The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-17
THE GORD|AN
KNOT IN CITY
SCHOOL AFFAIRS
Schools May Close for
Three Months.
ONE-TWELFTH ACT VIOLATED
MERCHANT AND TEACHER MAY
HAVE TO WHISTLE.
The Trouble in Which the Late Rot
ten Board of School Directors
Has Plunged Them
Both.
ONE TWELFTH ACT VIOLATED
MERCHANT AND TEACHER MAY
HAVE TO WHISTLE.

Judge Belcher yesterday denied Miss
Mollie L. Sabins' order to restrain the
Board Of Education from dismissng her
from her position as teacher in the Wash
ington Evening School.
Miss Sabins is one of the two-or posi-
bly, all-teachers who are fearful of losing
their classes in that school and she and
Miss Emily Dyer have brought suits for
the salvation of their positions. Miss Sa-
bins in her application could make no
showing that the board intended her dis
missal, but alleged that, to the best of her
belief, the department contemplated the
abolition of her class, by which her ser
vices would be dispensed with and she
holds that the board has no power to re-
move her. The order denying the appli-
cation is as follows:
ON APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY IN
JUNCTION.
The plaintiff alleges in her complaint that
ever since October 10. 1897. she has been a
regular teacher of the School Department of
San Francisco; that the defendant board is
about to deprive her of her position teacher
without preferring charges or without having
the school to which she has been assigned.
she all; alleged further that pecuniary damages
prays for an injunction.
This is an ex parte application for restrain
The court ought not embarrass a branch
OF the municipal government in the free and
equal exercise of its duties upon parte
application, save upon the clearest showing
that 1t is acting in excess of authority juris-
diction or acting fraudulently, and also that
the party complaining is remediless at law,
that the injury threatened will be irreparable
and that the situation mperatively demands
the immediate action of the court. In every
other instance restraining order ought not to
be granted save in proper case after notice
of motion and a hearing.
In this case, however, upon the papers, the
order will be refused absolutely. The plain
TN mas a complete and adequate remedy at
law IF she ShOuld he imOrODarlV ed from
her position in the School Department she can
bring an action for salary due and for resto-
ration to office and therein obtain all the re-
lief she is entitled to. (Ball Board of Edu-
cation, No. 63,479 in this department. decided
The application for the temporary restrain
ing order is denied
EDWARD A. BELCHER.
January &c. 1898.
Miss Katherine Ball was a teacher of
drawing whose position was abolished and
OF peremptory mandate to compel the
board to admit her to the position to
which she was elected
Judge Belcher in his order granting her
petition stated that no charges had been
brought against her. neither was she in
any a1y, way disqualified; Her certificate au-
of the court the resolution by the board
ousting her from her position was 'mere-
ly Subterfuge to get rid of her for the
purpose of making room for another ap-
pointment.
]. A. Spinetti, attorney for Miss Sabins,
stated that Judge Belcher's reference to
his own decision in the Bali case pointed
out the way of procedure in the Sabins
case, .and. he would apply Immediately for
a writ Of mandate If the Board of Edu-
cation at its next meeting consolidated
her out of her class.
The two cases are IDENTICAL said Mr;
they dropped from their elected positions
without lawful cause, their only recourse
is in the courts. Miss Ball won and Miss
sa 1 will meet with the same hesult."
ton proceedings against the payment of
school moneys may knot matters into
gordian tangle. Those cases once locked
up in the courts when will a single teach
er-or a single merchandise paid? The
latter will be able to worry along without
his money, but what of the teachers, nine
tenths of whom cannot wait five or six
months for their salaries? If the late
board were not authorized by the pro-
visions of the ''one-twelfth act" certain
of the money due merchants and teach
ers is as much lost to them as if under
the Pacific Ocean. Or, in other words,
the Illegal debts cannot be collected. If
it is finally decided otherwise those debts,
including November and December sala-
ries, become legal obligations and must be
settled.
The payment of such large sum will
cripple the school finances for the rest of
the fiscal year ending June to such an ex-
tent that the schools will be shut down
for two If not three months.
appalling piOpllSSy 10 nO lueIS lHe-
DRY or mere thought of an alarmist, but
comes from the statement of President
Bergerot of the Board of Education. So
deep is the evil growing out of the official
villainy of the late board that nothing
short of time and a miracle can untangle
the gordian knot wound about the affairs
of the San Francisco School Department.
This is the condition of matters said
President Bergerot referring to the fore
going complication. THE unfortunate
creditors of the late board hardly knew
how they were victimized by our prede-
cessors Only by the utmost care and
economy can we extract this School De-
the midst of our troubles we hear a few
plants over the Normal School. Why, we
have enough substitute and unemployed
teachers in San Francisco now to last us
ten years If all the normal schools
should take a vacation for a few years
the State has sufficient supply of teach
ers for all emergencies. It's the money
and not the teacher question that is both
ering u.s.