Full opinion text
AMENDED MEMORANDUM AND ORDER JOSEPH F. BIANCO, District Judge: Plaintiffs Daniel DeFabio (“Daniel” or “D.D.”), Patricia DeFabio (“Ms. DeFabio”) and Michael Rusinsky (“Mr. Rusinsky”) (collectively, “plaintiffs”) bring this action, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against the defendants, alleging violation of Daniel’s constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, including freedom of speech, freedom of association, due process and equal protection. Plaintiffs also claim the defendants slandered and libeled Daniel under state law, and committed other violations of state law. Plaintiff further asserts that defendants’ actions caused Ms. DeFabio and Mr. Rusinsky to suffer humiliation, embarrassment, depression, mental anguish, anxiety, and other pain and suffering, and to expend money on education, travel, medical and mental health expenses in order to make themselves whole. The claims relate to events at East Hampton High School on April 26, 2004, while Daniel was a sophomore at the school, and the school officials’ decisions on that day, and in the time period that followed, with respect to Daniel. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that, on April 26, 2004, a racially offensive comment was falsely attributed to Daniel concerning the death of a Hispanic student and that the school violated his rights to freedom of speech and association by preventing him from proclaiming his innocence at the school over the public announcement system, at a school assembly, or by some other mechanism. Plaintiffs further allege that school officials’ decision to expel Daniel from the school — allegedly without notice, a proper hearing, or the ability to fairly confront his accusers- — violated his procedural and substantive due process rights, as well as his equal protection rights. Defendants now move for summary judgment. For the following reasons, defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted on the Section 1983 claims. The Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over any state claims and, thus, dismisses those claims without prejudice. I. Background A. Facts The facts described below are taken from the parties’ depositions, affidavits, exhibits and the parties’ Local Rule 56.1 statements of facts. Upon consideration of a motion for summary judgment, the Court shall construe the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. See Capobianco v. City of N.Y., 422 F.3d 47, 54-55 (2d Cir.2005). During the school year of 2003-2004, Daniel was a tenth grade student at East Hampton High School. (Defendants’ Local Rule 56.1 Statement of Facts (“Defs.’ 56.1”) ¶ 1.) Ms. DeFabio is Daniel’s mother. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 2.) Mr. Rusinsky is not Daniel’s biological or adoptive father, and is not married to Ms. DeFabio, but he resides in the family home of Daniel and Ms. DeFabio, considers himself Daniel’s stepfather, and was a parental authority with whom the school could communicate concerning Daniel. (Rusinsky Dep. at 7, 13-19.) On April 24, 2004, a Hispanic student from East Hampton High School was killed in a motorcycle accident. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 4.) The following Monday, April 26, 2004, was a day of mourning in East Hampton High School. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 4.) That morning, Daniel asserts that, as he was walking in the hall to his third period class, he heard a student say “one down, 40,000 to go,” in an apparent reference to the student who died. (Daniel Dep. at 24.) According to Daniel, he (Daniel) then repeated this statement to another student, D.A. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 6; Daniel Dep. At 33.) Specifically, Daniel testified that he whispered “I just heard someone say ‘one down, 40,000 to go’ ” to D.A. with his hand cupped around D.A.’s ear. (Daniel Dep. at 34.) Throughout that day, word spread through school that Daniel was the originator of the “one down, 40,000 to go” comment. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 7.) For example, Ralph Naglieri, who was a guidance counselor and was in the auditorium that had been designated for students as an area where they could mourn, spoke with a student, S.U, and, S.U. was very upset and speaking loudly about a student in the cafeteria who had made a comment about Hispanic students. (Naglieri Dep. at 8-10.) S.U. advised both Naglieri and another school staff member that people were very upset over the comment and pointed Daniel out as the person who had made the comment. (Id. at 10-11.) Also, during eighth period that afternoon, while Daniel was in the cafeteria celebrating a friend’s birthday, a group of 4 or 5 Latino students came up to him yelling about a racist comment. (Daniel Dep. at 39-41.) Daniel did not fully understand what they were saying, but one of them threw something at Daniel. (Id. at 41) Daniel then told them that he had done nothing wrong, and they walked away. (Id.) Daniel was scared and thought he was going to be beaten up. (Defs.’ 56.1 If 9.) A few minutes after this confrontation, Naglieri approached Daniel’s table and “physically grabbed” him and told him, “come with me.” (Daniel Dep. at 45-46.) Daniel did not resist because he was “pretty scared.” (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 10.) Mr. Naglieri took Daniel to the nurse’s office. Daniel had a sense that these incidents had to do with the “one down, 40,000 to go” comment. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 12.) Mr. Naglieri asked Daniel about the comment, and Daniel denied that he originated the remark. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 13; Daniel Dep. at 49-50.) Daniel explained to Mr. Naglieri that he overheard the statement being made by someone else and that he merely repeated it. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 14.) An Assistant Principal then came to the nurse’s office and asked Daniel if he made the statement. Daniel said no. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 15.) Daniel was in the nurse’s office for about twenty minutes. (Daniel Dep. at 50, 54.) During this time, there were “a lot” of Latino students looking into the office through a window, which made Daniel uncomfortable and afraid. Daniel heard people outside yelling that they were going to kill him. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶¶ 16-17.) Principal Scott Farina called the police to escort Daniel from school, and Daniel “ran” out with an Assistant Principal and the police officer on either side of him. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶¶ 18-19; Daniel Dep. at 56-58.) As Daniel left, the Latino students he saw outside the nurse’s office were still there, and some were yelling in Spanish. (Daniel Dep. at 58-59.) People at school made threats that they would kill Daniel and bomb his house, making him even more frightened than before. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 20.) Ms. DeFabio was informed that Daniel was being sent home from school because there were 150 students who wanted to knock down his door and beat him up. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 21.) That evening, Principal Farina did not tell Ms. DeFabio that Daniel was suspended, but told her that he should stay home for a few days because it was not safe for him to return to school until the situation calmed. