UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 04-1650
JEREMY COLLINS, by his father and next friend,
Gregory Collins,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
versus
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD; EDWARD L.
KELLY; W. ASHBY BIRCHETTE, III; THOMAS H.
GILL,
Defendants - Appellees,
and
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS; LUCY S.
BEAUCHAMP; LYLE G. BEEFELT; JOAN R. FERLAZZO;
WILLIAM HUNDLEY; STEVEN KEEN; JULIE C. LUCAS;
DON E. RICHARDSON; STEPHEN R. WASSENBERG,
Defendants.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, at Alexandria. Claude M. Hilton, Chief
District Judge. (CA-03-1455-A)
Argued: May 24, 2005 Decided: July 15, 2005
Before WILKINSON, MICHAEL, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
ARGUED: Paul Anthony Gowder, Jr., VICTOR M. GLASBERG & ASSOCIATES,
Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Mary Ellen McGowan,
BLANKINGSHIP & KEITH, Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellees. ON BRIEF:
Victor M. Glasberg, VICTOR M. GLASBERG & ASSOCIATES, Alexandria,
Virginia, for Appellant. Jeremy B. Root, BLANKINGSHIP & KEITH,
Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellees.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
See Local Rule 36(c).
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PER CURIAM:
Appellant Jeremy Collins (“Collins”), by his father and next
friend Gregory Collins, brought this action under 42 U.S.C.A.
§ 1983 (West 2003), against the Prince William County Public
Schools, the Board and its members, and three school officials.
Collins asserted that his expulsion from high school violated his
rights to due process and equal protection, and that the
disciplinary rules under which the Board acted were void for
vagueness.*
During the 2001-2002 school year, Collins observed an
experiment on chemical reactions that his science teacher conducted
in the school parking lot. The experiment involved placing
aluminum foil in a plastic bottle, adding an over-the-counter
cleaner, and recapping the bottle. The cleanser and foil created
a chemical reaction, releasing gas into the capped bottle and
causing the bottle to explode.
Approximately one year later, on April 18, 2003, Collins, his
friend K.R., and some of their friends went to Wal-Mart where
Collins purchased the supplies needed to replicate the chemistry
experiment. They then drove to a residential area to explode a
bottle bomb. Collins mixed the ingredients, recapped the bottle,
and returned to the car where the group waited for the bottle bomb
*
We previously granted Collins’ motion to waive
confidentiality. See 4th Cir. R. 10(d)(1)(A)(iii).
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to explode. After the bottle bomb exploded, Collins and the others
moved down the street to avoid getting caught and exploded more
bottles along the way. The following night, K.R. and some of his
friends assembled more of the bottle bombs and exploded some in the
parking lots of several schools in Prince William County. Collins
denied participating in the activities on the second evening.
During the course of an investigation into the explosions,
local authorities determined that Collins had been involved in the
bottle bombings and that he had shown K.R. and others how to
assemble the bottle bombs. Collins was arrested and held for five
days.
On April 25, 2003, Thomas H. Gill, the high school principal,
notified Collins and his parents that Collins had been suspended
from school for five days, which was extended for another five-day
period, for Collins’ violations of the Prince William County Public
Schools’ Code of Behavior. Among other provisions, the Code of
Behavior provides that Prince William County students are subject
to discipline for offenses occurring off school grounds, in certain
circumstances:
Offenses Off School Grounds -- Actions outside of school
which have a negative impact on the school building,
programs, students, or staff will not be tolerated. The
School Board and staff of Prince William County Public
Schools are committed to maintaining the schools as safe
and healthful places in which to learn, places which are
free from the impact of violence, weapons, gang activity,
substance abuse, and other negative influences. Students
are subject to corrective measures at school, up to and
including expulsion, for offenses which occur in the
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community or at other locations off school grounds if
those offenses are connected in some way with the school.
