfy our Title IX precedent, Williams must go further and sufficiently allege that the deliberate indifference subjected her to further discrimination. 40 Williams meets the Title IX standard through her allegations regarding the January 14 incident. UGA and UGAA's failure to inform its student-athletes about the applicable sexual harassment policy and failure to supervise its student-athletes subjected Williams to this further harassment and caused Williams to be the victim of a conspiracy between Cole, Brandon Williams, and Thomas to sexually assault and rape her. By placing Cole in a student dormitory and failing to supervise him in any way or to inform him of their expectations of him under the applicable sexual harassment policy, UGA and UGAA substantially increased the risk faced by female students at UGA. 41 Furthermore, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Williams, UGA acted with deliberate indifference again when it responded to the January 14 incident. 7 Although UGA Police seem to have performed a thorough investigation, UGA failed to provide an adequate response. Within forty-eight hours of the incident, UGA had a preliminary report providing details about the incident, and by April 2002, had a full report, including information about interviews with suspects and witnesses, from UGA Police. Nevertheless, UGA waited another eight months before conducting a disciplinary hearing to determine whether to sanction the alleged assailants. By that point, two of the alleged assailants no longer attended UGA. The fact that the disciplinary panel ultimately decided not to sanction the alleged assailants is immaterial because it fails to explain why UGA waited almost eleven months to take corrective action, especially considering the fact that UGA Police's report provided substantial evidence corroborating Williams's version of the January 14 incident. To the extent that UGA argues that it waited so long because of the pending criminal trials against the assailants, this argument also fails because: (1) the pending criminal charges did not affect UGA's ability to institute its own procedures; (2) the criminal charges were an ineffectual means to prevent future attacks at UGA while the charges were pending; and (3) the disciplinary proceedings were not instituted for another four months after Brandon Williams's acquittal and the dismissal of charges against Cole and Thomas. 42 Once again, UGA's deliberate indifference was followed by further discrimination, this time in the form of effectively denying Williams an opportunity to continue to attend UGA. Although Williams withdrew from UGA the day after the January 14 incident, we do not believe that at this stage her withdrawal should foreclose her argument that UGA continued to subject her to discrimination. In light of the harrowing ordeal that Williams faced on January 14, her decision to withdraw from UGA was reasonable and expected. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Williams, UGA failed to take any precautions that would prevent future attacks from Cole, Thomas, Brandon Williams, or like-minded hooligans should Williams have decided to return to UGA, either by, for example, removing from student housing or suspending the alleged assailants, or implementing a more protective sexual harassment policy to deal with future incidents. 8 Considering what had already occurred, UGA's failure was inexplicable and discriminatory. 43 Even though [a] university might not ... be expected to exercise the same degree of control over its students that a grade school would enjoy, Davis, 526 U.S. at 649, 119 S.Ct. 1661, UGA and UGAA exercised almost no control over Cole, even though they knew about his past sexual misconduct. Moreover, UGA and UGAA failed to inform student-athletes about the applicable sexual harassment policy. Placed together, Williams's allegations that she faced several forms of harassment and that UGA and UGAA repeatedly responded with deliberate indifference are sufficient to meet Williams's burden on a motion to dismiss. 4a. Was the Discrimination Severe, Pervasive, and Objectively Offensive? 44 As for the first part of the final element, we conclude that the discrimination was severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive. Id. at 633, 119 S.Ct. 1661. Whether gender-oriented conduct rises to the level of actionable `harassment' thus `depends on a constellation of surrounding circumstances, expectation, and relationships,' including, but not limited to, the ages of the harasser and the victim and the number of individuals involved. Id. at 651, 119 S.Ct. 1661 (citations omitted). [T]o have a `systemic effect' of denying the victim equal access to an educational program or activity ... gender discrimination must be more widespread than a single instance of one-on-one peer harassment .... Hawkins, 322 F.3d at 1289 (citing Davis, 526 U.S. at 652-53, 119 S.Ct. 1661). 