Source: http://bf.ahcuah.com/cases/king.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 18:43:51+00:00

Document:
Saddleback Junior College District, a Public Corporation; Fred H. Bremer, Superintendent, Defendants-Appellants.
Hamley, Carter and Trask, Circuit Judges.
Each of these cases is an appeal from an order of the district court enjoining the enforcement of a provision of a school dress code providing for limitations on the length of hair of male students. The cases were argued and submitted at the same time. They involve issues which are substantially the same. They will be considered together.
No. 25,132 was a petition for injunctive and declaratory relief filed by Robert Olff, a minor, by his guardian ad litem, Mrs. Sonny Olff, against the East Side Union High School District in the United States District Court for the Northern District of california.
No. 26,452 was a complaint for an injunction and for declaratory relief filed by Lindahl King and others against the Saddleback Junior College District and Fred H. Bremer, its Superintendent and the President of the College, in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Jurisdiction in each case was invoked below under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. § 1983), and 28 U.S.C. § 1343 and here under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a) (1).
Article IX of the California Constitution provides for the establishment of a public school system with County Boards of Education and County Superintendents. Section 5 of that article delegates to the Legislature the duty of implementing this provision.
"The California Legislature is vested with the power to carry out the mandate of the operation of a free public school system in California. (Calif. Const., art. IX, § 1.) The Legislature has conferred upon school boards statutory authority to promulgate rules and regulations governing the conduct and operation of public schools. 'Every school district shall be under the control of * * * a board of education.' (Ed.Code, § 921.) 'The governing board of each school district shall prescribe and enforce rules not inconsistent with law or with the rules prescribed by the State Board of Education for its own government.' (Ed.Code, § 925.) All pupils must comply with school regulations. (Ed.Code, § 10609; Calif. Adm.Code, Title 5, Education, art. 7, p. 50 § 62.) A Board of Education of a school district has power to adopt a Code of Pupil Discipline and, as a part thereof, a 'Good Grooming Policy' to insure personal cleanliness and neatness of dress (see Calif.Adm.Code, Title 5, art. 7, §§ 62, 64), providing the rule does not unreasonably infringe upon the exercise of a constitutional right. ( Bagley v. Washington Township Hospital Dist. , supra, 65 Cal.2d 499, 501-502, 55 Cal.Rptr. 401, 421 P.2d 409.)" Akin v. Board of Education of Riverside Unified School Dist. , 262 Cal.App.2d 161, 68 Cal.Rptr. 557 (1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1041, 89 S. Ct. 668, 21 L. Ed. 2d 590.
"1. To facilitate the teaching and learning situation in the class room.
2. To establish and maintain decorum in the schools and community.
3. To aid our youth in the development of responsible attitudes and habits.
4. To aid in the fulfillment of the responsibility invested in the school by the State of California and the community of the East Side Union High School Dist." C.T.7.
"c. Hair shall be trim and clean. A boy's hair shall not fall below the eyes in front and shall not cover the ears, and it shall not extend below the collar in back." C.T.7.
The "Personal Appearance" section further provides that "a district committee of students, teachers, administrators and parents shall each year review changing styles as they affect appropriateness of dress for the consideration of the Superintendent."
6. In addition to above a woman counselor from Overfelt and four administrators from various schools in the district were appointed." C.T. 48.
'Hair shall be trim and clean. A boy's hair shall not fall below the eyes in front and shall not extend below the collar in back.'"
This affidavit was not controverted.
Upon the rejection of Olff by the school he filed a complaint seeking injunctive relief, a declaratory judgment and damages. The court directed the school to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue enjoining the defendants from excluding the plaintiff. On the return date of that order the plaintiff, Olff, testified briefly, the defendant school district introduced a number of affidavits, and the matter was submitted. The court enjoined the defendant from enforcing the regulation in question and enjoined the defendant from excluding the plaintiff from attending the school. Olff v. East Side Union High School District , 305 F. Supp. 557 (N.D.Cal.1969). We reverse for reasons hereinafter set forth.
The second case, No. 26,452, has been here before. An order for a preliminary injunction was vacated and the cause remanded for further proceedings. King v. Saddleback Junior College District , 425 F.2d 426 (9th Cir. 1970). The record does not indicate that any witnesses testified upon trial after remand. Certain exhibits were ordered filed, additional authorities were submitted with memoranda of law and arguments of counsel, and an order and memorandum opinion thereupon issued. The court held that the regulation in question was in violation of both the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, 318 F.Supp 89. The school district and superintendent appeal. We reverse.
In this case the Board of Trustees also adopted a "Student Handbook" which contained, among other things, a dress code for men and for women. At least three meetings of the Board were held at which the provisions of the code were considered. (Plaintiff's Exh. 2 and 3). It had been prepared by the administration of the school and submitted to the student body whose representative attended the last two meetings and voiced the opinion of the student body. There was some revision and apparent agreement on all items except the regulation concerning hair for men. The students wished it to read "clean and combed." 3 The administration, having in mind the rejection of similar school grooming codes because "unconstitutionally vague," desired to eliminate such a problem. (Plaintiff's Exh. 2 at 2). The result was language almost identical with that of the Olff case.4 In neither case was there any evidence that length of hair led to any disruption among students.
