The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-02
He Opened His Parochial School
" in Defiance of the Order
of the Board.
INJUNCTION TO BE ASKED FOR
The Board of Education Will Seek to.
Overthrow the Health Board
in the Courts. 81.

The Board OF Education and the Board
of Health, two branches of the City gov
eminent, have locked horns and cried de-
fance at each other. The Board of Health
has ordered several of the schools of the
City to be closed for the reason that diph-
liberia threatens to become a widespread
epidemic. The Board of Education scoffed
at the fears of the Board of Health and
ordered the schools to be opened again.
Both boards Immediately rushed to arms
so far as such ordinarily quiet and civil
bodies can, and they made yesterday a
day of excitement in their immediate
provinces. -:
Deputies were stationed about the
schools by the Board of Health with or
ders to see that the doors were kept closed
and that the pupils were not admitted.
The Board of Education, feeling the
breath of this opposition, assembled by
special call and there was not counsel in
the direction of sending an army of other
deputies to meet and combat the deputies
of the Board of Health. This fiery temper
was allowed to sizzle bit and then it was
decided that the courts would be appealed
to and an injunction would be asked
Health from interfering with the special
powers and responsibilities of the Board
of Education.
School Director Henderson was arrested
yesterday by Health Inspector Cameron
for tearing DOWN a warning notice posted
by the latter, and Father Brennan has
been served with warrant which calls
him before Police Judge Campbell this
morning on a charge of having violated a
health ordinance in that he opened st.
Francis parochial school after it had been
ordered closed Other arrests are threat
ened to follow along in quick succession.
In the meantime the pupils of the closed
schools are having vacation and are en-
joying it much more than the ordinary
prosaic holiday affair, which comes among
the blessings that are expected and ac-
eepted as matter of right.
The boards of Health and of Education
have had row coming for long time.
Several times the Board of Health has
made formal complaint of the unsanitary
condition of nearly all the schools. with
special emphasis upon certain of them.
Warnings were filed more than year ago
concerning the unsanitary plumbing in
these schools in the Mission. Several
times during the past year the Board of
Health peremp ptorily ordered the closing
of this or that school until some disease
breeding infraction of the sanitary laws
was corrected. The Board OF Health de-
clares that the Board of Education prom
ised to have the old unsanitary plumbing
taken out OF these schools in the Mission
and new regulation plumbing substituted
during the long summer vacation and
that they wholly failed and neglected to
do so.
When diphtheria broke out in the
vicinity of these schools and number of
cases were directly traced to them the
board felt not only justified but impelled
to order them closed as means OF pro-
tecting the lives of the children. When
the Board of Education cried Hardship
and Outrage" the Board of Health
simply pointed to the record and said,
at is upon your own head; we fore warned
you"
cation sets forth broad ground of griev-
ance. In the first place it declares that
there is no cause for the alarm that the
Board of Health has struck. DR.. Clinton
and DR.. Soper, members Of the Board of
Education, fatty deny that there is any
epidemic OF d1phtheria in the City or any
part of the City.
DIR. Clinton declares that the largest
part of his practice is In that part OF the
Mission said to be affected and where the
schools are located, and be emphatically
saws that there is no cause for the fear
expressed by the Board of Health. The
few cases of diphtheria reported, he says,
- hIo SYrQQd nj
the disease, and of those few cases a con-
siderable proportion are not diphtheria at
all.
The next ground of complaint is that
the Board of Education offered to make
such alterations as could be effected with
the money at hand, and which would put
the schools in perfectly safe sanitary con-
dition for the time belng-more than
which is entirely impossible for lack OF
money. Finally the Board of Education
claims that the action'of the Health Board
is arbitrary and an unwarranted lnterter-
ence in its affairs.
School Director Henderson, when he
tore down the warning notice posted by
Health Inspector Cameron, knew, be
says, that he would be arrested. He was
eager, however, to put the matter to the
test. He declares that the health inspee-
tors have no authority to make arrests,
especially to arrest officials, and he will
push the matter in the courts.
The schools closed are the Mission
Grammar and Marshall Primary on Mis-
sion. near Sixth street, the Everett on
Sanchez, near Sixteenth street, and the
St. Francis parochial on Dolores, near
Sixteenth street.
They have been shut up for several