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶¶ 22-24.) The parties dispute whether Daniel was suspended as of being sent home on April 26, 2004. Defendants contend that he was simply sent home for his safety at that point, and was not suspended. (Farina Dep. at 20.) Plaintiffs, however, contend that he was suspended, as he was removed from school and not permitted to return. (Pis.’ 56.1 ¶ 24.) They further contend that the situation had calmed down by the time the police arrived at the school and, therefore, there was no need to send Daniel home. (Farina Dep. at 40.) On Tuesday, April 27, 2004, Daniel prepared a letter proclaiming his innocence and asked Principal Farina if he could read it over the loudspeaker. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 25.) Principal Farina denied this request, stating that he thought it would make the students angrier and would cause more problems in the school. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 25.) Daniel also requested permission to read the statement at a school assembly, but this was also denied. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 26.) The parties dispute whether an investigation into the issue was conducted between April 26, 2004 and April 30, 2004. Defendants contend that Principal Farina conducted an investigation, in which he interviewed Daniel and several other students to get their recollections of what had occurred. (Farina Dep. at 20-21.) Plaintiffs point to the findings of the Commissioner of Education — namely, that “the principal admitted that his investigation did not include any subsequent interviews with D.D. after the day of the incident and there were no written reports of any investigation to substantiate the charges,” to support their contention that no investigation was conducted. (Commissioner’s Decision, dated August 7, 2006, at 5.) On April 28, 2004, a meeting was held between Ms. DeFabio, Mr. Rusinsky, Principal Farina, guidance counselor Caryn Lieber, and Assistant Principal Michael Burns. Principal Farina advised that Daniel’s continued absence was necessary in order to calm the situation. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 28.) At that time, Daniel had mixed feelings about returning to school — he wanted to in one respect, but he remained scared. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 29.) On April 30, 2004, plaintiffs were advised that Daniel was being suspended from school for 5 days and that a Superintendent’s hearing might be convened. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 30.) Between April 26, 2004 and May 7, 2004, plaintiff received a couple of threatening phone calls to his house and cell phone. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 31.) The voice-mail left on his cell phone was in Spanish. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 31.) Principal Farina heard threats at the school that people were going to light Daniel’s house on fire. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 32.) As a result, police stayed in the vicinity of Daniel’s house for about a week after April 26, 2004. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 32.) On May 7, 2004, a Superintendent’s Hearing was held. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 33.) Two students, D.A. and N.C., testified against Daniel at the hearing. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 34.) At the hearing, D.A. attributed the offensive comment to Daniel and denied that Daniel prefaced the comment by saying “I heard someone say” and, thus, believed that Daniel was the originator of the comment. (Commissioner’s Decision, dated August 6, 2006, at 5.) N.C. admitted that she did not hear the exchange between Daniel and D.A. (Id. at 6.) Daniel testified at the hearing and admitted he made the comment to D.A., but denied he was the originator of the comment; rather, he maintained that he had overheard the comment in the hallway and simply repeated it. (Id. at 5.) The Superintendent found Daniel guilty of making the racist comment and suspended him from school for the remainder of the school year. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 35.) After the hearing, Principal Farina escorted Daniel to a meeting with twelve students representing the school’s Latino community. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶36.) Daniel explained his version of events at the meeting and distributed a copy of the statement he had wanted to read over the loudspeaker. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶¶ 37-38.) According to Daniel, most of the students appeared not to believe Daniel’s story and commented that the fact that Daniel did not make a statement earlier and did not return to school made it look like he was lying. (Daniel Dep. at 91.) Principal Farina explained to the students that he had not permitted Daniel to return to school and that he had denied Daniel’s request to disseminate a statement explaining his version of events. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 40.) Daniel was home tutored for the remainder of the school year. (Daniel Dep. at 100-101.) The parties dispute when the tutoring began — defendants claim that Daniel was tutored beginning around May 3, 2004 (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 41), while plaintiffs contend that tutoring began on May 10, 2004. (Daniel Dep. at 101.) According to Daniel, that summer, Daniel received threats from various, unknown Latino individuals while he was working. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 48.) One of them almost came onto the boat Daniel was working on to fight him, but was stopped by the first mate. (Daniel Dep. at 97.) On a couple of other occasions, when Daniel was in the car, people would curse and yell at him and say they were going to kill him. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 49.) On one occasion, a Latino student saw him at a gas station and said Daniel was lucky he did not “pop” him. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 50; Daniel Dep. at 105.) Daniel never reported these incidents to the police. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 51.) During the summer of 2004, Ms. DeFabio and Mr. Rusinsky met with Principal Farina to discuss Daniel’s return to school. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 46.) Plaintiffs did not feel that the school was taking adequate measures to secure Daniel’s safety, and, therefore, decided that he would have to leave the state to be safe. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 47; Pis.’ 56.1 ¶ 47.) The parties dispute when the decision not to return to East Hampton High School was made by plaintiffs. Plaintiffs contend that Ms. DeFabio made the decision in August 2004. (Daniel Dep. at 107-08.) Defendants contend that plaintiff never expected to return to East Hampton High School during the summer of 2004. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 52.) According to the plaintiffs, they made the joint decision that Daniel should go to California to school for his own safety, based on threats that had been made in-person, over the phone and through third parties. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 53.) Plaintiffs appealed the decision of the Superintendent to the East Hampton Board of Education, but the appeal was denied. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 42.) Plaintiffs then sought a reversal of the suspension and expungement of Daniel’s record before the New York State Commissioner of Education. