{"id":11922,"date":"2015-01-15T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=11922"},"modified":"2015-01-14T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T17:12:23","slug":"6th-circuit-opinion-families-right-to-seek-injury-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/6th-circuit-opinion-families-right-to-seek-injury-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"School&#8217;s Conduct Is an &#8220;Attack Upon Child\u2019s Dignity as a Human Being&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"School%27s%20Conduct%20Is%20an%20%22Attack%20Upon%20Child%E2%80%99s%20Dignity%20as%20a%20Human%20Being%22\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000; float: left; margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/images\/ms\/gavel.books.jpg\" alt=\"Judge's gavel and law books\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>in \u00a0<span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/law\/caselaw\/2014\/6th.fh.memphis.city.pdf\">F.H. et. al. v. Memphis City Schools (2014)<\/a>, <\/em><\/span>the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a\u00a0<strong>precedential opinion that favors parental rights to seek relief for non-educational injuries and to enforce settlement agreements.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Hat tip to the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates <a href=\"http:\/\/www.copaa.org\/news\/191336\/6th-Circuit-Court-of-Appeals-Issues-Precedential-Opinion-for-Families-Right-to-Seek-Injury-Relief.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">(COPAA)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>F.H., endured physical and emotional abuse from aides who were not properly trained or supervised by the school district for ten years. In 2011, despite a Settlement Agreement, the abuse by F.H.\u2019s aides continued.<\/p>\n<p>When F.H.\u2019s parents filed suit in federal court, the district court held that the parents were required to exhaust their administrative remedies before bringing suit &#8211; and dismissed their claims. The parents appealed.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In a <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/c.ymcdn.com\/sites\/www.copaa.org\/resource\/collection\/FC30F011-EAB6-44BE-9721-1F718DA268C1\/2013-12-19_-_copaa_-_fh_amicus.pdf\">2013 Amicus Brief, the Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA<\/a>)<\/span> argued that requiring parents to exhaust their administrative remedies to enforce a Settlement Agreement with the school district &#8220;conflicts with the plain text of the statute and undermines the purpose of the statute\u2019s alternative dispute resolution provisions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In addition, COPAA argued that requiring students with IEPs to exhaust their administrative remedies before filing a suit under the ADA and Section 504 puts children with IEPs in a less favorable position than students without IEPs.<\/p>\n<p>In a powerful decision, the Sixth Circuit held that the essence of the Complaint involved the verbal, physical, and sexual abuse of F.H. by his aides. The allegations describe non-educational injuries that have no remedy under the IDEA. The child&#8217;s \u00a71983 claims do not arise under the IDEA and were not released by the Settlement Agreement &#8211; so exhaustion would be futile.<\/p>\n<p>Circuit Judge Kethledge wrote in a concurring opinion: \u00a0<em>&#8220;To characterize F.H.\u2019s injuries as &#8216;educational&#8217; is to belittle them. The gravamen of his claim is not that the conduct described in his complaint might reduce his SAT scores. The gravamen of his claim, rather, is that this conduct was an attack upon F.H.\u2019s dignity as a human being. That injury was not remediable by some change to F.H.\u2019s &#8216;Individualized Education Plan.&#8217; Nor was it a mere promise not to let these things happen again. The remedy for F.H.\u2019s injury, therefore, lay not in \u201cthe IDEA\u2019s administrative procedures[.]\u201d S.E. v. Grant Bd. Of Educ., 544 F.3d 633, 642 (6th Cir. 2008). Instead his remedy lies in federal court, where F.H. can obtain not only compensation for his injuries, but recognition of what they actually were.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The full decision is available on Wrightslaw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/law\/caselaw\/2014\/6th.fh.memphis.city.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.copaa.org\/news\/191336\/6th-Circuit-Court-of-Appeals-Issues-Precedential-Opinion-for-Families-Right-to-Seek-Injury-Relief.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">6th Circuit Court of Appeals Issues Precedential Opinion for Families&#8217; Right to Seek Injury Relief<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.copaa.org\/news\/191336\/6th-Circuit-Court-of-Appeals-Issues-Precedential-Opinion-for-Families-Right-to-Seek-Injury-Relief.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">http:\/\/www.copaa.org\/news\/191336\/6th-Circuit-Court-of-Appeals-Issues-Precedential-Opinion-for-Families-Right-to-Seek-Injury-Relief.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>in \u00a0F.H. et. al. v. Memphis City Schools (2014), the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a\u00a0precedential opinion that favors parental rights to seek relief for non-educational injuries <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/6th-circuit-opinion-families-right-to-seek-injury-relief\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216,6],"tags":[1312,687,341,1205,1207,1227,299,1206],"class_list":["post-11922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-damages","category-legal-decisions","tag-ada","tag-caselaw","tag-copaa","tag-f-h-v-memphis-city-schoools","tag-non-educational-injuries","tag-remedi","tag-section-1983","tag-settlement-agreement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11922"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12286,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11922\/revisions\/12286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}