## Facts

- A four-year-old, nonverbal autistic child with tuberous sclerosis attended a public special-education preschool program in Clark County, Nevada.
- The child and his mother alleged the classroom teacher repeatedly used physical force against him, including beating, slapping, and body-slamming.
- The complaint also alleged other mistreatment, including unexplained bruising and requiring the child to walk shoeless from the bus to the classroom.
- The plaintiffs alleged administrators and supervisors had notice of violent conduct in the classroom and failed to act to stop it.
- After administrative proceedings under the IDEA, the plaintiffs sued in federal court asserting, among other claims, § 1983 constitutional claims against individual school officials.
- The district court denied the individual defendants’ motion to dismiss on qualified-immunity grounds as to the § 1983 claims, and the individual defendants took an interlocutory appeal limited to qualified immunity.

## Issues

1. Whether the complaint plausibly alleged constitutional violations by the teacher, and whether the alleged rights were clearly established such that qualified immunity was unavailable.
2. Whether supervisory school officials could face § 1983 liability, and be denied qualified immunity, for allegedly failing to prevent or stop known abuse.
3. Whether allegations such as unexplained bruising and shoeless walks stated constitutional violations sufficient to defeat qualified immunity.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the denial of qualified immunity.
- Qualified immunity was denied as to allegations of severe physical abuse (beatings, slaps, body slams) because such conduct, if proved, would violate clearly established constitutional rights.
- Qualified immunity was also denied for supervisory officials to the extent the complaint plausibly alleged they had notice of the severe abuse and failed to intervene.
- Qualified immunity was granted as to claims premised solely on unexplained bruising and shoeless walks because those allegations did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with these rulings.

## Legal Principles

- Qualified immunity turns on (1) whether the alleged facts make out a constitutional violation and (2) whether the right was clearly established such that a reasonable official would have known the conduct was unlawful.
- Public-school students have a clearly established constitutional right to be free from excessive force by state-employed teachers; severe physical abuse can satisfy the constitutional threshold.
- Not all improper or harmful school conduct constitutes a federal constitutional violation; allegations that do not reach constitutional magnitude cannot overcome qualified immunity.
- Supervisory liability under § 1983 cannot rest on respondeat superior; supervisors may be liable where they participated in, directed, knew of and failed to stop, or set in motion policies or practices that were a moving force behind the constitutional injury.
- At the motion-to-dismiss stage, courts accept well-pleaded factual allegations as true and construe them in the plaintiff’s favor when assessing qualified immunity.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit permitted § 1983 claims to proceed based on alleged severe, clearly unconstitutional physical abuse and related failure-to-intervene theories, but held school officials were entitled to qualified immunity for claims based only on lesser allegations such as unexplained bruising and shoeless walks.


Preschooler II v. Clark Cnty. Sch. Bd. of Trs., 479 F.3d 1175 (9th Cir. 2007)