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 43.) The Commissioner sustained the appeal, overturned the Superintendent’s decision and ordered that the incident be expunged from Daniel’s student record. (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 44.) The Commissioner explained that “the superintendent failed to discuss any facts or testimony of the witnesses and his decision does not demonstrate that he addressed or weighed their credibility or demeanor.” (Commissioner’s Decision, dated August 7, 2006, at 5.) Thus, the Commissioner concluded the following: “While I recognize the highly charged emotional atmosphere surrounding this event, and do not in any way condone the biased nature of the comment, under the circumstances of this case and the record before me, I am constrained to determine that the record does not contain sufficient and competent evidence that D.D. generated the offensive comment and thus engaged in the objectionable conduct as charged.” (Id.) B. Procedural History Plaintiffs filed a complaint in this action on April 25, 2007. On May 30, 2007, defendants filed an answer to plaintiffs’ complaint. On November 10, 2008, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff filed his opposition on January 7, 2009. Defendants filed a reply on January 20, 2009. Oral argument was held on May 28, 2009. The Court has considered all of the parties’ submissions. II. Summary Judgment Standard The standards for summary judgment are well settled. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c), a court may not grant a motion for summary judgment unless “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Globecon Group, LLC v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 434 F.3d 165, 170 (2d Cir.2006). The moving party bears the burden of showing that he or she is entitled to summary judgment. See Huminski v. Corsones, 396 F.3d 53, 69 (2d Cir.2004). The court “is not to weigh the evidence but is instead required to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the party opposing summary judgment, to draw all reasonable inferences in favor of that party, and to eschew credibility assessments.” Amnesty Am. v. Town of W. Hartford, 361 F.3d 113, 122 (2d Cir.2004); see also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (summary judgment is unwarranted if “the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party”). Once the moving party has met its burden, the opposing party “must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts ... [T]he nonmoving party must come forward with specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Caldarola v. Calabrese, 298 F.3d 156, 160 (2d Cir.2002) (quoting Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986)). As the Supreme Court stated in Anderson, “[i]f the evidence is merely colorable, or is not significantly probative, summary judgment may be granted.” 477 U.S. at 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505 (citations omitted). Indeed, “the mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties” alone will not defeat a properly supported motion for summary judgment. Id. at 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505. Thus, the nonmoving party may not rest upon mere conelusory allegations or denials, but must set forth “concrete particulars” showing that a trial is needed. R.G. Group, Inc. v. Horn & Hardart Co., 751 F.2d 69, 77 (2d Cir.1984) (internal quotations omitted); Tufariello v. Long Island R.R., 364 F.Supp.2d 252, 256 (E.D.N.Y.2005). Accordingly, it is insufficient for a party opposing summary judgment “merely to assert a conclusion without supplying supporting arguments or facts.” BellSouth Telecomms., Inc. v. W.R. Grace & Co., 77 F.3d 603, 615 (2d Cir.1996) (internal quotations omitted). Ill. Discussion A. The Underlying Section 1983 Claims To prevail on a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a plaintiff must show: (1) the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws; (2) by a person acting under the color of state law. 42 U.S.C. § 1983. “Section 1983 itself creates no substantive rights; it provides only a procedure for redress for the deprivation of rights established elsewhere.” Sykes v. James, 13 F.3d 515, 519 (2d Cir.1993). Plaintiffs contend that defendants violated Daniel’s constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of association, due process and equal protection. Defendants now move for summary judgment on the grounds that, based on the evidence in the record, no reasonable juror could find that defendants violated any of Daniel’s constitutional rights. The Court will address each issue in turn. 1. Freedom of Speech Claim Plaintiffs contend that defendants violated Daniel’s First Amendment rights by denying him an opportunity to communicate his prepared statement to the student body in a number of ways. Specifically, plaintiffs contend that defendants should have allowed Daniel’s statement about the April 26, 2004 events: (1) to be read over the school intercom system; (2) to be read at an all-school assembly in the auditorium; or (3) to be distributed to the students. Defendants contend that because such speech required “the pulpit of the school’s PA system and/or auditorium” or distribution by school administration it would be “school-sponsored speech” and, therefore, may be censored “so long as censorship is reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns” — in this case, a concern that such speech would “further incite an already tense situation” and “could foreseeably disrupt the student body and wreak havoc in the school.” (Defendant’s Memorandum of Law, at 11-12 (citing Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260, 108 S.Ct. 562, 98 L.Ed.2d 592 (1988)).) They note that plaintiff was not prevented from communicating with his peers via telephone, e-mail, or any other ordinary channel; “rather he sought for the school to provide him with the means and medium to communicate by either public address system or a school-wide assembly.” (Defendant’s Memorandum of Law, at 11.) Plaintiffs, however, contend that the appropriate standard to apply here is the one set forth in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 89 S.Ct. 733, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969), which states that student expression may be restricted where it “would substantially interfere with the work of the school,” or would cause “material and substantial interference with schoolwork or discipline.” Tinker, 393 U.S. at 511, 513, 89 S.Ct. 733. As set forth below, although plaintiffs made a number of requests that would constitute school-sponsored speech and be analyzed under Hazelwood, they also allege that (prior to any suspension) Daniel was prevented from returning to school and speaking to students without any assistance from the school. Thus, the school’s decision is properly analyzed under the Tinker standard, rather than Hazelwood, and the undisputed facts demonstrate that defendants are entitled to summary judgment on this claim under Tinker. a. Applicable Level of Constitutional Scrutiny It is axiomatic that “[fjreedom to speak on government property is largely dependent on the nature of the forum in which the speech is delivered.” Bronx Household of Faith v. Cmty. Sch. Dist. No. 10, 127 F.3d 207, 211 (2d Cir.1997). Thus, when determining the level of constitutional scrutiny to be applied to state actions regulating speech, the court should first consider the threshold issue regarding the type of forum. See Peck ex rel. Peck v. Baldwinsville Cent. Sch. Dist., 426 F.3d 617, 625 (2d Cir.2005) (“Because the level of judicial scrutiny that must be applied to state actions inhibiting speech varies with the nature of the forum in which the speech occurs, we must first consider what sort of forum had been created.... ”). There are “four categories [of fora for expression] that, correspondingly, fall along a spectrum of constitutional protection.” Id. The categories from highest protection to lowest are the traditional public forum, the