Retaliation claim denied for school janitor who sunbathed nude
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A school janitor who was briefly suspended and demoted for nude sunbathing on the roof of the elementary school where he worked cannot claim retaliation for his subsequent inability to be promoted, says an appeals court.
Charles Davis, who had been employed as a custodian with the Unified School District 500 in Kansas City, Kansas since 1991, was suspended for 30 days and demoted from his position as head custodian in 2007 after the sunbathing incident, according to Monday's ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in Charles Davis v. Unified School District 500; Stephen Vaughn.
From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Davis applied for head custodian positions at seven different schools within the school district, but was not hired for any of them, according to the appeals ruling. In January, 2012, he filed suit against the district and its human resources director, Stephen Vaughn, on charges including retaliation.
The federal district court in Kansas City, Kansas granted the defendants summary judgment dismissing the case, and a three-judge panel of the appeals court unanimously agreed with the ruling.
“In a nutshell, the key issue is whether a common purpose to retaliate against Davis must be inferred from the sheer volume of his promotion denials; we think not when seven independent and informed decision makers are involved,” said the ruling.
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Mr. Davis “seems to think the number of times he was passed over is alone sufficient to establish a prime facie case” of retaliation, said the ruling. “He is wrong. The sheer number of failed attempts might be significant in a different context or if more completely developed, but in this case is little more than rank speculation,” said the appellate panel in affirming the lower court's dismissal of the case.
