Akin v. Board of Ed. of Riverside Unified School Dist.
| Court | California Court of Appeals |
| Writing for the Court | KERRIGAN; TAMURA |
| Citation | 262 Cal.App.2d 161,68 Cal.Rptr. 557 |
| Parties | Kevin AKIN, a minor, by Virginia Akin, his Guardian ad Litem, Virginia Akin, Petitioners and Appellants, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF RIVERSIDE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, Respondent. Civ. 8685. |
| Decision Date | 13 May 1968 |
Page 557
v.
BOARD OF EDUCATION OF RIVERSIDE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, Respondent.
Rehearing Denied May 29, 1968.
Hearing Denied July 10, 1968.
Page 558
[262 Cal.App.2d 163] A. L. Wirin, Fred Okrand, Laurence Sperber, Los Angeles, and Tony Geram, Fontana, for petitioners and appellants.
Page 559
Ray T. Sullivan, County Counsel, James H. Angell, Asst. County Counsel, and W. W. Miller, Deputy County Counsel, for respondent.
KERRIGAN, Acting Presiding Justice.
Petitioners are mother and son. During the summer months of 1965, the 15-year old minor, hereafter designated as 'petitioner,' grew a beard which was neat in appearance and trimmed regularly. On September 8 he enrolled at Polytechnic High School in Riverside, one of the secondary schools within the respondent-Board's jurisdiction. He was suspended shortly thereafter solely for the reason that he refused to shave his beard as required by the Board's 'Good Grooming Policy' adopted on September 20, 1965. He then attended a private school for the balance of the 1965-1966 school year where he was permitted to wear his beard. An appeal initiated in March 1966 to the Board of Education proved unsuccessful.
On September 12, 1966, the minor, who had then attained the age of 16 years, again endeavored to enroll at Polytechnic High School but was denied admission by order of the high school principal and the district superintendent because he refused to remove his beard.
On September 16, 1966, the minor, acting through his mother as guardian ad litem, filed a petition for writ of mandate in the Riverside Superior Court, wherein he sought a decree directing the respondent-Board to allow him to enroll at Polytechnic High without having to shave off his beard in conformity with the 'Good Grooming Policy' of the Board.
During the hearing on the petition, both sides presented oral and documentary evidence. The minor testified to the following effect: When he entered the private school after being expelled from the public institution for the school year 1965--1966, he continued to wear his beard; his academic work was satisfactory; his beard presented no problem with other students except for a brief period of adjustment; he intermingled socially with the other students and participated in sports while wearing his beard; his reason for having a beard involved a personal liking for such adornment, influenced in part by his father's experience in wearing a beard.
A teacher at the private school attended by petitioner testified[262 Cal.App.2d 164] that: He taught the bearded petitioner-minor in four classes during the 1965--1966 school year; the boy was a good student and well-behaved; his relationship with the other students was satisfactory; the beard caused no distraction to other students after the initial reaction had diminished; in his opinion the wearing of a beard or moustache in the secondary level of education creates no problems in discipline or education; none of the other male students at the private school wore beards; the private school had an enrollment of 35--40 students ranging in age from 3--17 years; he did not have a teaching credential inasmuch as one was not required to teach at the private school.
Petitioner's next witness was a 17-year old public school student who testified that: He attended summer session at North High in Riverside the previous summer and wore a beard; the principal, officials, and faculty members observed his appearance but did not order him to remove his beard; the presence of his beard did not cause him any problems with his fellow-students.
The petitioner-mother narrated that: Her husband had worn a beard for some two years before the minor decided to grow one; after the boy was expelled from Polytechnic High, she enrolled him at the private school at a considerable financial hardship to the family; he had done well academically at the private institution, but she and the father could not afford to send Kevin to a private school in the future and wanted him enrolled at Polytechnic High.
Three witnesses testified in behalf of the respondent-Board. The witnesses were the
Page 560
Superintendent of the Beverly Hills Unified School District, the Principal of Polytechnic High, and the Superintendent of the Riverside Unified School District. The testimony of these witnesses may be stated in the following succinct fashion: All have been connected with secondary education for many years; the Good Grooming Policy embodied in the District's Discipline Code was formulated as a result of the study and efforts of many persons concerned with the educational processes of young students over a considerable period of years; the Policy governing students' appearance and dress was developed for the purpose of creating a good climate for the educational process; permitting a student to wear a beard was likely to result in the disruption of the educational system.Supplementally, the Polytechnic principal recounted past experiences with secondary students with moustaches. In one [262 Cal.App.2d 165] instance, a moustached foreign exchange student attended Polytechnic High and 'problems' resulted when some students wished to emulate him while others teased and harassed him. On another occasion, a basketball player was ordered to shave off his moustache because of the disruption created when other students indicated they would like to follow suit.
Upon the conclusion of the hearing and the rendition of a memorandum decision, the trial court entered its findings and judgment whereby it denied the petition and discharged the alternative writ.
Petitioner initially maintains that the rule adopted by the respondent requiring male students to be clean-shaven is violative of his rights of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and section 9, article I of the California Constitution, and further deprives him of his right of 'liberty' under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and section 13, article I of the California Constitution. (See Finot v. Pasadena City Bd. of Education, 250 Cal.App.2d 189, 58 Cal.Rptr. 520.)
In Finot,...
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...Dist. Bd. of Education, supra, 21 Cal.App.3d at p. 335, 98 Cal.Rptr. 593; Akin v. Board of Education of Riverside etc. Dist. (1968) 262 Cal.App.2d 161, 169, 68 Cal.Rptr. 557; contra Myers v. Arcata etc. School Dist. (1969) 269 Cal.App.2d 549, 561, 75 Cal.Rptr. 68 [dress policy was vague and......
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...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 It was pursuant to this authority that the East Side Union......
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Alcala, In re, No. A043385
...Dist. Bd. of Education, supra, 21 Cal.App.3d at p. 335, 98 Cal.Rptr. 593; Akin v. Board of Education of Riverside etc. Dist. (1968) 262 Cal.App.2d 161, 169, 68 Cal.Rptr. 557; contra Myers v. Arcata etc. School Dist. (1969) 269 Cal.App.2d 549, 561, 75 Cal.Rptr. 68 [dress policy was vague and......
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Montalvo v. Madera Unified Sch. Dist. Bd. of Education
...of New York (1968) 390 U.S. 629, 638, 88 S.Ct. 1274, 1280, 20 L.Ed.2d 195; Akin v. Board of Education of Riverside, etc., Dist. (1968) 262 Cal.App.2d 161, 166, 68 Cal.Rptr. 557.) We specifically reject appellant's contention that a student is in the same position as an adult not in a school......
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Hunt v. Board of Fire Com'rs of Massapequa Fire Dist.
...v. Bradley County, Tennessee Board of Ed., Page 44 D.C., 311 F.Supp. 1360; Akin v. Board of Education of Riverside Unified Sch. Dist., 262 Cal.App.2d 161, 68 Cal.Rptr. 557, cert. den. 393 U.S. 1041, 89 S.Ct. 668, 21 L.Ed.2d 590. 3. By far the greater number of cases hold that there is a con......
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King v. Saddleback Junior College District, No. 26452
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