designated public forum, the limited public forum, and the nonpublic forum. See Make the Road by Walking, Inc. v. Turner, 378 F.3d 133, 142-43 (2d Cir.2004). A school is generally a non-public forum, a place in which the government “does no more than reserve eligibility for access to the forum to a particular class of speakers, whose members must then, as individuals, obtain permission to use it.” Ark. Educ. Television Comm’n v. Forbes, 523 U.S. 666, 679, 118 S.Ct. 1633, 140 L.Ed.2d 875 (1998) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see also M.B. v. Liverpool Cent. Sch. Dist., 487 F.Supp.2d 117, 133 (N.D.N.Y.2007) (“Generally, school facilities are nonpublic forums.”). “School facilities may be deemed to be public forums only if school authorities have by policy or practice opened those facilities for indiscriminate use by the general public, or by some segment of the public.... If the facilities have instead been reserved for other intended purposes, communicative or otherwise, then no public forum has been created.... ” Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 267, 108 S.Ct. 562 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). “A ‘designated public forum’ is a place not traditionally open to public assembly and debate — a public school, for example — that the government has taken affirmative steps to open for general public discourse.” Peck, 426 F.3d at 626. A limited public forum is created when the state “opens a non-public forum but limits the expressive activity of certain kinds of speakers or to the discussion of certain subjects.” Hotel Employees & Rest. Employees Union, Local 100 v. City of N.Y. Dep’t of Parks & Recreation, 311 F.3d 534, 545 (2d Cir.2002). The forum determines the type of constitutional scrutiny that applies to the restriction of speech. Speech in a public forum may only be restricted on the basis of content if “necessary to serve a compelling state interest and ... narrowly drawn to achieve that end.” Make the Road by Walking, 378 F.3d at 142. “Rules governing the content of speech in a limited public forum must be reasonable and viewpoint-neutral.” M.B., 487 F.Supp.2d at 132. Courts will “uphold a governmental restriction on speech in a nonpublic forum as long as the restriction is reasonable and viewpoint-neutral.” Perry v. McDonald, 280 F.3d 159, 169 (2d Cir.2001). Here, there is no question that the high school was a non-public forum. There is absolutely no evidence that the defendants, as it related to the events at issue in this case, opened the school facilities to use and expression by the public or some segment of the public. In fact, plaintiff does not even make such an assertion. Thus, the school is a non-public forum in which content can be regulated in a reasonable manner. See, e.g., Peck, 426 F.3d at 626-27 (holding that school was a non-public forum). However, further analysis is required in this case because the Supreme Court has also established specific standards for analyzing the level of constitutional expression afforded to students in the school environment, focusing on the nature of the speech, whether the speech is sponsored by the school, and the reasons for regulating it. Although students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” Tinker, 393 U.S. at 506, 89 S.Ct. 733, their constitutional rights “are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings,” Bethel Sch. Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 682, 106 S.Ct. 3159, 92 L.Ed.2d 549 (1986). Thus, the First Amendment standards need to be “applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment.” Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 266, 108 S.Ct. 562 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In particular, the Supreme Court has analyzed different categories of school speech and applied separate standards of review to each category: (1) schools may prohibit student speech that is vulgar, lewd, indecent, or plainly offensive because “it is a highly appropriate function of public school education to prohibit the use of vulgar and offensive terms in public discourse,” Bethel Sch. Dist. No. 403, 478 U.S. at 683-85, 106 S.Ct. 3159; (2) schools may exercise editorial control over speech that is school-sponsored “so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns,” Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 273, 108 S.Ct. 562; (3) schools may “restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use,” Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 393, 403, 127 S.Ct. 2618, 168 L.Ed.2d 290 (2007); (4) as to all other speech, the school cannot suppress based on content unless the school official reasonably concludes that the speech will “materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school,” Tinker, 393 U.S. at 513, 89 S.Ct. 733. See also Guiles ex rel. Guiles v. Marineau, 461 F.3d 320, 325 (2d Cir.2006) (summarizing First Amendment jurisprudence involving school speech). In the instant case, there is no assertion that the speech at issue was offensive, nor was it related to drug use. Thus, none of the circumstances presented in Bethel or Morse are at issue here. However, in order to determine which standard applies, the Court must analyze whether the speech that plaintiff alleged was prohibited was school-sponsored speech. “The question whether the First Amendment requires a school to tolerate particular speech ... is different from the question whether the First Amendment requires a school affirmatively to promote particular student speech.” Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 270, 108 S.Ct. 562 (emphasis added). Whether speech is deemed “school-sponsored” such that the Hazel-wood standard applies, relies on a determination of whether the speech “ ‘might reasonably have been perceived to bear the imprimatur of the school.’ ” Romano v. Harrington, 725 F.Supp. 687, 690 (E.D.N.Y.1989) (quoting Hazelwood, 108 S.Ct. at 569). This includes “activities [that] may fairly be characterized as part of the school curriculum, whether or not they occur in a traditional classroom setting, so long as they are supervised by faculty members and designed to impart particular knowledge or skills to student participants and audiences.” Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 270-71, 108 S.Ct. 562. Here, plaintiffs assert that, after an article about the incident appeared in the East Hampton Star on April 29, 2004, Daniel requested an opportunity to respond to the rumors by speaking to the students in one or more of the following manners: (1) have Daniel read his statement at a school assembly called in the auditorium; (2) have Daniel read his statement at the school to all students over the school’s public announcement system; (3) have the school circulate a copy of Daniel’s statement throughout the school to all students; or (4) allow Daniel to return to school and distribute his statement to students on his own (without school assistance) and/or speak to them about it during non-instructional time. Plaintiffs allege that defendants refused to allow him to return to the school to give the statement in any of these manners, including on his own without any school assistance. The Court will analyze each one of these issues in turn. First, asking the school administration to call students into the auditorium to listen to Daniel read his statement at a school assembly during school hours on school property might reasonably have been “pereeiv[ed] to bear the imprimatur of the school.” Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 281, 108 S.Ct. 562. Therefore, such speech constitutes school-sponsored speech. See, e.g., Poling v. Murphy, 872 F.2d 757, 762 (6th Cir.1989) (finding an election assembly to be “school-sponsored” where the school scheduled the assembly during school-hours on school property, and “made attendance compulsory”). To the extent that plaintiffs contend that Daniel merely wanted to use the auditorium with no assistance from the school administration, the school auditorium was a non-public forum to which Daniel had no right to access on that basis. Plaintiffs have pointed to no evidence that the school had previously allowed the use of a school assembly indiscriminately by the general public, or even by individual students or student groups. Plaintiffs suggest that some type of public forum was created by the school because they had a grieving session in the school auditorium on April 26, 2004 regarding the student’s death (at which students spoke about the racially charged comment attributed to Daniel) and, thus, Daniel was entitled to his own student assembly to respond. In particular, plaintiffs contend that: [o]n April 26, 2004, school officials sanctioned the open forum in the school’s auditorium for the purpose of eulogizing the student who had died. After the incident, that same forum was admittedly used by students to express their emotions and feelings about the racially charged comment attributed to Daniel. (Kuntz. Aff. ¶ 14.) School officials testified that many students would come up to the mike and “express their thoughts about the student that passed away ... and why did this student say these things.” (Kuntz. Aff. ¶ 14.) Daniel was not provided with the same opportunity despite the fact that the school had created a forum that very same week for speech it found acceptable. (Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law, at 13.) To the extent that plaintiffs contend that this assembly was sufficient to convert the auditorium into a public forum, such that the school administration could not deny Daniel an opportunity to hold an assembly there on a topic of his choosing, the Court finds such argument unpersuasive. It is undisputed that (1) the assembly was a school-sponsored assembly designed to aid students in coping with loss and sadness from a student’s death; and (2) the assembly was scheduled prior to the making of the comment at issue and was not intended to encompass the reactions to that comment. The school opened the auditorium for a narrow period of time to discuss the narrow topic of a student’s death. Therefore, it was analogous to class time in that the school was holding the event for a particular pedagogical aim. The fact that the assembly was opened to students to make comments does not change the nature of the forum. Nor does the fact that students may have made comments about Daniel and the alleged statement during that assembly turn the auditorium into a public forum for use by any student. There is no indication that students wishing to speak in support of Daniel were prevented from doing so during the assembly on April 26th. Moreover, Daniel did not prepare his letter and make the request to give his statement to students until April 27th. Under these circumstances, there is no basis for requiring the school to hold another assembly specifically to create an opportunity for Daniel to respond to prior, spontaneous statements by other students. See Hazelwood, 484 U.S. at 267, 108 S.Ct. 562 (“School facilities may be deemed to be public forums only if school authorities have by policy or practice opened those facilities for indiscriminate use by the general public or by some segment of the public.... If the facilities have instead been reserved for other intended purposes, communicative or otherwise, then no public forum has been created .... ”); see also Corder v. Lewis Palmer Sch. Dist. No. 38, 566 F.3d 1219, 1227 (10th Cir.2009) (“school boards have the authority to determine ‘what manner of speech in the classroom or in school assembly is inappropriate’ ”) (quoting Bethel Sch. Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 683, 106 S.Ct. 3159, 92 L.Ed.2d 549 (1986)). In short, the fact that students used a grieving session in the auditorium to voice objections to the offensive comment attributed to Daniel about the student’s death did not convert the auditorium into a public forum such that Daniel had a right to speak at a separate school assembly to respond. Second, the use of the school’s public announcement system would also turn Daniel’s private statement into school-sponsored speech. See, e.g., Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290, 309-10, 120 S.Ct. 2266, 147 L.Ed.2d 295 (2000) (“The delivery of [a religious] message— over the school’s public address system, by a speaker representing the student body, under the supervision of school faculty, and pursuant to a school policy that explicitly and implicitly encourages public prayer — is not properly characterized as ‘private’ speech.”). Third, the distribution of a statement by the school also would constitute school-sponsored speech as it may be perceived as a school publication bearing the imprimatur of the school. Any communication which uses the resources or distribution system of the school for dissemination of speech may be reasonably seen as school-sponsored. See, e.g., Busch v. Marple Newtown Sch. Dist., 567 F.3d 89, 98 (3d Cir.2009) (courts have found that show and tell presentations could “ ‘appear to bear the school’s seal of approval’”) (citation omitted). Therefore, if plaintiffs were only alleging that Daniel was denied access to give the statement at a school assembly, over the public address system, or through a mass distribution of the statement by the school, the school’s conduct would be analyzed under the Hazelwood standard for the regulation of school-sponsored speech. However, plaintiffs assert more than that. Plaintiffs assert that Daniel was prohibited from returning to the school at all to distribute his written statement without assistance from the school and/or speak to other students about it during noninstructional hours. Given plaintiffs’ assertion that Daniel also was prohibited from returning to school to disseminate his statement in a manner not sponsored by the school, the Court must analyze the school’s conduct under the more stringent Tinker standard, rather than the Hazelwood standard. b. Analysis under Tinker As a threshold matter, the Court notes that, with respect to the First Amendment claim, the period of time that is at issue is from April 26, 2004, which is the date of the events at the school regarding the alleged comments, and April 30, 2004, which is the date on which the school suspended Daniel for 5 days. Once the 5-day suspension took place on April 30, 2004, and once Daniel was suspended for the remainder of the school year after a Superintendent’s Hearing on May 7, 2004, the First Amendment claim became moot because Daniel was no longer permitted to be at the school. Although there could be potential separate claims for such decisions by the school (which are discussed infra) under the Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses, the existence of any such claims is independent of the First Amendment issue. Therefore, the critical question for the First Amendment claim is the following: whether, between April 26, 2004 and April 30, 2004, school officials reasonably concluded that the speech at issue— Daniel’s request to provide a written or oral statement to the students regarding the rumored comment — would “materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school.” Tinker, 393 U.S. at 513, 89 S.Ct. 733. Defendants argue that the principal denied Daniel’s request to return to school to address other students regarding the