Grosjean v. Board of Education
Grosjean v. Board of Education
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from a judgment in the defendants’ favor after an order sustaining their demurrer to the sufficiency' of the plaintiff’s application for a writ of mandate.
The plaintiff, prior to May 12, 1917, had been a teacher in the public schools of San Francisco for many years, holding diplomas and certificates which entitled her to be a teacher therein and to be retained in such position unless dismissed therefrom for “insubordination, immoral or unprofessional conduct,” after the presentation of charges and a hearing thereon as provided by law. It appears affirmatively from the plaintiff’s petition that such charges were presented and a hearing had thereon before the said board of education, which thereupon made an order for the plaintiff’s dismissal. It is the regularity and legality of this action on the part of said ¡board which the plaintiff attacked by her petition and which she assails upon this appeal.
It sufficiently appears upon thefaee of the plaintiff’s petition that the alleged dereliction of duty which furnished the basis of the charges which were preferred against her was that of' insubordination, consisting first in violations of the rules of the board of education, by repeated absences from her place in the' particular school to which she had been assigned, and, second, in insubordination, by failing or refusing to report at the office of the superintendent of schools when required to do so in order to explain such absences. The charges presented against the plaintiff to the board of education by the superintendent of schools on April 30, 1917, specifically asserted that the plaintiff had been absent from her duties without permission for seventeen school days out of a possible twenty during four weeks in the months of March and April, 1917, the dates of such absences being March 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, after which a vacation intervened from March 26th to April 9th; then followed absences on April 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th. Prior to April 10, 1917, section 86 of the rules of the board of education read as follows: “Teachers desiring to be absent *437 from duty for more than one calendar week must give notice thereof to the board, stating the cause and duration of such absence. Such notification, made upon official blanks, and approved by the principal, must be sent to the board. In cases of sudden illness, or other emergency, teachers may absent themselves temporarily without permission for a term not to exceed five days. ’ ’
On April 10th the board of education adopted the following resolution purporting to change this particular rule:
“Whereas regularity in attendance is a prime duty of the teacher; therefore be it
“Resolved, That section 86 of the rules be and it is hereby abolished and the following substituted therefor:
“ ‘In case of serious sickness or death in the family and of illness grave enough to keep a teacher at home or in a hospital, teachers may absent themselves without permission for a term not to exceed five days. Where teachers wish to absent themselves for other reasons they must notify the Board, stating the cause and duration of such absence, and obtain permission therefor, to be certified to them by the secretary of the Board of Education.’ ”
“Sec. 12. Any rules adopted by the Board may be amended or repealed by the affirmative vote of three members at any meeting, provided notice in writing of such intended amendment or repeal has been given at a previous meeting.” We perceive no merit in this contention. The section above quoted is merely a rule of parliamentary procedure adopted for the guidance, and it may be protection of the members of the board, and which they had power to suspend or ignore when occasion required, and in respect to their action in so doing, no one .but the members of the board themselves would have a right to complain. (Hutcheson v. Storrie (Tex. Civ.), 48 S. W. 785 ; Greeley v. Hamman, 17 Colo. 30, [28 Pac. 460] ; Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations, 7th ed., p. 113 ; Heiskell v. Mayor etc. of Baltimore, 65 Md. 125, [57 Am. Rep. 311, 4 Atl. 116].)
*438
“See. 47. Principals, when officially notified of any changes or amendments to these rules, shall immediately cause them to be neatly inserted in the copy of the rules belonging to each teacher in their respective schools.”
While it is conceded by the respondent that the record does not affirmatively show that this requirement was complied with, it is pointed out that the plaintiff nowhere alleges that she was not personally made acquainted with the fact and substance of the change in the rule within a day or two after such change was made. On the contrary, the plaintiff sets forth in her petition the full text of the charges made against her, Wherein it appears that her principal directed her attention to the new rule regarding absences of teachers shortly after its passage, and that she then read it. This statement the plaintiff nowhere denies; and since the rule imposing upon principals the duty of pasting copies of changes made in the teachers’ books of rules has for its only purpose the giving' to such teachers notice of the text of changes thus made, this purpose was fully subserved by the plaintiff’s reading of the rule. j
Turning now to the substance of the charges themselves, we find that the plaintiff was therein charged with having been absent from her duties four days in the middle of March, 1917, without excuse; that she was again absent during all of the school days of the week commencing April 9, 1917; and was again absent during all of the school days of the following week excepting Monday, if school was held on that day ,- and was again absent on all of the school days of the succeeding week, again excepting Monday, all of which absences were without permission or excuse. It would be a very strained construction of rule 86 of the board of education as it read prior to April 10, 1917, which would permit teachers without the excuse of illness or other emergency to absent themselves from their place and duty for three successive weeks with the exception of two separate intervening days, without being liable to the charge of dereliction of duty; even, therefore, if rule 86 had not been validly amended on April 10, 1917, as the plaintiff charges, these unexplained absences would have been a violation of both the letter and spirit of the original rule. The change in the rule effected by its valid amendment on the latter date puts the matter, however, beyond dispute, since the amendment requires 'that teachers wishing to absent themselves from their places for any other reasons than serious sickness or death in their families, or illness of themselves grave enough to keep them at home or in the hospital, must notify the board of education of the cause and duration of such absences, and obtain permission therefor. Under this amended rule the plaintiff by her absences after April 10, 1917, or at least after the rule as changed had been read by her within a brief time thereafter, had subjected herself to the charges which were preferred against her. These charges further specify that on April 18, 1917, the board of education by letter of that date directed the principal of her school to notify the plaintiff to report to the office of the superintendent of schools, but owing to her absence, this notice was not con *440 veyed to her until April 23d, which was one of the Mondays when she was at school. She did not so report nor attempt to do so until after the close of school hours on that day, when she did attempt to report, but failed to find the superintendent in his office. On the following Monday she called the superintendent on the telephone, When he told her that he had prepared charges against her. On that day she again absented herself without permission, for the remainder of. the week.
■ The foregoing facts form the basis of the charges which the superintendent presented to the board on April 30, 1917. Upon their presentation the board suspended the plaintiff, and fixed the date of hearing thereon for May 12, 1917, of which the plaintiff 'had due notice. S'he appeared before the board on that day and pleaded not guilty to the charges, but apparently offered no objection to the right of the superintendent to present, or of the board to hear, such charges upon any of the grounds of bias, prejudice, or interest Which she now urges against the legality of the proceeding. Upon the hearing upon said charges, and after the taking of evidence pro and con thereon without objection on the plaintiff’s part, the board made its findings sustaining said charges and dismissing her from her position as a teacher in the public schools. The plaintiff appealed to the superintendent of schools within the time and in the manner provided by the school laws, which appeal was denied by the superintendent on June 4,1917. To the charges thus presented, the hearing thus held, the findings and order thus made, and the appeal thus taken and determined, the plaintiff presented certain objections in her petition, and has reiterated these upon this appeal.
We do not deem it necessary to discuss the other points presented by the appellant upon this appeal.
Judgment affirmed.
Waste, P. J., and Kerrigan, J., concurred.
A petition to have the cause heard in the supreme court, after judgment in the district court of appeal, was denied by the supreme court on May 22, 1919.
All the Justices concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- EILY S. M. GROSJEAN, Appellant, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO Et Al., Respondents
- Cited By
- 8 cases
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- Published