Conn v. Hall et. al. Melissa Richardson and Kirstin Handshoe secured summary judgment for a teacher against allegations of sexual harassment made by a student. The student’s Facebook profile listed her as a 40-year-old adult. The teacher messaged the profile. The student claimed the teacher sent inappropriate messages to her on Facebook amounting to sexual harassment. However, upon Motion for Summary Judgment, the Court found that while the teacher did message the student, the teacher did not make any actionable statements and did not sexually harass or discriminate against the student. The Court also found the teacher immediately ceased communications with the student upon subsequent messages leading him to suspect that she was not, in fact, a 40-year-old woman. The claims against the Board of Education, school officials, and the teacher were also barred by governmental immunity and official immunity, respectively. Any claim asserted against the teacher was barred by qualified official immunity because of the discretion needed to determine who one is messaging on Facebook. Any claims asserted against the school officials in their individual capacities were barred by qualified official immunity because their decisions about how to respond to the allegations were discretionary in nature. Overall, the Court ruled the plaintiff’s claims against all named defendants failed as a matter of fact and law.