rumored comment because he feared that such an event would lead to even greater hostility toward Daniel and would create disruption in the school and an unsafe environment for Daniel and the student body. Plaintiffs contend that there was no basis for such a conclusion. As set forth below, the Court agrees with defendants and concludes that summary judgment is warranted on the First Amendment claim because, based upon the undisputed facts, no rational jury could find that the defendants, in prohibiting Daniel’s return to the school and speech regarding the incident, did not reasonably conclude that such speech would materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school. The undisputed facts demonstrate that both on the day of the rumored comment by Daniel, as well as the weeks that followed, there was overwhelming basis for concern about Daniel’s safety if he were to return to school for any reason (including to engage in some type of speech to the students). In particular, plaintiffs did not controvert the following facts from the events of April 26, 2004 regarding threats to Daniel’s safety at the school: (1) after the rumor spread through the school that Daniel was the originator of the “one down, 40,000 to go” comment, Daniel was confronted by 4 or 5 Latino students in the cafeteria, who were yelling about a racist comment and threw something at him (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 8; Daniel Dep. at 40); (2) Daniel was scared and thought he was going to get beat up (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 9; Daniel Dep. at 44); (3) Daniel did not resist the guidance counselor’s attempt to remove Daniel from the cafeteria and Daniel was “pretty scared” at that time (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 11; Daniel Dep. at 46); (4) while Daniel was in the nurse’s office, Daniel heard people outside the office yelling that they were going to “kill” him and Daniel could see a lot of Latino students looking through a window, which made plaintiff very uncomfortable and very afraid (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶¶ 16-17; Daniel Dep. at 53-54); (5) Daniel ran out of the school with a police officer and an Assistant Principal on each side of him (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 18; Daniel Dep. at 57-58); and (6) as he left the school, some Latino students were still watching him at a window, and some were yelling at him in Spanish as he passed by (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 19; Daniel Dep. at 58-59). As Daniel testified at his deposition, even after he returned home, he remained scared because of threats he had heard at the school by other students to kill him or bomb his house: Q. Were you still frightened at that time [i.e., when he arrived home]? A. Very. More than before. Q. What, specifically, was frightening you at that time? A. People saying they were going to kill me, saying they were going to bomb my house. Q. Those were things you heard while you were in school? A. Yeah. (Daniel Dep. at 62-63). However, the threats did not end when Daniel left the school that day. In particular, there is undisputed evidence that the threats to Daniel and concerns about his safety continued in the days and weeks after the incident, including the following: (1) between April 26, 2004 and May 7, 2004, Daniel received a couple of threatening phone calls to his house and cell phone (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 31; Daniel Dep. at 95-96); (2) the police stayed in the vicinity of his house for about one week after April 26, 2004 because the principal was hearing threats in the school that people were going to light Daniel’s house on fire (Defs.’ 56.1 ¶ 32; Daniel Dep. at 105-06). Daniel testified that his mother expressed concerns to him that someone was going to come to the house and kill Daniel. (Daniel Dep. at 77). Daniel also testified that, although he wanted to return to school in one respect, he did not want to in another respect because he was “pretty scared.” (Daniel Dep. at. 75-76). In fact, Daniel did not leave his home from April 26, 2004 until May 7, 2004, when he had a meeting with Latino students. (Daniel Dep. at 95). Based upon this record, it is undisputed that there were threats to Daniel’s personal safety not only on the date of the rumored incident, but in the days and weeks that followed. Given those facts, it was reasonable for the school to conclude that Daniel’s presence at the school — even if to engage in some type of speech to proclaim his innocence — posed a threat to his personal safety and the safety of other students because of the real possibility that violence could erupt in the school due to his presence and/or speech, and no rational jury could find otherwise. Plaintiffs suggest that such fears were ill-founded because, once Daniel gave his explanation and professed his innocence to the students, the threats and safety issues would have been eliminated. That argument ignores two key problems confronted by the school. First, Daniel’s mere presence at the school, even to attempt to engage in speech, could have resulted in a violent incident involving Daniel and/or others, given the volatile circumstances. Second, the school officials had no way of predicting whether the response to Daniel’s speech by other students would have been positive. In other words, the school faced the reasonable possibility that other students would not have believed his proclamation of innocence and that his speech would escalate an already volatile, emotional situation at the school and result in violence to Daniel and/or others at the school. To the extent that plaintiffs may suggest that the school, even if they did not allow Daniel to return to the school to engage in the speech during this period, should have distributed his written statements to all students. As a threshold matter, the Court notes that any distribution of his statement by the school under these circumstances would constitute school-sponsored speech because, among other things, the school’s involvement in any way in the distribution of this statement might reasonably have been perceived to bear the imprimatur of the school. The school’s refusal to sponsor such speech is not only justifiable under Hazelwood, but also satisfies the more stringent Tinker standard for the same reasons articulated above— namely, concerns about the disruption to the school that such speech could cause, including violence or other disruptions by angry and emotional students who may not believe Daniel’s statement and are outraged by his false exculpatory statement, by the school’s willingness to give him a forum to make it, and by his potential return to the school. In other words, while the distribution of his speech at the school in his absence would eliminate any potential harm to Daniel at the school, it would not eliminate the potential harm and disruption to the school that could reasonably result from the response of students to his speech even in his absence. In this context, it is well settled that school officials do not have to wait for actual disruption from the speech before they act; instead, school officials have an affirmative duty to prevent the disruption to the school environment from occurring in the first place. See, e.g., Doninger v. Niehoff, 527 F.3d 41, 51 (2d Cir.2008) (“[plaintiffs] argument is misguided insofar as it implies that Tinker requires a showing of actual disruption to justify a restraint on student speech”); see also Lowery v. Euverard, 497 F.3d 584, 596 (6th Cir.2007) (“[sjchool officials have an affirmative duty to not only ameliorate the harmful effects