J.A. 242. After holding a hearing with Collins, his father, and
Collins’ attorney, Gill notified Collins and his parents that Gill
intended to recommend expulsion to the School Board.
The Board then convened an administrative hearing on Gill’s
recommendation to expel Collins. The Board also conducted
expulsion hearings for four other students, including K.R. At the
hearing, Gill informed the Board that, as a result of the incidents
on April 18 and 19, he and his staff spent a great deal of time
fielding telephone calls, e-mails, and questions from concerned
parents and the media, and providing information to fire marshals
and police who were investigating the incidents. These activities
diverted the staff’s attention from their normal duties. Gill also
noted that instructional time was affected because students wanted
to talk about the incidents.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the Board unanimously voted
to expel Collins through February 2004 for his “participation with
explosive devices and offenses off school grounds resulting in
disruption to the school system.” J.A. 406. K.R. received the
same punishment as Collins. The other students were expelled for
the remainder of the 2002-2003 school year and were ordered to
complete forty hours of community service.
Collins then filed this action under § 1983, alleging that the
Board’s actions in expelling him were arbitrary and capricious, in
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violation of his right to substantive due process, and that he was
punished more severely than others, in violation of his right to
equal protection. He also alleged that the regulations were void
for vagueness because they did not adequately inform him that his
off-premises conduct could subject him to expulsion. Collins
sought injunctive relief, expungement of the expulsion from his
school record, and damages.
Defendants moved for summary judgment, asserting that each of
Collins’ claims failed on the merits. Collins opposed the motion
for summary judgment, asserting that the motion was premature and
addressing the claims on the merits. Collins’ counsel also
submitted an affidavit in accordance with Rule 56(f) of the Federal
Rules of Civil Procedure, asserting that additional discovery
should be completed before the court resolved Defendants’ motion
for summary judgment.
After a hearing, the district court granted Defendants’ motion
for summary judgment. The court rejected Collins’ substantive due
process claim, finding that, based upon the administrative record,
ample evidence supported the Board’s decision to expel Collins for
his role in the explosion of the bottle bombs. The court also
concluded that Collins failed to establish an equal protection
violation because he was not treated differently from similarly
situated students and the Board’s action was rationally related to
a legitimate state interest. The district court also rejected
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Collins’ void-for-vagueness challenge. Because Collins failed to
state a constitutional violation, the court also found that his
§ 1983 claims against the Board failed and that the individual
defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. Collins filed a
timely notice of appeal.
We have considered the parties’ briefs, the joint appendix,
and the arguments of counsel and find no reversible error in the
district court’s order granting summary judgment on Collins’ claims
that Defendants’ decision to expel him from public school deprived
him of substantive due process and equal protection. Accordingly,
we affirm for the reasons stated by the district court. See
Collins v. Prince William County Sch. Bd., No. CA-03-1455-A (E.D.
Va. Apr. 21, 2004).
We also find no reversible error in the district court’s order
granting summary judgment on Collins’ claim that the regulations on
which Defendants relied were unconstitutionally vague. “Given the
school’s need to be able to impose disciplinary sanctions for a
wide range of unanticipated conduct disruptive of the educational
process, the school disciplinary rules need not be as detailed as
a criminal code which imposes criminal sanctions.” Bethel School
Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 686 (1986). Here, the Code
of Behavior section entitled “Offenses Off School Grounds” provided
sufficient notice to Collins that his use of explosive devices off-
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site could result in a disruption to the school significant enough
to warrant his expulsion from school.
We also find no abuse of discretion in the district court’s
implicit denial of Collins’ request to extend discovery pursuant to
Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(f). See Strag v. Bd. of Trs., 55 F.3d 943, 954
(4th Cir. 1995) (“The denial of a Rule 56(f) motion for extension
should be affirmed where the additional evidence sought for
discovery would not have by itself created a genuine issue of
material fact sufficient to defeat summary judgment.”).
Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary
judgment to Defendants.
AFFIRMED
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