Court Opinion

ID: 9689285
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:26:56.126691+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:46.681268
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(dissenting).
I concur with the opinion of the majority insofar as it holds that a full-time teacher who has been placed on unrequested leave of absence and who then accepts a part-time contract remains on unrequested leave to the extent of the remainder of a full-*44time position. I respectfully dissent, however, from the further holding of the majority opinion that the teacher is therefore entitled to be offered any part-time position that is sufficient to bring him to full-time status and for which he is licensed when that position is one for which, as here, sound educational policy may require special qualifications.
The Trimont School District did, indeed, wrongly conclude that Minn.Stat. § 125.12, subd. 6b (1980) allows a formerly full-time teacher to be considered fully reinstated upon being given a part-time position. We must still recognize, however, that a school district’s decision to hire at least one woman as a physical education and health instructor for junior and senior high school girls is an administrative decision not subject to review unless found to be arbitrary and unreasonable. See Foesch v. Independent School District No. 646, 300 Minn. 478, 485, 223 N.W.2d 371, 375 (1974). The decision of the Trimont School District to hire a two-fifths-time woman physical education and health instructor for one-half the secondary school student body, the female half, while a male half is being provided with one full-time male physical education instructor, is neither arbitrary nor unreasonable, and hardly, under the circumstances, the “direct discrimination” the district court found it to be.
This is not to say or even to suggest that girls and young women should be taught only by women, and boys and young men taught only by men. In the best of all possible educational worlds, girls and boys, young men and young women would be taught by teachers of both sexes in every field of learning.1 This is not the best of all possible educational worlds, and we proceed toward it but slowly.2
The Trimont School District discovered the educational advantages of having at least one woman physical education instructor with its first such teacher, Garla Anderson’s CETA-funded predecessor, Barbara Schutt. The district wanted to continue to make that educational opportunity available to its female students. Superintendent Harold Remme, in recommending to the school board at its August 29,1979, meeting that Garla Anderson be offered the two-fifths position, gave the following reasons: (1) that it is important that female students have a woman teacher in physical education and health so that they can ask questions and be counseled in very personal matters; (2) that the girls’ locker room can more adequately be supervised by a female physical education teacher; and (3) that it is important to have a female coach for girls’ sports, both to serve as a role model and to supervise the locker room. Experienced as Mr. Walter may be as a physical education instructor, he does not possess these qualifications. Much as he needs and should have a full-time teaching position within the district, he should not have that position at the educational expense of the girls in the Trimont junior and senior high school. The administrative decision of the Trimont School District in this regard, being neither arbitrary nor unreasonable, should be upheld.3

.“Facing the Future, Education and Equity for Females and Males, Considerations for Leaders in Elementary-Secondary Education,” a brochure prepared under contract in 1980 for the Women’s Educational Equity Act Program of the United States Department of Education, states, at page 22:
Sex stereotyping and sex differentiation limit the development of students of both sexes. They deny both females and males the opportunity to explore, discover, and develop their own individual abilities and interests; to understand the complexity and diversity of women and men; and to appreciate and respect the historical and contemporary contributions, perspectives and concerns of both sexes. They deny students the opportunity to gain experience in working cooperatively with individuals of both sexes in a variety of situations, and to acquire the flexibility and range of skills necessary to function effectively in our changing society

. Ten of the 13 secondary teachers in the Trimont School District are men.

. The district’s affirmative action defense would be available to it except that Minn.Stat. § 125.12, subd. 6b(c) does not permit its use here where the plaintiff’s right to reinstatement is contested by a new teacher. The statute *45applies to prevent a less senior teacher from being put on unrequested leave.