Ware v. Valley Stream High School Dist.

• Decision Date: 19 December 1989
• Citation: 75 N.Y.2d 114,550 N.E.2d 420,551 N.Y.S.2d 167
• Parties: , 550 N.E.2d 420, 58 Ed. Law Rep. 1242 John WARE et al., Appellants, v. VALLEY STREAM HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Respondents.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Page 167

551 N.Y.S.2d 167

75 N.Y.2d 114, 550 N.E.2d 420, 58 Ed.

Law Rep. 1242

John WARE et al., Appellants, v. VALLEY STREAM HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Respondents.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Dec. 19, 1989.

Robert M. Calica and Myra P. Lapidus, Garden City, for appellants.

Theodore Deliyannis and Lynne A. Bizzarro, New York City, for Valley Stream High School Dist., respondent.

Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. (Elizabeth Bradford, O. Peter Sherwood and Lawrence S. Kahn, New York City, of counsel), for New York State Com'r of Educ., respondent.

OPINION OF THE COURT

KAYE, Judge.

In response to the alarming spread of AIDS, the Commissioner of Education has promulgated regulations requiring all primary and secondary school students in the State to receive extensive instruction about the disease. Plaintiffs, by this action, challenge the regulations as violative of their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religious beliefs. The Appellate Division affirmed Supreme Court's summary dismissal of the complaint. While plaintiffs ultimately must meet a high threshold of proof to sustain their contentions, on this factual record we conclude that summary rejection of their assertion of fundamental constitutional values was inappropriate, and we therefore modify the Appellate Division order and reinstate the amended complaint challenging defendants' AIDS curriculum.

The individual plaintiffs are members of the Plymouth Brethren, a religious organization of approximately 35,000 adherents worldwide, 2,000 of whom live in the United States. Plaintiff Foster Church, Inc., a New York religious corporation, owns the group's real property and other tangible assets. In this State there are two Brethren communities--known as "local gatherings" or "fellowships"--one in Valley Stream (with 140 members, including the named plaintiffs) and one in Rochester (with 120 members).

As the Appellate Division noted, the Brethren are a devoutly religious group established in the 1820's by Irish Christians who had become disenchanted with the established churches of the period (150 A.D.2d 14, 16, 545 N.Y.S.2d 316). Their faith has consistently been dedicated to strict adherence to Biblical teachings. Fundamental to the Brethren creed is a precept of spiritual separatism by which members seek to distance themselves from all things they consider evil. Accordingly, the Brethren spend much of their time in group prayer, and they shun many modern technological innovations they consider evil.

Plaintiffs complain that they are now faced with evil in the form of the mandate that each school district promulgate an AIDS curriculum for its elementary and secondary school students. Specifically, the regulations require that elementary schools provide such instruction as part of the health education program for all pupils beginning in kindergarten (8 NYCRR 135.3[b][2]; secondary schools similarly must incorporate AIDS instruction into the required health instruction courses (8 NYCRR 135.3[c][2].

Each curriculum must include instruction concerning the nature of the disease, methods of transmission and methods of prevention (8 NYCRR 135.3[b][2]. Recognizing the delicacy of some of the subject matter, the regulations further provide that: "No pupil shall be required to receive instruction concerning the methods of prevention of AIDS if the parent or legal guardian of such pupil has filed with the principal of the school which the pupil attends a written request that the pupil not participate in such instruction, with an assurance that the pupil will receive such instruction at home." (8 NYCRR 135[b][2]; [c][2].)

Plaintiffs are directly affected by the regulations requiring AIDS instruction in that approximately 35 Brethren children attend public schools in the Valley Stream High School District, where--beginning with the second semester of the 1988- school year--the secondary school curriculum includes 22 lessons concerning AIDS.

In November 1988, plaintiffs asked the school district to exempt their children from the entire AIDS curriculum. That request was denied on the ground that the regulations do not authorize a local board to grant a complete exemption. The board did, however, exempt Brethren children from the segment of the curriculum labeled "Prevention," consisting of five lessons in how abstinence from illegal intravenous drug use and sexual activity can prevent the transmission of AIDS. Lessons the children must attend include "Practice skills in saying no," "Know ways the AIDS virus can and cannot be transmitted," and "Recognize and evaluate media messages regarding sexuality." As the school superintendent wrote plaintiffs, "We are still prepared to assist you in reasonable ways to develop your appeal [to the Commissioner of Education] for exemption from this instruction as we are not in disagreement with your position, but rather are bound by State Education Department directives."

