Gere v. Stanley

• Decision Date: 06 November 1970
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 70-477.
• Citation: 320 F. Supp. 852
• Parties: Jerald GERE, a minor, by his Father and next Friend, Paul Gere, Plaintiff, v. Emory R. STANLEY, as Superintendent of Blue Ridge School District, Clair W. Young, as Principal of Blue Ridge High School, and Douglas Melhuish, as President of the Blue Ridge Board of Education, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania

320 F. Supp. 852

Jerald GERE, a minor, by his Father and next Friend, Paul Gere, Plaintiff, v. Emory R. STANLEY, as Superintendent of Blue Ridge School District, Clair W. Young, as Principal of Blue Ridge High School, and Douglas Melhuish, as President of the Blue Ridge Board of Education, Defendants.

Civ. No. 70-477.

United States District Court, M. D. Pennsylvania.

November 6, 1970.

Hobbs, Morgan & DeWitt, Tunkhannock, Pa., for plaintiff.

Nogi, O'Malley & Harris, Scranton, Pa., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

NEALON, District Judge.

Jerald Gere, sixteen, an eleventh-grade student at Blue Ridge High School, has instituted this action against the Principal, Superintendent and School Board President of the Blue Ridge School District following his suspension from school in September, 1970, for violation of the hair portion of the school Dress Code. Jurisdiction is based upon the Civil Rights Acts, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and 28 U.S.C. § 1343. Evidence was taken at a hearing on October 14, 1970, which, upon agreement of the parties, was the first and final hearing in this matter. The case is now before the Court for final disposition.

Blue Ridge High School is located in New Milford, Pennsylvania, and has an enrollment of 860 students. While there was no written Dress Code prior to the 1968-1969 school year, at the request of faculty members who complained that style changes were causing disruptions and distractions in the classrooms, the School Principal, Clair W. Young, orally informed the student body of specific requirements relative to student appearance. In September, 1969, Jerald Gere, a transfer student from New York, enrolled in the tenth-grade class. At the start of the 1969-1970 school year, the students were orally advised at a general assembly, and the parents through a newsletter from the Principal, that certain rules had been adopted pertaining to student dress, including the following:

"Hair length will be determined to a large extent by how well it is kept and groomed. When the hair becomes so long that it can't meet these conditions then a haircut is in order. No beards or mustaches are allowed. Sideburns may be worn even with the ears."

In November, 1969, a committee of girls from the Student Council requested the Principal to revise the Dress Code in order to allow the wearing of culottes and, after submitting the matter to the faculty, approval was granted. In February, 1970, the Student Council asked for a modification of the rule concerning blue jeans and subsequently the modification was adopted pursuant to a faculty recommendation. In the meantime, numerous complaints were made to the Principal about the hair style and appearance of Jerald Gere, who, at this point, had allowed his hair to grow to shoulder length and was attempting to grow a goatee. For example, (a) a student complained that because of Jerald's poor eyesight, he leaned forward while eating to the degree that his hair would hang in his plate and he would then throw his hair back out of the plate, causing annoyance to others in the cafeteria; (b) another student refused to sit next to Jerald in class charging that his hair was dirty and "she couldn't tell what was going to crawl out of it", and (c) others accused him of causing annoyance by combing out the long strands of his goatee while in class. Jerald admitted that many students expressed displeasure with the length of his hair and charged that it was dirty and unwashed. According to Mr. Young, after receiving a similar complaint, he directed Jerald to wash his hair and Jerald complied. However, he refused to cut his hair, notwithstanding directives from the Principal, and was suspended by the Principal on March 19, 1970, and, after a hearing before the School Board, he was formally suspended on March 24, 1970. After a lawsuit was commenced in this Court to Civil No. 70-157, Jerald was reinstated pending this Court's decision. Resentment against Jerald's defiance of the Dress Code mounted and a students' petition warning him to cut his hair or it would be forcibly cut for him was stopped on order of School authorities after approximately sixty names had been affixed to it. A delegation from the American Legion called on the Principal protesting Jerald's refusal to abide by the Code and parents of students warned that "* * * we'll send our sons to cut his hair." Fortunately, the school year ended in June without further incident. During the summer, a new written Dress Code was drafted by the Administrative Staff and approved by the Faculty on August 31, 1970. The Code was then submitted to the Student Council, consisting of thirty representatives, and was approved with but one dissent after a change concerning the wearing of sandals without stockings in warm weather was agreed upon. The Code was accepted by vote of the School Board on September 8, 1970, to go into effect at the start of school on September 14, 1970. With reference to hair adornment, the Code provided:

