Hitting a Miss?

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EVENTH-GRADE special education student Justin R. moved to Mystic, Connecticut, with his family in November 2000. His parents enrolled him at Mystic Middle School, which implemented his IEP (individualized education program) without notable problems. However, soon after Justin started school, many other students started harassing him. The harassment did not include physical threats or assaults. Instead, it consisted mostly of calling Justin names, such as fag and homo. Justin reported the bullying to the principal, Susan Dumas, who reprimanded one of the students Justin identified as a harasser. Nevertheless, the harassment continued. On 26 February 2001, a janitor at the school found Justin's geography book. On the cover, Justin had written, Hit list--Katy Y. When principal Dumas confronted Justin, he admitted to writing the words and explained that he wanted to punch, not kill, Katy because she had harassed him. After explaining to Justin and his parents that a is unacceptable, the principal suspended Justin for 10 days. She also convened an emergency meeting of the IEP team, which included Justin's parents, to determine whether his IEP needed to be revised. The team decided to require Justin to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Ken Selig, before he could return to school. Dr. Selig recommended that Justin remain out of school for the rest of the school year. In August 2001, he further recommended that Justin not return to the school in the fall. As a result, the district provided Justin with a tutor for homebound instruction until June of his eighth-grade year and arranged for his placement in a neighboring district's secondary school for the following year. According to Justin, the principal told two of the secretaries in the middle school office about his situation. (1) Justin claimed that the principal also informed Katy that she was on an asshole that Justin had created on his home computer.2 Afterward, rumors circulated around the school, erroneously reporting that the principal had had Justin removed from school in a strait-jacket and that he had attempted to stab her with a letter opener. A parent of one of the other students telephoned Justin's mother and asked her whether it was true that Justin had made a of fellow students. During that time, Justin communicated with a female student through instant messaging. The communication included the following exchange: [Female Student] well I know I was on ur a hole list [Justin] there wans'nt a list. See RUMORS, GOSSIP thast all you seem to be good for [Female Student] mrs. dumas pulled me aside and she told me one day that I was not on a hit list and I was in no danger but I was on ur a hole list [Justin] well lies that is what u seem to be good for also [Female Student] bc u just said there was no list and mrs. dumas told me there was a list On 13 March 2002, Justin's parents filed suit on his behalf in federal court, claiming that the principal and other district officials had violated his 14th Amendment procedural and substantive due process rights. With regard to substantive due process, the claims were that the defendants failed to respond to the bullying and that they disclosed personal information, which amounted to an invasion of privacy. On 17 November 2006, the federal magistrate judge granted the principal's motion for summary judgment.3 The judge first disposed of the procedural due process claim, concluding that plaintiff received all the process that was due him under the 14th Amendment. Second, for the bullying claim under the 14th Amendment, the judge observed that in the public school context the shocks the conscience test applies and that the principal's reaction to the peer harassment was not, as a matter of law, 'so egregious, so outrageous, that it may fairly be said to shock the contemporary conscience. …