In Tinker a group of people, some whom had children in school, held a meeting and determined to publicize their objections to the Vietnam war by wearing black armbands during the holiday season. The school authorities, aware of the plan, adopted a policy that any student wearing an armband and refusing to remove it would be suspended. The Court determined this conduct to be a primary First Amendment right akin to "'pure speech.'" 393 U.S. at 505, 508, 89 S. Ct. 733, 21 L. Ed. 2d 731.
In the cases before us, neither of the regulations on its face indicates a conflict with freedom of speech. There was no evidence that either regulation was enacted by the respective school authorities with such a purpose in mind. Moreover, the students were not purporting to say anything. Plaintiff Olff flatly stated that his hair style was not a badge or a symbol of any group. On the contrary, he said that he was "a minority of one." R.T. 27.
"In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school as well as out of school are 'persons' under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State." Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist. , supra, 393 U.S. at 511, 89 S. Ct. at 739.
Litigants and courts alike, notwithstanding the frequent assertion of theories based on the First Amendment and the right to privacy, have had difficulty in reaching a consensus on which constitutional provision, if any, affords the protection sought here. Some litigants have tried the "shot gun" approach, asserting claims under several amendments, Jackson v. Dorrier , 424 F.2d 213 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 850, 91 S. Ct. 55, 27 L. Ed. 2d 88 (1970),12 while some courts have found relief in the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Dunham v. Pulsifer , 312 F. Supp. 411 (D.Vt.1970), or somewhere within the First or Ninth Amendments, albeit unspecified. Breen v. Kahl , 419 F.2d 1034 (7th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 398 U.S. 937, 90 S. Ct. 1836, 26 L. Ed. 2d 268 (1970).13 No doubt their confusion is fostered by the tenuous nature of the right asserted.
The district court in Olff , quoting from Judge Wyzanski's opinion in Richards v. Thurston , 304 F. Supp. 449, 452 (D.Mass), aff'd, 424 F.2d 1281 (1st Cir. 1969), held that plaintiff's claim to "'liberty to express in his own way his preference as to whatever hair style comports with his own personality and his search for his own identity'" was protected under the "broad terms" of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from what the court found was a lack of a "rational" ground for regulation.14 Olff v. East Side Union High School District , supra, 305 F. Supp. at 559. And the court in King found both due process and equal protection violations.
There was no evidence of racial discrimination or that the regulation in either case was applied in other than in an even-handed manner, nor was there any evidence of unequal protection other than the assertion that boys were treated differently than girls; i. e., girls could have long hair and boys could not. We do not consider the latter difference in treatment or classification as creating any substantial constitutional question.
In examining the due process aspect of the argument, in order to discover whether a rational basis for regulation exists, we find, as previously described, clear expressions of authoritative bodies giving to the school boards in California the right to establish regulations for the day to day operation of its school. Cal.Educ.Code § 925 (West 1969). There is also a statute and a similar administrative regulation which impose a duty upon the student to comply with the board's regulations. Cal.Educ.Code § 10609 (West 1969); 5 Cal.Adm.Code § 300.15 Those regulations must be lawful, of course, but given this state interest and authority to regulate within constitutional bounds we would assume that some regulations necessary for the day to day operation of schools, classes, and the general educational processes, are permissible. We would also assume that in the absence of a clear violation of a constitutional right, the burden is upon those who assail the regulation to prove their invalidity. This they have not done here.
"Based upon my academic training and administrative experience, I am of the opinion that dress codes which include regulations applicable to male hair styles are desirable for junior colleges. Such codes aid in maintaining an environment which is conducive to learning and in avoiding disruptions of the educative process."
The plaintiffs in King submitted affidavits of two administrators, one of a different high school district and one of a different college district, not directly in contradiction of Dr. Bremer, stating the situation at their particular schools. The eleven affidavits in Olff were uncontradicted.
This is not a question of preference for or against certain male hair styles or the length to which persons desire to wear their hair. This court could not care less. It is a question of the right of school authorities to develop a code of dress and conduct best conducive to the fulfillment of their responsibility to educate, and to do it without unconstitutionally infringing upon the rights of those who must live under it. We do not believe that the plaintiffs have established the existence of any substantial constitutional right which is in these two instances being infringed. We are satisfied that the school authorities have acted with consideration for the rights and feelings of their students and have enacted their codes, including the ones in question here, in the best interests of the educational process. A court might disagree with their professional judgment, but it should not take over the operation of their schools. Epperson v. Arkansas , 393 U.S. 97, 104, 89 S. Ct. 266, 21 L. Ed. 2d 228 (1968).
The judgment granting a permanent injunction in No. 26,452, King v. Saddleback Junior College District et al. , is reversed. The order granting a preliminary injunction in No. 25,132, Olff v. East Side Union High School District , is set aside and the case remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.
10. Dr. Bremer, the Superintendent of Saddleback, in his affidavit stated that a student could also be in compliance without cutting his hair.

References: § 1983
 § 1343
 § 1292
 § 1
 § 921
 § 925
 § 10609
 art. 7
 § 62
 art. 7
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 § 925
 § 10609
 § 300
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