Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-05-14
COURT SIGNS WRIT
|NFRATERN|TY CASE
Board of Education Must
Show Why Boy Should
Not Be Reinstated.

Writs Of mandamus commanding
members of the Board Of Education
TO reinstate three Washington High
School boys to positions they lost in
student activities because Of aff1liation
with secret societies were signed by
Justice Bailey in the District Supreme
Court this afternoon. The Board Of
Education is directed by the order to
show cause May % why the boys
should not be restored to their posi-
lions in school activities.
The writs were asked by John E.
Laskey. former United States district
attorney and counsel for the boys.
Each of the nine members of the boara
is named a defendant in the petitions.
Chester c. Ward, a senior at West.
ern High School; Robert w. Yel1ott.
a junior at the same school. and
Charles Russell Dodson, a senior at
Mckinley High School. are the boys
in whose names the suits were filed.
Ward and Yellott are members of
ternity, while Dodson holds member.
ship in Beta Chapter of the same Or
ganization.
Charges nlegality.
The petitions point out that these
students were deprived of positions
of honor they held in school organi-
cations under rules illegally adopted
by the board. The boards anti-fra-
ternity rule, it was further stated, is
arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable
and discriminatory and therefore
void" and as a result the students
have been "wrongfully, irregularly
and unlawfully deprived of positions,
activities and representative honors"
which they had lawfully held and
enjoyed.
1t is also alleged in the petitions
that there are, to the knowledge of
the board members, large numbers
of students" in attendance in the
public schools who are members of
associations, organizations, clubs,
fraternities and sororities which have
not yet been approved by the super
intendent of schools, and which have
not submitted to him any information
with respect to their constitutions,
bylaws, membership, time and place
of meetings, programs of meetings, or
other information deemed as a neces-
sary basis for the superintendent
approval.
Nevertheless, these students, de-
clared the petitions, have been and
now are permitted by the defendants
to hold commissions and warrants in
the high school cadet corps, and to
hold positions, elective and appoin-
tive, on school publications and to
represent their respective schools in
competitive athletics, rifle matches,
interscholastic debates and dramatic
performances, and to be certified as
eligible to stand for election to class
offices and to hold positions in high
school banks and to hold offices in
organizations, clubs and activities
which come under the direction of
the schools and to receive honors
other than those awarded for scholar
ship attachments, and to hold posi-
tons as representatives of their re-
spective schools, which said action on
the part of the defendants discrimi-
mates against the three students and
other members of Sigma Delta Fra
ternity in favor of such unapproved
organizations"
Held Beyond School Control
The petitions contend that the fra
ternities with which the boys are af-
filiated are not under the jurisdiction
of the public schools, as meetings are
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