Brenden v. Independent School District 742

• Decision Date: 01 May 1972
• Docket Number: No. 4-72 Civ. 201.,4-72 Civ. 201.
• Citation: 342 F. Supp. 1224
• Parties: Torbin H. BRENDEN, individually and as parent and natural guardian of Peggy Brenden, et al., Plaintiffs, v. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 742 et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

342 F. Supp. 1224

Torbin H. BRENDEN, individually and as parent and natural guardian of Peggy Brenden, et al., Plaintiffs, v. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 742 et al., Defendants.

No. 4-72 Civ. 201.

United States District Court, D. Minnesota, Fourth Division.

May 1, 1972.

Thomas W. Wexler, Minneapolis, Minn., for plaintiffs.

Bernhard W. LaVander, Minneapolis, Minn., for defendant Minnesota State High School League.

Michael Donohue, St. Cloud, Minn., for Independent School District No. 742.

J. Dennis O'Brien, Minneapolis, Minn., for Independent School District 274.

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

MILES W. LORD, District Judge.

The plaintiffs in this action seek preliminary and permanent injunctive relief based upon an alleged violation of their constitutional rights under the fourteenth amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The facts giving rise to this cause of action are relatively simple. Two Minnesota high school girls, Peggy Brenden and Tony St. Pierre, desire to participate in certain sports offered at their respective high schools. Peggy Brenden, an eighteen-year old senior at St. Cloud Technical High School, St. Cloud, Minnesota, desires to become a member of the boys' tennis team at her school. Peggy is, by any standard, an excellent woman tennis player. She is currently ranked as the number one eighteen-year old woman tennis player in this area by the Northwestern Lawn Tennis Association. She has played in competitive tennis tournaments aside from any organized tennis activities offered by her high school. The only opportunity for her to play organized tennis at her high school consisted of an extramural tennis program for girls at St. Cloud Technical High School. This program consisted of approximately four one-hour practice sessions over a period of a month, during the fall of the year. The practice sessions were on Monday nights and there was, apparently, little participation or organized coaching. There were no organized matches. Aside from this extramural program, there is currently no other organized tennis program for girls at St. Cloud Technical High School. There is no interscholastic¹ tennis competition for girls at St. Cloud Technical High School. There is, however, interscholastic tennis competition for boys.

Tony St. Pierre, a seventeen-year old junior at Hopkins Eisenhower High School, Hopkins, Minnesota, desires to become a member of the boys' cross-country and cross-country skiing teams at her high school for the 1972-73 school year. Tony is also an excellent young athlete, whose interests lie in distance running and cross-country skiing. Like Peggy Brenden, Tony has participated in athletics outside of school sponsored athletics, primarily in events sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Union and the United States Ski Association. In participating in the AAU running events she has received coaching from the cross-country coach at Hopkins Eisenhower High School, who is a male. There are no girls' activities in either cross-country or cross-country skiing at Hopkins Eisenhower, although Tony was told that there would be a cross-country program for girls if she could find a sufficient number of girls interested in competing in cross-country running to justify the development of a girls' cross-country team. There was insufficient interest, apparently, to justify a separate girls' cross-country team. For the school year 1972-73, there are no projected plans for the development of either girls' cross-country or cross-country skiing teams. It is for the coming school year that Tony desires to compete as a member of the boys' cross-country and cross-country skiing teams.

Both girls have been informed by school authorities that they cannot participate on the boys' teams because of a rule of the Minnesota State High School League preventing participation by girls on boys' interscholastic athletic teams. That rule provides as follows:

Girls shall be prohibited from participation in the boys' interscholastic athletic program either as a member of the boys' team or a member of the girls' team playing the boys' team.

The girls' teams shall not accept male members.

Minnesota State High School League Official Handbook, 1971-72. Athletic Rules for Girls, Article III, Section 5 hereinafter cited as League Handbook. There is an equivalent regulation in their regulations governing boys' athletics. That rule provides that:

Girls shall be prohibited from participation in the boys' interscholastic athletic program either as a member of the boys' team or a member of the girls' team playing the boys' team. The girls' teams shall not accept male members.