of disruptions, but to prevent them from happening in the first place”); LaVine v. Blaine Sch. Dist., 257 F.3d 981, 989(9th Cir.2001) (“Tinker does not require school officials to wait until disruption actually occurs before they may act.”). To hold otherwise would be to preclude school officials from preventing harm to students, including violence, even where the substantial disruption is reasonably foreseeable. Nothing in the First Amendment, or the Supreme Court jurisprudence interpreting the First Amendment, requires such an absurd rule. As the Sixth Circuit has explained, if school officials had to wait for an actual disruption to satisfy the Tinker test, school officials would be between the proverbial rock and the hard place: either they allow disruption to occur, or they are guilty of a constitutional violation. Such a rule is not required by Tinker and would be disastrous public policy: requiring school officials to wait until disruption actually occurred before investigating would cripple the officials’ ability to maintain order. Lowery, 497 F.3d at 596; see also Melton v. Young, 465 F.2d 1332, 1335 (6th Cir.1972) (“Surely those charged with providing a place and atmosphere for educating young Americans should not have to fashion their disciplinary rules only after good order has been at least once demolished.”). Not only are school officials free to act before the actual disruption occurs, they are not required to predict disruption with absolute certainty to satisfy the Tinker standard. Although plaintiffs seek to second-guess with hindsight the judgment of school administrators, that is not the role of the courts. If the school’s decision satisfies the constitutional standard in Tinker; then it is irrelevant that a litigant or court believes the situation could have been handled better. See Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 326, 95 S.Ct. 992, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975) (“It is not the role of the federal courts to set aside decision of school administrators which the court may view as lacking a basis in wisdom or compassion.”). As the Supreme Court has emphasized in Morse, “[sjchool principals have a difficult job, and a vitally important one.” 551 U.S. at 409-10, 127 S.Ct. 2618. Moreover, “[forecasting disruption is unmistakably difficult to do.” LaVine, 257 F.3d at 989. Thus, rather than requiring certainty of disruption, Tinker allows school officials to act and prevent the speech where they “ ‘might reasonably portend disruption’ from the student expression at issue.” Doninger, 527 F.3d at 51 (quoting LaVine, 257 F.3d at 989); see also Nuxoll ex rel. Nuxoll v. Indian Prairie Sch. Dist. # 204, 523 F.3d 668, 673 (7th Cir.2008) (“Taking the case law as a whole we don’t think a school is required to prove that unless the speech at issue is forbidden serious consequences will in fact ensue. That could rarely be proved.... It is enough for the school to present facts which might reasonably lead school officials to forecast substantial disruption.”) (quotations and citations omitted); LaVine, 257 F.3d at 990 (“[B]ecause of the special circumstances of the school environment, the level of disturbance required to justify official intervention is lower inside a public school than it is outside the school.”). Moreover, in assessing the reasonableness of the decision regarding potential disruption, courts must keep in mind that school officials also are entitled to rely upon their expertise and experience in making these often difficult judgments in extraordinary circumstances. As one court has noted, The First Amendment does not deprive school administrators of the ability to rely upon their own considerable experience, expertise, and judgment in recognizing and diffusing the potential for disruption and violence in public schools. Indeed, they are duty-bound to do just that. That duty is particularly acute when threats of physical violence have already been made and actual violence could well erupt if the hostile situation is not promptly and emphatically controlled. Governor Wentworth Regional School Dist. v. Hendrickson, 421 F.Supp.2d 410, 423-24 (D.New Hamp.2006). The Court recognizes that the issue of reasonable foreseeability is often a fact-specific question for a jury to decide. However, where the undisputed facts demonstrate the existence of a reasonably foreseeable risk of substantial disruption, and no reasonable jury could conclude otherwise, then the school officials are entitled to summary judgment. See, e.g., Wisniewski v. Bd. of Educ. of Weedsport Cent. Sch. Dist., 494 F.3d 34, 40 (2d Cir.2007) (affirming summary judgment in favor of school officials because “[w]hether these aspects of reasonable foreseeability are considered issues of law or issues of fact as to which, on this record, no reasonable jury could disagree, foreseeability of both communication to school authorities, including the teacher, and the risk of substantial disruption is not only reasonable, but clear”). That is precisely the situation here. The undisputed facts — including the threats to Daniel on the day of the incident and the days following the incident — demonstrate that school officials could reasonably conclude any attempt by Daniel to engage in speech at the school during this emotional and volatile time period, even if to explain his version of events with respect to the comment at issue — would “materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school.” Tinker, 393 U.S. at 513, 89 S.Ct. 733. The school’s concerns had absolutely nothing to do with the discomfort and unpleasantness which generally accompanies an unpopular viewpoint as described in Tinker; rather, given the escalating hostility towards Daniel at the school on April 26th and in the days that followed, as well as the high emotion over the loss of a classmate and the anger about the racially inflammatory comment that was attributed to Daniel, the school officials made the reasonable judgment that Daniel’s attempted explanation could be rejected by the students and lead to a potentially disruptive and/or violent reaction that could place Daniel and/or other students and teachers in danger. See, e.g., Hendrickson, 421 F.Supp.2d at 423 (“School authorities were not required to put their heads in the sand and allow further escalation of that hostility, and concomitant disruption to the school environment, simply because [plaintiff] cloaked his [symbolic speech] in a laudable First Amendment justification.”). Although plaintiffs disagree with that judgment, the undisputed facts do not provide a basis for finding a constitutional violation of Daniel’s free speech right under the First Amendment. Finally, to the extent that plaintiffs suggest that the school’s actions completely foreclosed any ability he had on his own to proclaim his innocence with respect to the comment and defuse the situation, that assertion is simply not supported by the record. First, on May 7, 2004, the principal accompanied Daniel to a meeting with 12 student leaders from the Latino community at East Hampton High School at which Daniel explained that he was not the originator of the comment and distributed a copy of the statement he wanted to read over the loudspeaker. (Daniel Dep. at 90-91). Second, the school posted the statement in the faculty lounge for faculty members to see. (Farina Dep. at 56-57.) Third, at no time did the school ever limit Daniel’s speech off school grounds. In other words, Daniel was not prevented from distributing his statement outside of school grounds or otherwise communicating his position to fellow students on his own via telephone, email, or any other channel available to