Teacher • Pre-Deprivation Due Process • Post-Deprivation Due Process • Punitive Damages • Qualified Immunity
Yelland v. Abingdon Heights Sch. Dist., PICS Case No. 17-0214 (M.D. Pa. Feb. 9, 2017) Mannion, U.S.D.J. (34 pages).
Teacher, who was indefinitely suspended without pay after an allegation that he physically assaulted a student, sued school board, superintendent, principal and vice-principal for due process violations and malicious prosecution after a jury acquitted him and court found that he sufficiently stated cognizable claims that the pre-deprivation procedures used by defendants were not adequate to meet due process requirements and for malicious prosecution when he contended that superintendent, principal and vice-principal conducted a sham investigation, manufactured inculpatory evidence, ignored exculpatory evidence and made a knowingly false report to the police and the DA’s office but the court found that his claim for post-deprivation procedural due process claim was premature, school officials’ qualified immunity argument was premature and the claim for punitive damages against defendants in their official capacities had to be dismissed. Summary judgment granted in part and denied in part.
