The Washington times., 1922-07-23
College Student EX-
PEELED With Six
teen Others Raises
Question of Right OF
School Teacher to
Use Cigarettes.

apart, are tQQay carrying on
- a movement which may revo-
lutionize the administration Of
American colleges.
Back of them Is the support Of
hundreds of coIlegians. and power
ful political aid has also been
swung to their standard. On the
final decision may depend the
question of whether the faculty
and directors or the students Of
American colleges and State
schools shall rule the educational
system. =
Alice Tanton. nineteen. expelled
from Michigan State Normal
School for smoking cigarettes. II
one OF the girls The other II
Marjorie Barker. also nineteen.
who was expelled from Bryn Mawr
College after q series of petty
thefts had been committed there.
Both young women arc fighting in
the courts for reinstatement.
Miss Tanton maintains that Q
modern girl has a complete right
to smoke II she desires and that
no school authority has the legai
or moral right to expel her for It.
The fate of seventeen other girls
expelled on the same charge de-
pends on the outcome Of A1ice's
suit. Miss Barker contends that
the college had no power to be-
smirch her name by dismissal, un-
less the authorities were prepared
to cause her arrest on tho evi-
dence they believed they had
gathered. She demands reinstate-
ment Immediately and q substan-
tial money award for the damage
TO her reputation.
A CRUSADING FLAPPERi
Little of the atmosphere Of high
adventure surrounded Alice Tan
ton as she faced President Charles
McKenney. Dean Bessie Leach
Priddy and other officers Of the
Michigan Normal School at Ypst-
lanu In the mandamus proceedings
she had brought to obtain restora~
ton to the register.
Slimly built, with blonde hatr
bobbed and small attractive Tea
lures, Alice looked moro like y
child called to the DEANS office
for a reprtmand than . militant
flapper. Yet she showed q flash Of
real crusadins spirit a. she took
the stand and never once faltersd
IN her determination
SMOKE, OF COURSE.
Asked IL she ever smoked. Afios
nodded, and saidi
"Yes, three times- Twice wf,fie
was In high school IN Rochester
and once after entered college,
Just once and there wsre six other
girls in the party. Their namesf
Well, I'd rather not tellr'
Dean Priddy. In the report on
which President McKenney dis
missed the girl, charged that Alico
was an inveterate smoker and that
abe with the sixteen other girls
suspected Of devotion to the great
god Nick o. Teen" were guilty of
conduct unbecoming prospective
school teachers. Just before Alice.s
dismissal, a letter was sent to
her father by the dean stating that
the girl was dismissed for the best
interests of the school It was this
letter, carrying to her father a sug-
Gestion that she might have been
guilty Of grave misconduct, Alice
said. that led to her fight for vim.
dication.
EXPLANATION DEMANDED.
The girl went on, fearlessly look
ing at the dean, as she spoke:
'I went to Dean Priddy and
asked what that letter meant. She
said that she could see I was a
cigarette addict because there
were rings under my eyes and nv
lips were dry. She said that I
could never hope to return to
Ypsilanti to schoolI'
They put President MacKenney
Son the stand. then. and he start
led the court by declaring that
while a man might be an invet-
crate smoker and an excellent
teacher, a girl who smoked one
cigarette was by that act untitled
to teach school.
BOBBED HAIR AN ISSUE.
Dean Priddy asserted under oath
that she had no objection to blonde
students or bobbed haired students
and insisted that Alice's looks had
nothing to do with her dismissal.
But it was brought out that Alice
had been so described In the Deans
report on which the president or.
dered the dismissal and then Miss
Priddy said:
I'VE advise girls against bobbed
hair because It accentuates a
childish appearance and initiates
against their obtaining a position.
Eeyeral of olIr tratnars hava ad