"Hair length will be determined to a large extent by how well it is kept and groomed. Hair will not be allowed to be worn if the length touches or goes past the shirt collar of a regular man's dress shirt, nor will it be allowed when it grows over the ear or ears, nor if it is longer on the forehead than the line established by the eyebrows. When the hair becomes so long that it does not meet all of these conditions, a haircut will be in order. Beards and mustaches of any type are not allowed. Sideburns may be worn but no longer than the bottom of the ear lobe."

Jerald reappeared for the 1970-1971 school year with tresses touching his shoulders, which style, he concedes, violates the new Dress Code. Once again he was asked to comply and again he refused. Suspension followed and this lawsuit was commenced.¹ Before plunging into the applicable law, it should be mentioned that, except as outlined above, Jerald caused no trouble at the School and was not disciplined for any infraction or misconduct unrelated to the Dress Code.

The States and school administrators have comprehensive authority, consistent with fundamental constitutional safeguards, to prescribe and control conduct in the schools. This authority over the students, while comprehensive, is not absolute and a student's constitutional rights must be recognized and "* * * applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment." Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 507, 89 S.Ct. 733, 21 L.Ed.2d 731, 736 (1969). In Pennsylvania, the Legislature has vested authority over student conduct and behavior, including the power to suspend temporarily because of disobedience or misconduct in the principal, vice principal and teachers, while the power of permanent expulsion is delegated to the Board of School Directors, 24 Purdon Statutes §§ 13-1317, 1318. Thus, the action of Public School Authorities constitutes State action. Of course, the State has an independent interest in the well-being of its youth, Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S. 629, 88 S.Ct. 1274, 20 L.Ed.2d 195 (1968), and its power to control the conduct of children reaches beyond the scope of its authority over adults. Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 170, 64 S. Ct. 438, 88 L.Ed. 645 (1944). "A democratic society rests, for its continuance, upon the healthy, well-rounded growth of young people into full maturity as citizens, with all that implies." Prince v. United States, supra, at 168, 64 S.Ct. at 443. Nevertheless, high school students are persons under the Constitution and are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect. Tinker v. Des Moines School District, supra. However, Courts should not intervene in the resolution of conflicts which arise in the daily operation of our school systems and which do not directly and sharply implicate basic constitutional values. Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 104, 89 S.Ct. 266, 21 L.Ed.2d 228 (1968). The threshold question, therefore, is just how basic and fundamental is the right to wear one's hair as one pleases? Considering the question in its broadest sense, there is no doubt that any State action limiting the length of hair or forbidding mustaches or beards on all male citizens would be constitutionally infirm. To me, an individual's taste as to hair length is not within the contemplation of First or Ninth Amendment freedoms, but is a personal liberty protected from State encroachment by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Richards v. Thurston, 424 F.2d 1281 (1st Cir.1970). Mindful then of the State's comprehensive authority to prescribe conduct in the schools and its greater power of control over children as distinguished from adults, on the one hand, and a student's constitutionally protected personal liberty, on the other, how are they to be resolved when they collide?

Initially it must be pointed out that it is the Court's responsibility to determine the constitutionality of this School Regulation and not the wisdom of it. I mention this because I feel the issue of hair length is receiving much more attention and creating more problems than it deserves. One need merely look around him to realize that the younger generation likes a longer hair style and, in time, today's extremes may become the order of the day. But there are far more serious problems in education, as well...