Citations
- 33 Cal. App. 4th 1491
Full opinion text
Opinion
SIMS, Acting P. J.
Plaintiff Alfred O. Couch worked as a campus security officer, or “monitor,” at Rio Americano High School in Carmichael. On arriving at work on the morning of February 28, 1992, he was shown a portion of an article in that day’s edition of the school newspaper. He concluded, without reading the rest of the article, that it accused him of being, among other things, a murderer and a drug dealer. Despite the apologies of the article’s authors, he resigned his position, claiming that he could no longer feel comfortable working at the school. He then sued defendant San Juan Unified School District (the District), which operates Rio Americano High School, alleging libel, invasion of privacy, and emotional distress. The second and third counts were dismissed on demurrer; the libel count fell to defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff appeals, seeking the reinstatement of all three counts. We shall affirm.
Facts
Plaintiff was first employed as a campus monitor at Rio Americano High School in 1991. Following a leave of absence, he returned to work on February 11, 1992. From February 11, 1992, to February 28, 1992, he was the only African-American employee at the school, whose student body was overwhelmingly White. Plaintiff’s job duties included breaking up student fights, confiscating drugs and alcohol from students, and bringing students into the principal’s office for use or possession of drugs.
In the February 28, 1992, issue of the school newspaper, the Rio Mirada, an article called Raider Final appeared. It begins on page 4, a page headed “Entertainment,” and continues onto page 11. It carries the following bylines: “[B]y Matt (Nice N’ Easy) Aldrich, Shane (The Man) Mc Kinney, Paul (Fat Boy) D’Albora.”
The Raider Final consists of an introduction, 10 multiple-choice questions, and a key to the scoring of the questions. The introduction reads: “Welcome to hell. The following is a test of your virility, agility, and the ability to master the functions of your spleen, colon, and urinary tract. This is a comprehensive test of your knowledge of Rio sub-cultures. Proceed with caution and answer all questions with a number two pencil. You may begin . . . now.”
Most of the questions deal with recent events or topical concerns at the school (e.g., “Why has it been so long since the last issue of the Mirada?”; “Why should condoms be distributed at Rio?”; “What happened at Rio on President’s Day?”). A few venture more broadly into pop culture (e.g., “Hey, why did they change my Pepsi can?”; “What are the new exhibition sports for the ’92 Winter Olympics?”; “Since we don’t know if Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White,’ the next question is, ‘Gay or Straight’?”). All questions have four possible answers, most self-evidently absurd, some arguably vulgar or tasteless. The key to the scoring reads: “If you scored less than 10 points, you’re a loser. Try again[,] Big Guy. [^0 If you scored 10 to 25 points, you can bite my Magic Bus. [*]]] If you scored 26 to 40 points, you were reaching just a little bit too much. ... [^] If you scored over 40 points, take about a three-day recess from the drugs[,] psycho."
Question 5, the material giving rise to this lawsuit, reads as follows: “5. What’s the story behind the new narc? [*][] (a) They felt that we needed someone who’s actually committed murder to hand out discipline at Rio. [