Bunger v. Iowa High School Athletic Ass'n

• Citation: 197 N.W.2d 555,53 A.L.R.3d 1110
• Decision Date: 11 May 1972
• Docket Number: No. 55105,55105
• Parties: William Hal BUNGER, a minor, by William H. Bunger, his Father and Next Friend, Appellant, v. IOWA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION et al., Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 555

197 N.W.2d 555

53 A.L.R.3d 1110

William Hal BUNGER, a minor, by William H. Bunger, his Father and Next Friend, Appellant, v. IOWA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION et al., Appellees.

No. 55105.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 11, 1972.

Kurth & Bunger, Carroll, for appellant.

Engelbrecht & Ackerman, Waverly, and Doran, Doran, Doran & Courter, Boone, of appellees.

Swift, Brown, Rogers, Winick & Randall and James R. Swanger, Des Moines, amicus curiae.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

This case involves the validity of a rule of the Iowa High School Athletic Association (which we will refer to as IHSAA or the association).

IHSAA is an unincorporated association in charge of boys' interscholastic athletic events in Iowa, including tournaments. Waverly-Shell Rock Community School District is a member of IHSAA, as are all other high schools in Iowa except the school at Kalona. Member schools agree to abide by the constitution and bylaws of IHSAA, which may be amended by referendum of the members. A board of control is in charge of the affairs of IHSAA and may interpret its rules. The board consists of six individuals elected by the members of IHSAA, a seventh appointed by the Iowa Association of School Boards, and an eighth (ex officio) appointed by the State Board of Public Instruction. IHSAA has, in addition, a representative council, which consists of 25 individuals elected by high school administrators. An executive secretary manages the affairs of IHSAA. A portion of the gate receipts of tournaments plus membership fees of $2 each support the association.

Under the constitution and bylaws, a member school cannot allow an athlete who is known to be ineligible to engage in interscholastic athletic events. Nor can a member school engage in such events with a nonmember school. A member school violating the constitution or bylaws is subject to probation, suspension, or expulsion. One portion of the constitution and bylaws deals with eligibility of athletes to participate in interscholastic events.

The member schools strongly oppose the use of alcoholic beverages by athletes. In recent years, the drinking problem has increased, particularly the drinking of beer. Attempts by individual school boards to deal with the problem proved unsatisfactory. School boards and administrators were sometimes under local pressure to play outstanding athletes notwithstanding infractions, and different boards had varying rules relating to similar violations.

Largely at the behest of the schools themselves, a committee of IHSAA studied the problem and proposed rules which were adopted by a substantial majority vote of the membership. Pertinent to this case is § 20 of those rules:

Any student whose habits and/or conduct, both in and out of school during the school year or during the summer months, are such as to make him unworthy to represent the ideals, principles and standards of his school and this Association shall be ineligible and it shall be the duty of the superintendent or his delegated principal to exclude him from interscholastic athletic participation until reinstated to eligibility by the local school administration.

Item 1: In the event a boy comes under the jurisdiction of any Court for juvenile delinquency, or charged with a crime, except minor traffic violations, he shall automatically become ineligible to participate in interscholastic athletics. However, upon application of the local school administrator to the Iowa High School Athletic Association a committee will be convened, either in person or by telephone, which shall consist of the Secretary of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, the school administrator, the Judge of the Court having jurisdiction and the probation officer. Such committee shall consider and determine whether the conditions and facts of the Court involvement on the part of the boy are such that an eligibility reinstatement shall be permitted, and, if so, the conditions thereof, particularly as to the date on which the reinstatement should be effective. If a boy has been released from probation or if there has been dismissal of the action or termination of the proceedings, the school administrator may make application for reinstatement of eligibility directly to the Board of Control.

Item 2: In the event a boy pleads guilty or is found guilty of using alcoholic beverages or pleads guilty or is found guilty of the use of dangerous drugs, or the transportation of either such beverages or drugs, he shall be declared ineligible for participation in interscholastic athletic competition for a minimum of six weeks for the first offense. (Individual member schools may exclude a boy for more than six weeks.) For the second offense, the penalty shall be loss of interscholastic athletic eligibility for a period of twelve months. At the end of said period the boy may, upon proper application, be reinstated to eligibility by action of the Board of Control.

