Source: https://casetext.com/case/hanson-v-cushman?resultsNav=false
Timestamp: 2019-02-19 17:54:42
Document Index: 128471114

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 380', '§ 1343', '§ 380', '§ 380', '§ 388', '§ 388', '§ 388']

Hanson v. Cushman, 490 F. Supp. 109 | Casetext
490 F. Supp. 109 (W.D. Mich. 1980)
Hansonv.Cushman
United States District Court, W.D. Michigan, S.DMar 24, 1980
…The case law provides additional support for the court&apos;s conclusion that the defendants&apos; conduct in seeking…
…Because Amish children are assimilated into an agrarian society removed from other worldly influences, the…
applying a reasonableness standard in upholding Michigan&apos;s teacher certification requirement as applied to home schools
Kenneth A. Birch, Birch, Dean Hluchaniuk, East Lansing, Mich., for plaintiffs.
Robert M. Thrun, Thrun, Maatsch Nordberg, Lansing, Mich., for defendants Glendenning, Christensen, Cushman and Sieter.
This is an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging the deprivation under color of state law of rights secured by the Constitution of the United States. Plaintiffs, Lowell and Carol Hanson, seek a declaratory judgment declaring the Michigan Compulsory Attendance Law, Mich.Comp. Laws § 380.1561, unconstitutional as applied, "in that it denies parents the right to educate their children in their own home where the parents can give the children superior or comparable education as the public schools." Plaintiffs' Complaint ¶ 22. Jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3). The defendants have filed motions to dismiss and defendants Cushman, Christensen, Glendenning and Sieter have also moved in the alternative for summary judgment.
Sec. 1561. (1) Except as provided in subsections (2) and (3), every parent, guardian, or other person in this state having control and charge of a child from the age of 6 to the child's sixteenth birthday, shall send that child to the public schools during the entire school year. The child's attendance shall be continuous and consecutive for the school year fixed by the school district in which the child is enrolled. . . .
Mich.Comp. Laws § 380.1561.
With regard to the motions to dismiss, the Court's inquiry is merely whether the challenged pleading sets forth allegations sufficient to make out the elements of a right to relief. In making this determination, the allegations in the pleading are taken at "face value," California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U.S. 508, 515, 92 S.Ct. 609, 614, 30 L.Ed.2d 642 (1972), and should be construed favorably to the pleader, Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1686, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974). "[W]ell pleaded facts are taken as true, and the complaint is construed liberally in favor of the party opposing the motion." Davis H. Elliot Co. v. Caribbean Utilities Co., 513 F.2d 1176, 1182 (6th Cir. 1975). All reasonable inferences that might be drawn from the pleading must be indulged. Fitzke v. Shappell, 468 F.2d 1072, 1076 n. 6 (6th Cir. 1972).
The facts, viewed in light of the foregoing discussion, are these. The Hansons are the parents of four children between six and sixteen years of age, and legal guardians of a fifth child, age thirteen. Another adult, Charlotte O'Brien, is living in the Hansons' home. Defendants Glendenning and Cushman are respectively the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of the Greenville School District, where four of the Hansons had previously attended school. Defendants Sieter and Christensen are or were respectively the Supervisor and the Attendance Officer for the Montcalm Intermediate School District. Defendant Paslov is the Interim Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Michigan. Defendant Coady is a Michigan State Police Officer who was requested to investigate the Hanson home by the Greenville School District.
In the Answer of defendants Cushman, Glendenning, Christensen, and Sieter, at ¶ 4, it is alleged that defendant Christensen has recently left the employ of the Montcalm Intermediate School District.
During August of 1979 the Hansons and Ms. O'Brien decided to teach the abovementioned children in the Hanson home. In pursuit of that objective the children were enrolled in the home study program of Clonlara School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from September 4 to September 21, 1979. On or about September 21, defendant Christensen went to the Hanson home to determine why the children were not in Greenville School District schools. He was informed that the children had been enrolled in Clonlara. Christensen returned a day or so later to inform the plaintiffs that the children should be in school or the plaintiffs would be put in jail. On or about September 26, 1979 Christensen delivered a letter threatening court action against the plaintiffs if the children were not in school on the following day.
This Court need not decide whether parents have a right to educate their children at home, the state concedes that parents have that right so long as state laws are complied with. Rather the issue is the much narrower one of whether parents have the right to educate their children at home without complying with a state law requiring state certification of all persons who give instruction to children within the state.
Plaintiffs first quote at length from Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923) as follows:
Id. at 399-400, 43 S.Ct. at 626-627. The case struck down a state law prohibiting the teaching of foreign languages to children before they had reached the eighth grade, primarily because of the due process rights of the teacher, but also in part because it interfered with "the power of parents to control the education of their own." Id. at 401, 43 S.Ct. at 627. But this rationale must be read with the statements in the preceding paragraph of the opinion where the Court said:
Id. at 400, 43 S.Ct. at 627 (emphasis added). The case also went on to say that, "[t]he power of the state to compel attendance at some school and to make reasonable regulations for all schools, including a requirement that they shall give instructions in English, is not questioned." Id. at 402, 43 S.Ct. at 628.
