No Qualified Immunity for School District Police Officer Who Seized Home-Schooled 14-Year-Old from Home

From McMurry v. Weaver, decided Friday by the Fifth Circuit (Judge Carolyn Dineen King, joined by Judge Jim Ho and Irma Carrillo Ramirez):

In October 2018, Plaintiff-Appellee Megan McMurry resided in a gated apartment complex in Midland, Texas with her daughter, Plaintiff-Appellee J.M., (then age fourteen) and son C.M. (then age twelve). J.M. took classes virtually from home, C.M. attended Abell Junior High School (Abell), part of the Midland Independent School District (MISD), and Ms. McMurry taught at Abell. Ms. McMurry’s husband and the children’s father, Plaintiff-Appellee Seth Adam McMurry, was deployed to the Middle East with the National Guard. To explore a job opportunity that would allow the family to move closer to Mr. McMurry, Ms. McMurry planned a trip to Kuwait from Thursday, October 25 to Tuesday, October 30.

Before leaving, Ms. McMurry arranged for a neighbor, Vanessa Vallejos, to check in on J.M. and C.M., and for coworkers to take C.M. to school. J.M. often babysat Ms. Vallejos’s son, and Ms. McMurry had arranged for Ms. Vallejos to watch J.M. and C.M. while she was out of town in the past.

On the morning of October 26, 2018, Defendant-Appellant Alexandra Weaver, a police officer with MISD, received a text from a counselor who was supposed to take C.M. to school that day. Weaver already knew that Ms. McMurry was out of the country because Ms. McMurry had emailed all Abell campus employees including Weaver a few days earlier. Upon receiving the text, she became concerned that J.M. and C.M. were without adult supervision, and informed her supervisor, Officer Kevin Brunner, of her concerns.

Weaver and Brunner then proceeded to meet with three of Ms. McMurry’s coworkers and learned that (1) Ms. McMurry was traveling for a job interview; (2) C.M. was at school; (3) a neighbor, whose son J.M. often babysat, was checking on the children daily; and (4) J.M. was homeschooled. Weaver and Brunner then went to the McMurrys’ apartment to conduct a welfare check on J.M.

Weaver and Brunner arrived at the apartment at around 10 a.m. that morning. J.M. answered the door and confirmed that her mother was overseas, and a neighbor was checking on her and C.M. J.M. also told the officers that the neighbor had last checked on her that morning and offered to share the neighbor’s phone number for the officers to call. Brunner then instructed J.M. to “go get some warm clothes on … then come visit with me outside.” Brunner asked if Weaver could accompany her into the apartment while she did so. J.M. responded “Mm-hmm,” then burst into tears and said “I’m scared.”

Inside the apartment, Weaver told J.M. not to contact her mother. While J.M. changed clothes in her room, Weaver “loo

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