Plaintiff De Anza Angel Dimas sued Defendants Pecos Independent School District Board of Education (PISD), Pecos High School, Michael Flores, and Fred Trujillo in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, raising claims under Title IX, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the New Mexico Constitution, the New Mexico Human Rights Act (NMHRA), and common law invasion of privacy. The district court granted summary judgment in Defendants’ favor on all claims, and Ms. Dimas appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Factual Overview
Ms. Dimas, a member of the Pecos High School girls’ basketball team, was sitting next to her girlfriend on a school bus before traveling to a basketball tournament. Mr. Flores, the school’s athletic coordinator, informed Ms. Dimas that she and her girlfriend could not sit together due to the school district’s unwritten policy prohibiting students in romantic relationships from sitting on the same bus seat during athletic trips. Ms. Dimas complied and participated in the tournament.
Ms. Dimas believed she was targeted for being in a same-sex relationship and that the policy would not have been enforced had she been in an opposite-sex relationship. She filed suit against the Defendants, asserting various state and federal claims.
Legal Analysis
I. Discovery: The court affirmed the district court’s decision to stay discovery pending resolution of the qualified immunity defense and its denial of Ms. Dimas’s requests for additional discovery under Rule 56(d), finding no abuse of discretion.
II. Title IX Claim: The court affirmed the dismissal of the Title IX claim, concluding that Ms. Dimas failed to establish a prima facie case of sex-based discrimination because the unwritten policy was facially neutral and Ms. Dimas did not provide evidence of selective enforcement against same-sex couples or that her sex was a motivating factor in the policy’s enforcement.
III. Constitutional Right to Privacy Claim: The court affirmed the dismissal of the Constitutional Right to Privacy claim under Rule 15(a)(2) because Ms. Dimas did not have leave to add this claim to her First Amended Complaint.
IV. General Fourteenth Amendment & Monell Claims: The court found that Ms. Dimas waived any arguments concerning her General Fourteenth Amendment and Monell claims by inadequately presenting them on appeal.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of the Defendants on all claims.
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