In February 1989, plaintiffs simultaneously filed this lawsuit and a petition to the Commissioner on behalf of all children living in the Valley Stream and Rochester fellowships. The lawsuit was instituted against the Valley Stream High School District, the Commissioner and the State for a declaration that the regulations compelling AIDS-related health instruction violated both plaintiffs' constitutional rights to freely exercise their religion and their privacy right to rear their children. Plaintiffs' administrative application to the Commissioner--made pursuant to section 16.2 of the Rules of the Board of Regents (8 NYCRR 16.2) ¹ and Education Law § 3204(5) ²--sought a religious exemption from all aspects of the AIDS curriculum.

Brethren children have already been exempted by the school district from the portion of the health and hygiene curriculum relating to human sexuality.

In both their complaint and their administrative petition, plaintiffs asserted that the AIDS curriculum conflicts with their strictly held religious belief that followers not engage in sexual relations outside of marriage and not be exposed to instruction concerning sexuality or morality other than that which is imparted by the community. Plaintiffs further urged that an order exempting their children from AIDS instruction would not present a danger to the public, in light of the improbability of their children's participation in activities that transmit AIDS.

On March 3, 1989, Supreme Court granted the Commissioner's request for a stay pending the determination of the administrative petition. Shortly thereafter the Commissioner denied plaintiffs' application without passing on their constitutional claim, observing that his office was "not the appropriate forum for litigating novel questions of constitutional law."

While not questioning the sincerity of plaintiffs' religious convictions, the Commissioner denied the request on the ground that their claims were outweighed by the State's interest in educating all students about AIDS. "At this point in the history of the disease," the Commissioner wrote, "it is well recognized that education is the most powerful and important weapon against the spread of AIDS. * * * Clearly, immediate and universal public education must play a primary role in curbing a disease which already has had such catastrophic effects." The Commissioner further noted that some members of the Brethren may fall short of community expectations, and children may leave in pursuit of alternative life-styles--concluding that plaintiffs' argument was "not compelling." Finally, the Commissioner admonished the local board for its failure to implement the exemption it had allowed the Brethren from instruction in AIDS prevention. Brethren children, like all other students in the physical education classes, had been given pamphlets entitled "The Wellness Way: Understanding and Preventing AIDS," which contained advice to "use latex condoms plus spermicide" "if you can't be sure your partner is not infected with the virus," and to "limit the number of sexual partners to reduce your chance of exposure to the virus."

Following the Commissioner's decision plaintiffs moved in Supreme Court for summary judgment. In support of this motion plaintiffs relied upon their verified amended complaint, a recent study of the Brethren by an English academic, and two joint affirmations of plaintiffs, one of which contained an essay--"We Have a Life of our Own"--outlining the religious and ethical principles the Brethren follow, and the manner in which members guide the lives of their children in accordance with the tenets of their faith. Based on these submissions, plaintiffs' relevant factual allegations may be summarized as follows.

First, the Plymouth Brethren are an identifiable religious group with a long history of maintaining a cohesive community separated and insulated from society. Members--who have been accorded "conscientious objector" status by the Selective Service System--are strongly moral and principled individuals practicing and reinforcing personal purity and other exemplary moral behavior. Apart from the practical necessity for this very small group to attend public school and earn a livelihood in the community, members' associations are limited to other Brethren.

Second, plaintiffs' children are not permitted to socialize with nonmember children after school, or even to eat with them at school. The Brethren do not allow television or radio, and they do not see movies or read magazines. Their lives are spent in worship, or in social activities limited to association with other members under the constant moral guidance and supervision of parents and other community adults in an "extended family."

Third, insistence upon rigorous morality is interwoven with the movement's strong sense of separateness. The central principle of the Brethren's religion is the obligation to "separate from evil." Even to know the details of evil is regarded as...