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U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
P.E. Teacher’s “Ceiling Jumps” Punishment
Didn’t Discriminate Against Female Student
Ruling: A lawsuit filed by the mother of a female student who was hospitalized as a result of the punishment a P.E. teacher gave her daughter for not coming to P.E. in the proper gym attire is dismissed. Ana Poloceno, individually and as next friend of minor, A.I., vs. Dallas ISD, No. 20-10098. Issued Sept. 10. Ordered "not published."
Background
For much of the 2015-16 school year, a DISD Cary Middle School teacher punished students who did not come to his classes wearing the proper attire for gym by requiring them to complete a series of “ceiling jumps” — described as requiring the student to squat down, with hips and both hands toward the floor, and jump up with hands toward the ceiling.
Incrementally Increased
The number of jumps required was incrementally increased as the school year progressed, starting with 30 jumps at the start of the school year. During the school year, five female students allegedly had visited the school nurse with complaints of pain after completing the ceiling jump punishment.
By the time that 11-year-old female student A.I. came to the teacher’s class not properly attired for gym in April 2016, the number of ceiling jumps required as punishment had risen to 260.
After completing the required 260 ceiling jumps, A.I. was subsequently hospitalized with a diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle tissue.
DISD also investigated the incident involving A.I., and concluded that the teacher had violated the district’s policies regarding student discipline, prohibiting corporal punishment, and promoting student welfare and wellness.
A.I.’s mother appealed to the Fifth Circuit after the trial judge dismissed her lawsuit claiming that the teacher’s punishment violated the Title IX prohibition on federally funded schools from intentionally discriminating against students on the basis of their sex.
Upheld Dismissal
A three-member Fifth Circuit panel, in this decision, unanimously upheld dismissal on a finding that the mother could not show a violation of Title IX because the P.E. teacher uniformly applied the punishment for gym class attire violations equally for boys and girls.
The justices rejected the mother’s claims that the teacher’s punishment violated Title IX because the punishment subjected female students to a “higher risk” of being injured.
Title IX does not allow for consideration of discrimination claims based on the “higher risk” standard, the justices ruled.