## Facts

- DeSoto County School District prohibited student possession or use of cell phones on school property.
- R.W., a 12-year-old seventh grader, used his cell phone during class to read a text message and a school employee confiscated the phone.
- The employee opened the phone and reviewed stored photographs, despite no stated suspicion beyond the rule violation.
- In the principal’s office, school officials and a City of Southaven police sergeant also examined the photos.
- A photo showed another student at R.W.’s home holding what appeared to be a BB gun; officials treated the images as “gang-related” and “indecent.”
- R.W. received a three-day suspension and was later expelled under a rule barring the display on school property of items associated with gangs.
- J.W., on R.W.’s behalf, sued school officials, the school district, a police sergeant, and the City of Southaven under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and related theories, alleging Fourth Amendment, First Amendment, due process, and other violations.

## Issues

1. Whether searching the contents (stored photos) of a confiscated student cell phone, following a rule-violation confiscation, was an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment’s school-search standard.
2. Whether the suspension and expulsion based on the photographs violated procedural or substantive due process.
3. Whether individual school officials and the police sergeant were protected by qualified immunity because no clearly established law prohibited their conduct.
4. Whether the City of Southaven could be liable under § 1983 absent proof of a municipal policy or custom causing the alleged constitutional violation.

## Decision

- The court granted the motions to dismiss/summary judgment filed by the individual school officials and the police sergeant, holding they were entitled to qualified immunity.
- The court granted summary judgment to the City of Southaven because the plaintiff did not show a municipal policy or custom under Monell.
- The DeSoto County School District remained in the case because it had not moved for dismissal in the posture addressed by the order.

## Legal Principles

- Student searches by public school officials are evaluated for “reasonableness under all the circumstances,” requiring a search justified at its inception and reasonable in scope.
- Qualified immunity bars damages claims unless officials violate a constitutional right that was clearly established at the time of the conduct.
- In assessing “clearly established” law, courts look for controlling or robustly persuasive authority that would put reasonable officials on notice that the conduct was unlawful.
- Substantive due process does not constitutionalize ordinary school-discipline disputes; liability generally requires conduct that is arbitrary in the constitutional sense or shocks the conscience.
- Municipal liability under § 1983 requires proof that a municipal policy or custom caused the constitutional injury; a single incident without such proof is insufficient.

## Conclusion

The court dismissed claims against the individual school officials and the police sergeant on qualified immunity grounds and dismissed claims against the City of Southaven for lack of Monell evidence, while leaving claims against the school district to proceed because the district had not obtained dismissal in the order.


J.W. v. DeSoto Cnty. Sch. Dist., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116328 (N.D. Miss. 2010)