Scarborough v. Frederick Cnty. Sch. Bd.
517 F. Supp. 3d 569 (W.D. Va. 2021)
from Sovine and Angelo's Twitter accounts on the
same day she was blocked. Therefore, as it
pertains to Sovine and Angelo, the court also
cannot afford relief regarding postdeprivation
process on these facts. See Davison , 267 F. Supp.
3d at 722 ("The period during which Plaintiff was
banned from Defendants' Facebook page was of
such a limited duration that neither Defendant nor
the County government had an opportunity to
provide any postdeprivation process."). The court
agrees with Defendants Sovine and Angelo that
Count II is implausible on its face as to any
postdeprivation review. The court will therefore
dismiss Count II against Sovine and Angelo with
prejudice.
C. Count III: 42 U.S.C. § 1983 —
Failure to Train
In her final cause of action, Scarborough alleges
that Defendant FCSB failed to train its officials on
acceptable social-media practices, and that this
failure contributed to those officials' infringement
of her First Amendment rights. Defendants move
to dismiss this failure-to-train claim, arguing that
Scarborough failed to plead sufficient facts
establishing a prima facie case for this cause of
action under § 1983.
"To impose liability on a supervisor for the failure
to train subordinates, a plaintiff must plead and
prove that: (1) the subordinates actually violated
the plaintiff's constitutional or statutory rights; (2)
the supervisor failed to train properly the
subordinates thus illustrating a ‘deliberate
indifference’ to the rights of the persons with
whom the subordinates come into contact; and (3)
this failure to train actually caused the
subordinates to violate the plaintiff's rights."
Brown v. Mitchell , 308 F. Supp. 2d 682, 701 (E.D.
Va. 2004) (citing City of Canton v. Harris , 489
U.S. 378, 388–92, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d
412 (1989) ).
To satisfy the first element, a plaintiff must allege
that the defendant's subordinates actually violated
her rights. Id. at 702 ; Young v. City of Mt. Ranier ,
585
238 F.3d 567, 579 (4th Cir. 2001) ("The law is
quite clear ... that a section 1983 failure-to-train
claim cannot be maintained against a
governmental employer in a case where there is no
underlying constitutional violation by the
employee."). Under the second element, "in order
to have exhibited deliberate indifference, the
supervisory power must have had notice of the
constitutional or statutory violation, and thereafter
must have consciously chosen a particular course
of action in response." Brown , 308 F. Supp. 2d at
703 ; City of Canton , 489 U.S. at 389, 109 S.Ct.
1197 ("Only where a failure to train reflects a
‘deliberate’ or ‘conscious’ choice by a
municipality—a ‘policy’ as defined by our prior
cases—can a city be liable for such failure under §
1983."). "It is generally acknowledged that, if the
supervisory power is actually aware of the fact
that its subordinates are regularly violating
constitutional or statutory *585 rights, and the
supervisory power fails to implement a training
program to quell this pattern, deliberate
indifference exists." Id. (citations omitted).
Finally, to survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, a
plaintiff must allege a "causal nexus between the
failure to train and the complained of injury." Id.
at 706 (citing City of Canton , 489 U.S. at 391,
109 S.Ct. 1197 ).
Scarborough has adequately pleaded a failure-totrain claim. As detailed above, she has alleged
plausible violations of her First and Fourteenth
Amendment rights against FCSB. To establish the
second element—failure on the part of FCSB to
train its officials on First Amendment
considerations for social media—Scarborough
points to Defendants' failure to take screenshots of
her posts; their failure to post any terms and
conditions on their social-media pages; their
failure to warn her that her comments could be
deleted; and their failure to give her notice and an
opportunity to be heard prior to deleting her
comments and banning her from the platforms.
These acts and omissions, Scarborough argues,
support the inference that these officials were
12
Seleccionar párrafo de destino3
Conectar a un párrafo
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Añadir a la tabla de contenidos