DISCLAIMER: The following unofficial case summaries are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
193280P.pdf 05/11/2021 T.S.H. v. Green
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 19-3280
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - St. Joseph
[PUBLISHED] [Colloton, Author, with Melloy and Kelly, Circuit Judges]
Civil case - Civil rights. In action alleging the plaintiff high school
students were seized in violation of their constitutional rights when
defendants, Northwest Missouri State police officers, instructed the
students' high school coach to assemble them in a room for questioning
about a "peeping tom" incident that occurred during a summer football
camp, the district court denied the officers' motion for summary judgment
based on qualified immunity. Held: reasonable officers could have believed
that probable cause was not required to to ask the students' coach to
seize the students and detain them in a room for questioning and
investigation; in light of this court's decisions, the students had no
clearly established right to be free from a seizure instigated by the
defendants if it passed muster under a standard of reasonableness;
further, the officers could reasonably believe that they were authorized
to investigate the incident to comply with their obligations under both
Title IX and Missouri law regarding invasion of privacy; the seizure was
reasonable in scope and duration;the officers were entitled to dismissal
of the students' claims under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 5033 and 5038 as the statutes
are inapplicable, Judge Kelly, concurring in part and dissenting in part.