Plaintiffs also rely on Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925), where the Oregon Compulsory Education Act, which required attendance at public schools, was declared unconstitutional. In Pierce, the Court held that the property rights of a private school had been unconstitutionally abridged because the statute did not exempt students who attended private school. The Pierce opinion, citing Meyer, also stated:
Id. at 534-35, 45 S.Ct. at 573 (emphasis added). Once again, though, it is important to understand the context in which this was said. The Court noted earlier in the opinion that
Id. at 534, 45 S.Ct. at 573 (emphasis added).
Both cases, Pierce and Meyer are best understood when placed in historical perspective. At the time they were decided, they were consistent with the generally prevailing judicial skepticism regarding any government interference with the rights of citizens. Pierce and Meyer are both couched in the same substantive due process language which characterized the now discredited cases, such as Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 [ 25 S.Ct. 539, 49 L.Ed. 437] (1905), declaring state attempts to regulate the economy invalid.
S. Goldstein, Law and Public Education, Cases and Materials 36 (1974). And as Mr. Justice White noted in his concurring opinion in Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972):
Id. at 239, 92 S.Ct. at 1545.
The Yoder case, also relied on by plaintiffs, was a challenge to Wisconsin's requirement of compulsory school attendance by children beyond the eighth grade until they reach the age of 16 brought by Old Order Amish and Mennonite people. The Court was concerned with the right of parents to "direct the religious upbringing of their children." 406 U.S. at 233, 92 S.Ct. at 1542 (emphasis added). Yoder therefore involved the right to the free exercise of religion, a clearly established fundamental constitutional right guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The court emphasized the central importance of the religion clauses in its decision:
Id. at 215-16, 92 S.Ct. at 1533. There is no such claim of religious belief in this case.
Id. at 233, 92 S.Ct. at 1542.
Id. at 238, 92 S.Ct. at 1544 (White, J., concurring).
The plaintiffs' claimed right to educate their children through a program of home study free from the requirement of compliance with state education laws involving teacher certification does not rise above a personal or philosophical choice, and therefore is not within the bounds of constitutional protection. See Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923); Scoma v. Chicago Board of Education, 391 F. Supp. 452 (N.D.Ill. 1974). Plaintiffs have established no fundamental right that has been abridged by Michigan's compulsory attendance statute, Mich.Comp. Laws § 380.1561, or by its requirement of teacher certification, Mich.Comp. Laws § 388.553. Thus the state need not demonstrate a "compelling interest" but only that it acted "reasonably" in requiring children to attend school and that children be taught only by certified teachers.
388.553 No person shall teach or give instruction in any of the regular or elementary grade studies in any private, denominational or parochial school within this state who does not hold a certificate such as would qualify him or her to teach in like grades of the public schools of the state: Provided, however, That any person who shall have taught in any elementary school or schools of the standard specified in this act for a period of 10 years or more preceding the passage of this act, shall, upon filing proof of service with the superintendent of public instruction, be entitled to a certificate by said superintendent of public instruction in such form as he shall prescribe, to teach in any of the said schools within the state: Provided further, That teaching in such schools shall be equivalent to teaching in the public schools for all purposes in obtaining a certificate: Provided further, That the teachers affected by this act may take any examination as now provided by law and that the superintendent of public instruction may direct such other examinations at such time and place as he may see fit. In all such examinations 2 sets of questions shall be prepared in subjects ordinarily written on Saturday, 1 of which sets shall be available for use on Wednesday by applicants who observe Saturday as their Sabbath: Provided further, That any certificate issued under or by virtue of this act shall be valid in any county in this state for the purpose of teaching in the schools operated under this act: Provided further, That any person holding a certificate issued by the authorities of any recognized or accredited normal school, college or university of this or other state shall be entitled to certification as now provided by law: Provided, however, That teachers employed in such private, denominational or parochial schools when this act takes effect shall have until September first, 1925, to obtain a legal certificate as herein provided.
Mich.Comp. Laws § 388.553.
Mich.Comp. Laws § 388.552.
Although there is no allegation in the complaint, plaintiffs at oral argument raised the issue of equal protection as another challenge to the state's requirements. They argue that the position of the state treats those who wish to educate their children at home differently depending on whether or not they are certified teachers. Plaintiffs do not assert, nor does it appear, that this distinction has any adverse impact peculiar to members of a constitutionally protected suspect class, and, as discussed above, no "fundamental" right is involved. The Court, therefore, will apply the traditional standard of review which "requires only that the State's system be shown to bear some rational relationship to legitimate state purposes." San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 40, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 1300, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973).
The Supreme Court explicitly recognized that the state has a strong interest in education in several cases. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972), the Court said:
Id. at 221, 92 S.Ct. at 1536. In Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954), the Court recognized that
Id. at 493, 74 S.Ct. at 691, quoted in Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 238, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 1544, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972) (White, J., concurring).
It is therefore the opinion of this Court that the Michigan statutes and practices in question are constitutional. Plaintiffs have failed to set forth sufficient facts upon which either legal or equitable relief can be granted. Defendants' motions to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim is therefore granted, and the case is hereby dismissed.