In the Southern District of New York, Judge Ronnie Abrams did exactly what a judge is supposed to do on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. She accepted the allegations in the complaint as true.
On June 9, 2022, one of Samuels’ students “threw a hard ball that hit Samuels in the head, causing a concussion.” Upon being struck, Samuels immediately reported the incident and her injuries to Defendants. Although Noah [the school’s founding principal] “instructed Samuels to not give the police any information about the student who had assaulted her,” she nonetheless began reporting the incident to the police. Samuels asserts that Noah then physically confronted her, “approach[ing] her within a few inches of her face … and angrily ask[ing] if she really wanted to get a kid involved in the criminal justice system.” In response to Noah’s alleged “attempt[ ] to prevent her from reporting the incident,” Samuels “objected” and continued to report the incident to the police officers present. Soon after, Samuels left Urban Assembly in an ambulance and the school “disabled her school email and system access.”
Melissa Samuels was a math teacher at the Urban Assembly Charter School for Computer Science. She was hired in August, 2021 and didn’t quite make it a year. Samuels went to the ER, where she alleges she was diagnosed “a head injury, neck pain, and concussion,” preventing her from performing normal activities like reading and driving. She emailed the principal, David Noah, a doctor’s note saying she needed ten days to recuperate.
“After being as[s]aulted on campus I sought medical care, and was discharged this evening to recuperate. Please see the attached physician letter excusing me from work for ten days. This includes not being able to participate in tomorrow’s Algebra 1 Regents Prep session.” The email included an attached doctor’s note from Malcolm Johnson MD, stating that “Melissa Samuels was seen and treated in our emergency department on 6/10/2022. Please excuse the absence. She may return to work on 6/21/2022. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call.”
The next morning, on June 11, 2022, Noah sent Samuels a reply email:
You were not assaulted. [A student] accidently hit you with a nerf ball while he was throwing it at [another student] in a raucous classroom…. [I]t was an accident, it was a nerf ball, and he is a child in a school. It’s one thing for him to face consequences or for you to ask to be moved out of the advisory. It’s entirely another to make what I believe is a bad faith assault claim…. Your account was temporarily disabled because I was sincerely afraid that you were sharing a student’s personal information without parental consent or cause[.] … I’m not sure why you are doing this, but if it’s just to avoid coming to work, let’s please talk…. I suggest a virtual meeting to come to a shared understanding about next steps[.] … In the unlikely event you are unable to meet until the 21st, please plan on meeting in my office at 8:15.
Nerf ball? Well, that changes the dynamic of the “assault” a bit. Except that’s what Noah claimed, and this is a motion to dismiss. Rather than await Samuels’ response. Noah took affirmative action.
After further review of your doctor’s note and consultation with our school’s counsel, I will need further documentation to excuse your absence beyond Friday[.] … [B]eyond Friday, the note doesn’t contain any indication of your condition and your request for an accommodation that involves not working at all for 10 days doesn’t appear to be supported by the note (which, again, lacks a diagnosis or any details). I remain open to discussing the matter with you directly via phone or video chat so we can actually come to some shared understanding about what happened and what happens next. But, in the absence of such a conversation and further documentation, this week will have to be considered unpaid[.]
Four days later, on June 16, 2022, “while Noah knew Samuels remained on medical leave recuperating from injuries,” Defendants terminated Samuels’ employment.
Samuels sued for her termination under the state disability discrimination and whistleblower laws as well as a retaliatory firing in violation of her First Amendment rights. The latter was dismissed, as the Charter school is a private entity to which the First Amendment does not apply. Judge Abrams held, however, that Samuels had a case under her state law claims.
Samuels asserts that, after reporting her injury to Defendants, Noah “instructed [her] to not give the police any information about the student who had assaulted her.” When she began reporting the alleged assault to the police, she says Noah “angrily asked if she really wanted to get a kid involved in the criminal justice system.” Samuels maintains that she understood Noah’s actions to be an “attempt[ ] to prevent her from reporting the incident to the police,” and that she “objected” to this attempt by continuing to “report[ ] the incident to the police officers present,” Samuels now argues that she has stated a NYLL retaliation claim because she “objected to … Defendants’ attempts to prevent her from filing a police report … under the reasonable belief that Defendants’ attempts to prevent her from filing a police report was in violation of [a] law, rule, or regulation.”
While Samuels wasn’t ratting out the school, the effort by Noah to prevent her reporting a student to police for what she “reasonably believed” to be an assault was sufficient to invoke NY Labor Law § 740.
Nevertheless, § 740 independently proscribes retaliation against an employee because that employee “objects to, or refuses to participate in any … activity, policy or practice” that “the employee reasonably believes is in violation of law, rule or regulation.” Samuels identifies a specific activity, namely that Defendants “attempted to prevent” her from filing a police report about an Urban Assembly student and forbade her from “giv[ing] the police any information” about that student. Samuels, moreover, plausibly alleges that she “object[ed] to, or refuse[d] to participate in” Defendants’ activity, because she reported the assault to the police even after Noah “instructed [her]” not to do so.
If it turns out that Samuels was accidentally hit in the head with a nerf ball, and yet reported it as an assault by a student, and if the ER doc’s note reflected a conclusory reaction to her complaining rather than any justifiable medical necessity, then the damage done to the student and school by an overly sensitive teacher may well justify Principal Noah’s harsh reaction.
But at this point, the judge took the allegations of the complaint as true and denied dismissal, as the law required. And indeed, it may be exactly as Samuels alleges and she may very well have been wrongfully terminated for her refusal to abide Noah’s demand that she not report the assault.
H/T Eugene Volokh