Appeals court dismisses Columbia SRO from civil rights lawsuit
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMIZ)
A federal appeals court said a school resource officer working at a Columbia school is protected by qualified immunity for her part in the questioning of a student.
A panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision to leave Sgt. Keisha Edwards in the Rock Bridge High School student's lawsuit. The court said the student could not prove Edwards would have known she violated her constitutional rights when she took her from her final for police questioning.
The lawsuit claims Edwards, along with two unnamed police department employees and the school's assistant principal, violated her rights under the Fourth Amendment. Edwards allegedly asked the student to leave her final to come to an office for detectives to question her about a sexual assault case in 2019 she was not involved in. The lawsuit claims assistant principal Tim Baker broke the school's rules by not being present when officers questioned her.
Judge Morris Arnold said it was not clear the Edwards would have known she had "seized" the student. Arnold said Edwards' only apparent role in the questioning was walking with the student to the office and closing the door.
"Though it's possible Edwards seized L.G., we are unwilling to say based on Edwards's incidental role and these other circumstances that every reasonable officer in Edwards's position would have known that she was doing so," Arnold wrote.
Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects public employees from civil rights lawsuits. Workers are immune from lawsuits if their conduct doesn't violate any law or right a "reasonable person" would have known. Andy Hirth, attorney for the student, said the decision illustrates the "circular logic" of qualified immunity.
"It creates an insurmountable barrier to police accountability: Edwards cannot be held liable for violating the constitution in this way because no prior officer has been held liable for violating the constitution this way, which necessarily means no subsequent officer will ever be held liable for violating the constitution in this way either," Hirth said.
The case will proceed against the two police detectives and Baker.
