Opinion ID: 403610
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dusanek's Claim of Denial of Due Process.

Text: 17 Dusanek's position as a tenured teacher was sufficient to create an entitlement to a property interest under the law of Illinois. Having created such an entitlement, the state could not deprive Dusanek of his position without first affording him due process. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972); Perry v. Sinderman, 408 U.S. 593, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972). 18 There is no question that the Board and its employees complied with the Board's rules and the state statutes in their procedural treatment of Dusanek. We do not find this statutory and administrative procedure to be somehow arbitrary or unreasonable. 19 There is nothing unconstitutional about a state establishing a tenure system in which the state retains the prerogative to discontinue the teaching duties of teachers who are not physically or mentally competent to continue teaching. In any such system, some school official must be lodged with the preliminary authority to request a medical investigatory procedure. The Illinois procedure whereby certain school authorities can require teachers who may have medical difficulties to submit to medical examinations obviously serves strong state interests. Only disabilities which impair the efficiency of a teacher may be the basis for requiring a health examination, and a health examination must be conducted before a teacher is asked to request a leave of absence. When the result of that medical examination is adverse to a teacher, the Illinois procedure permits the teacher either to request a medical leave of absence, or to fight his or her removal by refusing to take such a leave, thereby triggering rights to a hearing. The teacher is given the option of a hearing before any property interest is taken away. Certainly the facts in the record support Dr. O'Donnell's conclusions and the principal's original decision to commence the process that resulted in Dusanek's medical examination. We are of the opinion that these procedures are all that Illinois need reasonably provide to assure a fair and reasonable determination satisfying due process. 20 Dusanek contends that the March 29 letter compelled him to take a leave of absence. The availability of recourse to a constitutionally sufficient administrative procedure satisfies due process requirements if the complainant merely declines or fails to take advantage of the administrative procedure. See, e.g., Palma v. Powers, 295 F.Supp. 924, 940 (N.D.Ill.1969); Marlowe v. Village of Wauconda, 91 Ill.App.3d 874, 883, 47 Ill.Dec. 655, 415 N.E.2d 660 (1981); Rawlings v. Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, 73 Ill.App.3d 267, 275, 29 Ill.Dec. 333, 391 N.E.2d 758 (1979); cf. Brooks v. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 90 Ill.App.3d 591, 592, 46 Ill.Dec. 73, 413 N.E.2d 513 (1980). These decisions do not amount to a requirement of exhaustion of administrative remedies as a predicate to a section 1983 claim. Rather, they express the logical proposition that a state cannot be held to have violated due process requirements when it has made procedural protection available and the plaintiff has simply refused to avail himself of them. Because the procedural protections existed, the state cannot be accused of withholding them in a section 1983 suit. Cf. Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981). 21 We conclude that it is not a deprivation of due process of law to be put to the option of defending oneself in a proper dismissal hearing or voluntarily accepting a change in one's job status, when the state's action in first initiating the medical investigation is reasonable and in full compliance with the conditions of the teacher's tenure. Significantly, the letter states only that dismissal proceedings would be recommended if Dusanek failed to request a leave of absence. The appellant has suggested that continued performance of his duties in the face of the letter's directive would have been grounds for removal for cause, the cause being insubordination. This assertion is unsupported by the record. Moreover, we see nothing in the Board's rules or the state statute which would have precluded Dusanek from demonstrating his competency in a removal hearing. 22 This question of coercion by the state resulting in a deprivation of procedural rights may best be analogized to those cases in which a government employee seeks procedural review of his or her resignation as a discharge coerced by the actions of the federal government. As stated in Paroczay v. Hodges, 219 F.Supp. 89, 90 (D.D.C.1963), (i)f the resignation was involuntarily given ... then plaintiff's separation from government employment constituted a discharge, and he would be entitled to certain procedural rights .... These cases indicate that a resignation resulting from a choice between resigning or facing proceedings for dismissal is not tantamount to discharge by coercion without procedural review if the employee is given sufficient time and opportunity for deliberation of the choice posed. See, e.g., Dabney v. Freeman, 358 F.2d 533 (D.C.Cir.1959); Competello v. Jones, 267 F.2d 689 (D.C.Cir.1959); Paroczay v. Hodges, 219 F.Supp. 89 (D.D.C.1963); see also Molinar v. Western Electric Co., 525 F.2d 521 (1st Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 978, 96 S.Ct. 1485, 47 L.Ed.2d 748 (1976) (applying New York law); Johnson v. General Motors Corp., 144 Ga.App. 305, 241 S.E.2d 30 (1977) (applying Georgia law), cert. denied, 437 U.S. 905, 98 S.Ct. 3092, 57 L.Ed.2d 1135 (1978); Wilkinson v. Trust Co. of Georgia Association, 128 Ga.App. 473, 197 S.E.2d 146 (1973) (applying Georgia law). 23