In Tillinghast v. Los Angeles Unified School Dist., published May 5, 2025, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 8 affirmed the judgment in favor of the plaintiff. The plaintiff's decedent, a middle-school student, passed away in PE class, after jogging, of sudden cardiac arrest. He had an unsuspected heart defect. When the decedent collapsed, teachers…
In Regino v. Staley, published April 4, 2025, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed dismissal of a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit at the pleading stage. A school district had a policy that prohibited conduct such as refusing to address a student by a name and pronouns consistent with the student’s gender identity and…
In Jensen v. Brown, published March 10, 2025, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 lawsuit without leave to amend. The plaintiff is a mathematics professor at a state community college. The board of regents for the state college system adopted a policy that lowered the academic level…
In Hartzell v. Marana Unified School Dist., published March 5, 2025, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment in favor of the defendant school district and its principal. The plaintiff was a parent who had multiple children enrolled in the school overseen by the defendant principal. The plaintiff…
In K.J. v. Jackson, published February 11, 2025, the 9th Circuit reversed summary judgment for the individual defendants in a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 case. The students involved in a lunchtime fight on a high school campus were suspended for fighting on campus. The plaintiff was included. Before he and the other students were suspended, they…
In I.C. v. Compton Unified School Dist., ordered published February 6, 2025, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division 8 affirmed a judgment entered after jury trial. The 16-year-old plaintiff and his friend started a fist fight during an art class. Their teacher intervened. The teacher weighed 375 pounds, and had recently been using a…
In Wiley v. Kern High School District, ordered partially published on December 20, 2024, the Fifth District Court of Appeal affirmed a demurrer to a claim under Civil Code section 52.1, the Bane Act. The plaintiff alleged that she engaged in a verbal altercation with various students, staff members, and a school district police officer when…
In A.H. v. Tamalpais Union High School Dist., published September 9, 2024, the First District Court of Appeal, Division 2 affirmed a judgment against the district entered after jury trial. The plaintiff was molested by his school tennis coach. Before the molestation occurred, the school principal received a report that the coach had touched a student's…
In Grizzell v. San Elijo Elementary School, published August 7, 2024, the 9th Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal without prejudice of a civil rights case against the defendant school and school district. The plaintiff enrolled her children in the school under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. She alleges that the children suffered racial discrimination and…
In Health Freedom defense Fund, Inc. v. Carvalho, published June 7, 2024, a divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court order granting judgment on the pleadings. The plaintiffs challenged the defendant California school district's mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. The district reversed course on the policy multiple times. The district court…