Filed: Dec. 18, 2006
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit F I L E D UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS December 18, 2006 FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT Charles R. Fulbruge III Clerk 05-51417 NORMA CAVAZOS; HECTOR CAVAZOS, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. EDGEWOOD INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT; JOHNNY R. PEREZ; NORA PEREZ; RAMIRO NAVA; MARY LOU MENDOZA; JESSE R. ALCALA; MARISOL MARTINEZ; GEORGE GARNICA; ESTEFANA C. MARTINEZ; RICHARD BOCANEGRA, Defendants-Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western Distr
Summary: United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit F I L E D UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS December 18, 2006 FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT Charles R. Fulbruge III Clerk 05-51417 NORMA CAVAZOS; HECTOR CAVAZOS, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. EDGEWOOD INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT; JOHNNY R. PEREZ; NORA PEREZ; RAMIRO NAVA; MARY LOU MENDOZA; JESSE R. ALCALA; MARISOL MARTINEZ; GEORGE GARNICA; ESTEFANA C. MARTINEZ; RICHARD BOCANEGRA, Defendants-Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western Distri..
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United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
F I L E D
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
December 18, 2006
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
Charles R. Fulbruge III
Clerk
05-51417
NORMA CAVAZOS; HECTOR CAVAZOS,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
EDGEWOOD INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT; JOHNNY R. PEREZ; NORA
PEREZ; RAMIRO NAVA; MARY LOU MENDOZA; JESSE R. ALCALA; MARISOL
MARTINEZ; GEORGE GARNICA; ESTEFANA C. MARTINEZ; RICHARD
BOCANEGRA,
Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
Western District of Texas, San Antonio
5:04-CV-679
Before KING, BENAVIDES, and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:*
Norma Cavazos, the former principal of John F. Kennedy High
School in San Antonio, Texas, alleges that her school board and its
members reassigned her to another school as retaliation for taking
disciplinary action against a student who is the son of a school
board member. She further alleges that the board members and
*
Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the Court has determined that
this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except
under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4.
others repeatedly harassed her as a result of her decision to
discipline the student. The district court granted summary
judgment for the defendants on all claims. We AFFRIM.
Cavazos first contends that her actions constituted speech
protected under the First Amendment, and that the reassignment
violated 42 U.S.C. § 1983. However, all of her speech was made
pursuant to her official duties as principal, and thus her First
Amendment argument is foreclosed by the Supreme Court’s recent
decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, ___ U.S. ___,
126 S. Ct. 1951
(2006). Under Garcetti, “when public employees make statements
pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking
as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does
not insulate their communications from employer discipline.”
Id.
at 1960. Cavazos’s expression consisted of disciplining a student
and reporting his conduct to administrators for the school
district, both of which clearly fall within her official duties.
Her First Amendment claim therefore cannot stand, and the district
court’s grant of summary judgment is AFFIRMED.
Cavazos’s additional claims are similarly unavailing. Her
claim for constructive discharge cannot survive summary judgment
because Cavazos has not created an issue of fact as to whether the
events complained of are severe. To prove constructive discharge,
Cavazos must show that “working conditions would have been so
difficult or unpleasant that a reasonable person in the employee’s
shoes would have felt compelled to resign.” Landgraf v. USI Film
2
Prods.,
968 F.2d 427, 429–30 (5th Cir. 1992) (citations omitted).
Moreover, a constructive discharge claim requires “a greater
severity or pervasiveness of harassment than the minimum required
to prove a hostile work environment.”
Id. at 430 (citation
omitted). The incidents of which Cavazos complains are best
described as ordinary work-related disagreements with various board
members. She alleges, for example, that some board members
repeatedly second-guessed her decisions and blamed her for things
that were out of her control. We do not dispute that it would be
unpleasant to work in such an environment, but allegations of this
sort do not reach the level of severity required for a claim of
constructive discharge.
Cavazos’s third cause of action was for intentional infliction
of emotional distress. Unlike the other claims, this was not filed
against the entire board, but rather against one board member,
Johnny Perez, and his wife, Nora Perez. A claim of intentional
infliction of emotional distress requires, among other things, that
there be “extreme and outrageous conduct” on the part of the
defendant. Twyman v. Twyman,
855 S.W.2d 619, 621–22 (Tex. 1993).
Extreme and outrageous conduct is that which is “so outrageous in
character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible
bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly
intolerable in a civilized community.”
Id. at 621 (citation
omitted). As with the constructive discharge claim, the conduct of
which Cavazos complains does not rise to the level necessary to
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survive summary judgment. She alleges, in short, that Mr. and Mrs.
Perez repeatedly threatened to have her fired. Even if this is
true, we do not believe that such statements are aptly
characterized as “atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized
community.”
Id.
Finally, Cavazos’s claim for civil conspiracy must also fail
because, absent any First Amendment retaliation or intentional
infliction of emotional distress, there is no indication that any
of the defendants engaged in any unlawful, overt act in furtherance
of the alleged conspiracy. See Massey v. Armco Steel Co.,
652
S.W.2d 932, 934 (Tex. 1983) (listing essential elements of civil
conspiracy).
In light of the foregoing, we AFFIRM the district court’s
grant of summary judgment as to all claims.
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