45 According to Williams's allegations, a conspiracy between at least two of the alleged perpetrators began before she entered Cole's room because Brandon Williams was already in Cole's closet, with Cole's permission and without her knowledge, when she entered the room. Viewing the allegations in the light most favorable to Williams, Cole and Brandon agreed before Williams arrived that Brandon would emerge from the closet and attempt to have sex with Williams once she and Cole finished having sex. Then, during Brandon's sexual assault of Williams, Cole called Thomas and Charles Grant and invited them to continue running a train on Williams. Even though Williams successfully fended off Brandon's attempted rape, the situation worsened further when Thomas arrived and raped her. Moreover, Thomas later telephoned her twice. 46 The January 14 events differ markedly from the rarely actionable, theoretical single incident mentioned in Davis and Hawkins. The incident involved a ringleader who lured the victim to his territory and then conspired with two friends to commit two separate acts of sexual assault and so constitutes a continuous series of events. Although occurring in one room over two hours, the acts are sufficient to meet the requirements of severity and objective offensiveness. Based upon these facts, together with the discrimination that occurred before and after the incident, we conclude that Williams has alleged sufficient facts at this stage to show that the discrimination was pervasive. 4b. Did the Alleged Discrimination Effectively Bar Williams's Access to an Educational Opportunity or Benefit? 47 This leaves us to resolve whether the discrimination effectively bar[red] the victim's access to an educational opportunity or benefit. Davis, 526 U.S. at 633, 119 S.Ct. 1661. As we noted, this case involves a cycle of discrimination and deliberate indifference that lasted for more than one year, ultimately resulting in Williams's withdrawal from and decision not to return to UGA. Williams alleges that she may return to the university if UGA implements more effective procedures to deal with student-on-student harassment. Although UGA and UGAA neither formally forced Williams to leave nor banned her from returning, the discrimination in which they engaged or they allowed to occur on campus caused Williams to withdraw and not return. When Williams was faced with decisions to leave or to return to UGA, she knew the following: (1) UGA and UGAA recruited and admitted a student-athlete despite knowledge of his past sexual misconduct; (2) UGA and UGAA failed to supervise dangerous students or properly instruct student-athletes on the applicable sexual harassment policy; (3) she was sexually assaulted and raped by three student-athletes, including one whose past sexual misconduct was known to UGA and UGAA officials; and (4) the response to her complaints did nothing to assuage her concerns of a future attack should she return to UGA. Considering these circumstances, we conclude that Williams has alleged sufficient facts at this stage to show that the alleged discrimination effectively bar[red] [her] access to an educational opportunity or benefit, namely pursuing an education at UGA. 48 It is important to emphasize the extent and limits of our analysis. A court's holding can reach no further than the facts of the case before it. See Watts v. BellSouth Telecomms., Inc., 316 F.3d 1203, 1207 (11th Cir.2003) ([J]udicial decisions cannot make law beyond the facts of the cases in which those decisions are announced.); United States v. Aguillard, 217 F.3d 1319, 1321 (11th Cir.2000) (per curiam) (The holdings of a prior decision can reach only as far as the facts and circumstances presented to the Court in the case which produced that decision. (citation and internal marks omitted)). 49 The facts alleged in this case are extreme. According to the amended complaint, which we take as true for present purposes, UGA and UGAA officials actively recruited and admitted Cole despite his past serious sexual misconduct. Once Cole was a student-athlete at UGA and placed in a dormitory, the defendants' did not supervise or even counsel him against sexual harassment or other sexual misconduct. Even after the rape and assault, which Cole orchestrated, the defendants failed for months to remove Cole and the other attackers from the university. It is likely that this failure prevented Williams from returning to the university to continue her education. 50 We hold that these extreme facts are sufficient to state a claim under Title IX. We do not decide, nor could we decide, whether a valid Title IX claim would have been stated if the facts alleged had been less severe. 51