This section is known as the Good Conduct Rule and Item 2 of it is known as the 'beer rule.'

Purporting to interpret the beer rule, the board of control adopted the following ruling (which we will refer to as 'the interpretation' or 'the rule'):

A boy shall lose at least 6 weeks of interscholastic competition if he is found guilty of possession, consumption or transportation of alcoholic beverages or dangerous drugs, or if he admits to a school administrator, the coach or an officer of the law that he has possessed or consumed such beverages or drugs. A boy is also subject to the same loss of eligibility if he is in a vehicle stopped by a law officer and alcoholic beverages and/or dangerous drugs are found in the vehicle. However, if he reports this incident to his superintendent, principal, athletic director or coach the next day of school or prior to the next scheduled contest, whichever occurs first, and then following the boy's answers to six basic questions and completion of investigation, the school administration is convinced that the boy had no knowledge of such beverages or drugs in the vehicle, the administrator shall then file a report to the Board of Control on a form provided by the Association, that the boy has lost no eligibility and is therefore remaining eligible. The six basic questions are: (a) Did the boy have knowledge that there was alcoholic beverages and/or dangerous drugs in the vehicle? (b) Were there any open containers of alcoholic beverages or dangerous drugs in the vehicle? (c) Had anyone in the vehicle been consuming beverages or drugs found in the vehicle? (d) When did the athlete become aware that there were beverages or drugs in the vehicle? (e) What did the law officer observe? (f) Has the boy been in violation of the Good Conduct Rule before? If following the investigation the administration finds that the boy has been in violation, he shall be ineligible. It shall not be a violation when an athlete is stopped in a vehicle with his father, mother, brother or sister who is twenty-one years of age or older.

The State Department of Public Instruction approved the Good Conduct Rule and the interpretation of it and IHSAA disseminated that Rule and the interpretation among its members. The members made the Rule and interpretation known to athletes, including plaintiff William Hal Bunger. William is a 16-year-old football player of ability on the outstanding Waverly-Shell Rock team.

On the evening of June 7, 1971, William and three other minors were riding in a car containing a case of beer. William knew the beer was in the car. An Iowa highway patrolman stopped the four minors, discovered the beer, and issued summonses to all four for possession of beer as minors. Three pleaded guilty. William pleaded not guilty, and the charges against him were subsequently dismissed by the county attorney.

On June 10, 1971, William reported the beer incident to his school athletic director and stated he knew at the time that the beer was in the car. Thereupon, the school officials declared William ineligible for six weeks commencing with the opening of the fall football season.

William brought the present suit to enjoin enforcement of the rule. The trial court upheld the rule, and William appealed.

William levels a number of charges against the rule. We think, however, that we need not consider all of his claims, for two basic questions control the case. First, does IHSAA have authority to promulgate the rule in question? Second, is the rule valid on its merits? We confine ourselves to the rule before us rendering ineligible an athlete who occupies a car with knowledge of the presence of beer which is found by a law officer.

I. Authority to Promulgate the Rule. In our scheme of things, authority to provide for the educational interests of the state is confided in the General Assembly. Iowa Const. Art. IX, § 15; Kinzer v. Independent School Dist. of Marion, 129 Iowa 441, 105 N.W. 686. Pursuant to that authority, the legislature has provided for school districts, to be under the control of elected district directors. Code, 1971, § 274.1, § 274.7 ('The affairs of each school corporation shall be conducted by a board of directors'), § 279.8 ('The board shall make rules for its own government and that of the . . . pupils . . . and require the performance of duties . . . imposed by law and the rules.').

Can a school board re-delegate its rule-making power regarding pupils to some other organization? Several courts have considered this question to more or less extent, although under statutes or facts distinguishable from the present ones. Mitchell v. Louisiana High School Athletic Ass'n, 430 F.2d 1155 (5th Cir.); Louisiana High School Athletic Ass'n v. St. Augustine High School, 396 F.2d 224 (5th Cir.); Oklahoma High School Athletic Ass'n v. Bray, 321 F.2d 269 (10th Cir.); Kelley v. Metropolitan County Board of Education of Nashville, 293 F.Supp. 485 (M.D.Tenn.); Scott v. Kilpatrick, 286 Ala. 129, 237 So.2d 652; Quimby v. School...