him. Daniel could have invited students to a location off the school’s premises to make his statement. In fact, he could even have stood outside the school gates communicating his message to students as they left. Counsel for defendants, at oral argument, noted that they never sought to foreclose any such speech outside of school by Daniel. In sum, for the reasons discussed supra, the Court holds that the school administration’s decision to deny Daniel access to the school’s non-public fora to engage in speech regarding the rumored statement by him — including at a school assembly, via the public announcement system, or any other distribution system at the school, or by Daniel on school grounds without assistance from the school — did not violate his First Amendment rights to free speech as a matter of law given the undisputed facts in this case. c. Qualified Immunity Defendants argue that, even assuming arguendo that a First Amendment violation occurred, the individual defendants should be entitled to qualified immunity under the facts of this case. The Court agrees. It is well settled that “[t]he initial question with respect to qualified immunity is whether, viewing the facts alleged in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, there was a constitutional violation.” Fierro v. City of N.Y., No. 08-3952-cv, 341 Fed.Appx. 696, 698, 2009 WL 2223067, at *1 (2d Cir.2009) (summary order) (citing Clubside, Inc. v. Valentin, 468 F.3d 144, 152 (2d Cir.2006)). “If the answer to that question is yes, then the Court must determine if that right was clearly established at the time the challenged decision was made, and whether the defendants’ actions were objectively unreasonable.” Fierro, 341 Fed.Appx. at 698, 2009 WL 2223067, at *1 (citing Harhay v. Town of Ellington Bd. of Educ., 323 F.3d 206, 211 (2d Cir.2003)). As the Supreme Court has explained, “[qualified immunity shields an official from suit when she makes a decision that, even if constitutionally deficient, reasonably misapprehends the law governing the circumstances she confronted.” Brosseau v. Haugen, 543 U.S. 194, 198, 125 S.Ct. 596, 160 L.Ed.2d 583 (2004). Although there is no question that the Tinker rule is clearly established, the application of that test to the particular circumstances here leaves room for school officials, at a minimum, to reasonably disagree as to whether the return of Daniel to the school (and his proposed speech at the school) in the days following the incident would lead to substantial disruption. As one court noted, Even if [the defendant] did violate [the plaintiffs] First Amendment right to free speech, summary judgment would still be appropriate because she is entitled to a qualified immunity defense as a matter of law. Tinker established a right for students to exercise non-disruptive expression anywhere on school grounds. At some point, however, expressive speech crosses the line into “disruptive” and thus gives way to school officials’ ability to maintain order and discipline in an educational environment. The clearly established right is that students may not be punished or stopped from engaging in non-disruptive speech. Where that expression may be fairly characterized as “disruptive,” however, it crosses into a constitutional gray area in which school officials are reasonable in their belief that they are acting lawfully to put a stop to the disruptive student behavior. Acevedo v. Sklarz, 553 F.Supp.2d 164, 170 (D.Conn.2008); see also Hosty v. Carter, 412 F.3d 731, 739 (7th Cir.2005) (“Public officials need not predict, at their financial peril, how constitutional uncertainties will be resolved.”); Litman v. George Mason Univ., 5 F.Supp.2d 366 (E.D.Va.1998) (“Part of the qualified immunity test is whether a reasonable person in the defendant’s position would have known that his actions violated the plaintiffs First Amendment rights. Defendants in this case could reasonably have viewed [plaintiffs] actions of sending numerous e-mails and other writings to professors regarding her claims of sexual harassment as highly disruptive of the professors’ work, and thus are entitled to qualified immunity....”). Accordingly, even assuming arguendo that there was a First Amendment violation as to Daniel’s freedom of speech (which there was not), the individual school officials are entitled to summary judgment under the doctrine of qualified immunity. 2. Freedom of Association Claim Plaintiffs also contend that the school’s decision to prohibit Daniel from engaging in speech at the school unlawfully infringed on his right to freedom of association protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. As set forth below, because this claim is entirely duplicative of the free speech claim (which the Court has concluded cannot survive summary judgment), summary judgment in defendants’ favor on the freedom of association claim is also warranted. As the Second Circuit has explained, “[t]he Supreme Court has recognized a right of association with two distinct components — an individual’s right to associate with others in intimate relationships and a right to associate with others for purposes of engaging in activities traditionally protected by the First Amendment, such as speech and other expressive conduct.” Adler v. Pataki, 185 F.3d 35, 42 (2d Cir.1999) (citing Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 617-18, 104 S.Ct. 3244, 82 L.Ed.2d 462 (1984)). In the instant case, it is clear that plaintiff is attempting to assert a violation of the latter right of association — often referred to as “expressive association.” In other words, plaintiff argues that the school officials’ refusal to allow the speech interfered with Daniel’s right of association by prohibiting him from communicating his message to his fellow students in violation of his free speech rights. (See Plaintiffs Opposition Memorandum, at 14 (“The First Amendment protects not only a citizen’s right to speak freely but also his or her right to associate freely with other speakers of similar or opposing opinions. District officials intended to interfere with Daniel’s comments on a subject they wanted to erase. Attempt to silence Daniel on a subject which made the school officials uncomfortable.”) (citation omitted).) Under such circumstances, the free association claim is entirely duplicative of the free speech claim. Thus, because the Court has already concluded as a matter of law that the defendants did not violate Daniel’s free speech rights by refusing to allow him to communicate his message to the students regarding the rumored comment, the officials’ conduct in that regard did not infringe upon any right by Daniel to associate with others for purposes of engaging in activities traditionally protected by the First Amendment. Accordingly, summary judgment on the freedom of association claim is warranted for the same reason as the free speech claim. See, e.g., Illiano v. Mineola Union Free Sch. Dist., 585 F.Supp.2d 341, 355 (E.D.N.Y.2008) (“Here, the Plaintiffs freedom of association claim is duplicative of her inviable freedom of speech claim. Accordingly, defendants’ motions to dismiss plaintiffs freedom of association claim under § 1983 are granted.”); Birmingham v. Ogden, 70 F.Supp.2d 353, 369 (S.D.N.Y.1999) (dismissing right of association claim as duplicative of free speech claim); see also Henley v. Tullahoma City Sch. Sys., 84 Fed.Appx. 534, 544 (6th Cir.2003) (“dismissal of Plaintiffs’ freedom of association claims was warranted because they were merely duplicative of their meritless retaliation claims”). Accordingly, the Court grants defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiffs’ freedom of association cl