League Handbook, Athletic Rules for Boys, Article I, Section 8.

The Minnesota State High School League is a nonprofit corporation organized to promote certain stated educational purposes.² The League is a voluntary association claiming as its members all 485 public high schools in the state of Minnesota.³ While there is no specific statutory authorization for the League, Minn.Stat.Ann. Section 129.12 provides that the secondary schools of the state may become members of voluntary associations which have as their purpose the promotion of various educational objectives. The rules governing the member schools are promulgated by the League through certain procedures set forth in the Constitution of the League. League Handbook 34-49. Once promulgated, the actual enforcement of the rules becomes the responsibility of the member schools. The League retains the power, in absence of compliance with its rules, to impose upon the member schools certain administrative sanctions ranging from forfeiture of certain athletic contests to suspension from the League, depending upon the nature of the violation.

The basic allegations in the plaintiffs' complaint are directed toward a violation of certain civil rights allegedly due the plaintiffs. Basically, these allegations are that the plaintiffs have been denied due process of law and equal protection of the law in violation of the fourteenth amendment. The relief requested is declaratory and injunctive in nature. The plaintiffs seek to enjoin the defendants from enforcing Article I, Section 8 of the Athletic Rules for Boys or Article III, Section 5 of the Athletic Rules for Girls, or any related rules that would prevent participation of the plaintiffs in the interscholastic athletic events in which they desire to compete. The plaintiffs further request that the League rules mentioned be declared void and unenforceable as violative of the fourteenth amendment, in that the rules constitute an unlawful discrimination based on sex and that the rules violate the plaintiffs' constitutional rights guaranteed under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment, in violation of 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. The complaint also requests a declaration that the substantial disparity of tax funds allocated to boys' athletic programs as opposed to girls' programs is a denial to the plaintiffs of equal educational opportunities in violation of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. The complaint further requests that Peggy Brenden be granted the right to compete for a position on the boys' interscholastic tennis team at St. Cloud Technical High School and that Tony St. Pierre be granted the right to compete on the boys' interscholastic cross-country and cross-country skiing teams at Hopkins Eisenhower High School. The complaint also requests money damages for the plaintiffs in the amount of $20,000.00. The plaintiffs have, however, during the course of the trial, voluntarily dismissed the prayer for money damages, rendering unnecessary a decision by this Court as to the propriety of such relief.

The Court has jurisdiction over this cause of action by reason of 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 and 28 U.S.C. Section 1343(3).⁴ Under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, any person who suffers the deprivation of civil rights guaranteed to him by the Constitution, by persons acting under color of state law may bring suit for the redress of those deprivations. It is clear that the State High School League and the defendant school districts are persons within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. Section 1983.⁵ It is also clear to this Court that the defendants are acting under color of state law.⁶ Although the Minnesota State High School League is a voluntary organization, the original allowance for public high schools to join such an association or organization is authorized pursuant to Minnesota law. Minn.Stat.Ann. Section 129.12 In addition, the rules governing League members are promulgated pursuant to a procedure which integrally involves the member school districts in the decision-making process. Beyond this, the ultimate enforcement of the rules becomes the responsibility of the member school and the public officials of those schools and school districts. In such a situation, where there is a tremendous public interest in educational functions, and where the public school machinery of the state is so involved in the effectuation and enforcement of rules which bind all public high schools in the state, the Court is left with no conclusion other than that defendant Minnesota State High School League and the defendant school districts are acting under color of state law.⁷ Because the defendants are persons acting under color of state law, and because the defendants allege a deprivation of civil rights under the fourteenth amendment, the Court does have jurisdiction to determine the questions raised in this action on their merits.

A question has been raised by counsel for the Minnesota High School League and Independent School District No. 742 concerning the failure of the plaintiffs to exhaust administrative remedies, and that this should be a bar to a decision by this Court on the merits. In an action brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 it is well established that the procedures for challenging state action under that provision is a remedy...