This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

At the start of school, Nicole (P) was a 15-year-old sophomore who had Grumman as her biology teacher. Grumman was 55 years old and had been teaching at the same school for the past 25 years. The biology course lasted one semester, from September 2005 until mid-January 2006. Grumman made several remarks about P's buttocks. P described these remarks as 'weird statements' or 'sick comments,' about five or six in all. Grumman kept denigrating P with comments about how big her hips were. 'With that huge rump of hers and those hips, there's no way she would fit. And then . . . she would be so grounded that her parents wouldn't feed her dinner, but maybe that would help.' 'Talked about my--my butt and how if I was walking down the hallway, that I would knock out all of the lockers because it was so big.' 'You have to make it bigger. Make it as big as Nicole's butt.' Nicole arrived for class wearing pants with one of the nicknames for the school's athletic teams, 'Big Red,' emblazoned across the bottom. Pointing at the pants, Grumman said, 'Oh, that's what you call it these days,' which Nicole understood to refer to the size of her buttocks. P told her parents in turn, they told her to tell her guidance counselor, Jacquelyn Hall. P met with Hall, telling her that Grumman 'was saying some things that made them feel uncomfortable.' Hall assured P that she would give her statement to the school's principal. The Principal (Couture) met with Grumman and a representative from the teachers' union. Couture told Grumman that his comments 'were inappropriate and the students did not find them to be humorous.' Couture did not consider the comments to be sexual harassment. Grumman agreed not to 'make those types of comments anymore.' P claims that 'when things were going on,' she had difficulty sleeping. Her mother remembers that P 'wouldn't get up. She wouldn't eat.' P said that she 'just didn't want to do anything' and 'was afraid to hang out with people at school because I was afraid they would talk about what happened' in Grumman's class. P received a grade of B+ in the class, consistent with her grades in her other classes that marking period (A+, A, and B-). The Stevens High sexual harassment policy, in the student handbook, defines sexual harassment as 'verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual nature' which 'has the purpose or effect of substantially or unreasonably interfering with an individual's . . . education, or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive . . . education environment.' The handbook also details what the School must do when presented with violations. Grumman eventually retired of his own accord. Grumman had been the target of other complaints as head coach of the varsity soccer team and was eventually dismissed as the head coach. Ps sued Ds. Ds moved for summary judgment. The Long casebook is concerned with intentional infliction of emotional distress.

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