State ex rel. Sageser v. Ledbetter

• Decision Date: 31 October 1977
• Docket Number: No. 10113,10113
• Citation: 559 S.W.2d 230
• Parties: STATE of Missouri ex rel. Ronnie SAGESER, a minor, by his Next Friend, Donald Sageser, Relator-Respondent, v. W. D. LEDBETTER, Jess Bair, Virgil Hasselbring, A. L. Gurley, Dean Greathouse, Nelson White, Bill Campbell and Kaare Gjeruldsen, Respondents-Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 230

559 S.W.2d 230

STATE of Missouri ex rel. Ronnie SAGESER, a minor, by his Next Friend, Donald Sageser, Relator-Respondent, v. W. D. LEDBETTER, Jess Bair, Virgil Hasselbring, A. L Gurley, Dean Greathouse, Nelson White, Bill Campbell and Kaare Gjeruldsen Respondents-Appellants.

No. 10113.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Springfield District.

Oct. 31, 1977.

Motion for Rehearing or to Transfer Denied Nov. 29, 1977.

Application to Transfer Denied Jan. 9, 1978.

Robert P. Baker, Sarcoxie, for relator-respondent.

Jon Dermott, Ron E. Mitchell, Blanchard, Van Fleet, Martin, Robertson & Dermott, Joplin, for respondents-appellants.

Before STONE, P. J., and HOGAN and TITUS, JJ.

STONE, Presiding Judge.

In this proceeding instituted in the Circuit Court of Jasper County, relator Ronnie Sageser (hereinafter Ronnie) sought a writ of mandamus to compel respondents, Virgil Hasselbring, A. L. Gurley, Dean Greathouse, Nelson White, Bill Campbell, and Kaare Gjeruldsen, the members of the board of education of the Sarcoxie R-2 School District (hereinafter collectively referred to as the board), W. D. Ledbetter, the superintendent of schools for that district, and Jess Bair, the principal of Sarcoxie High School at the time of suit, to execute and deliver to relator Ronnie a diploma evidencing his graduation from that school. Relator's petition was filed on May 27, 1975; and, on the same date, an alternative writ issued. In due time, respondents filed their return in which they asserted, inter alia, (a) that relator Ronnie had "failed to comply with all requirements for graduation, to-wit, attendance for four complete years," in that he had "attended only three quarters of his eleventh year and was suspended, failed to return, and was never readmitted during said eleventh year," (b) that "relator need only to successfully complete one additional quarter to satisfy the graduation requirements," and (c) that respondents were "willing to permit relator to attempt completion of said graduation requirements upon proper behavior by relator." Following a plenary hearing upon the issues joined, the court found the issues in favor of relator and made the alternative writ absolute. Respondents nisi appeal.

Ronnie, born on June 20, 1957, was 14 years of age when he entered Sarcoxie High School in the fall of 1971. Although in the course of trial references were made to prior "behavior problems" with Ronnie which were the subject of discussions in superintendent Ledbetter's office in one of which Ronnie's father also participated, the single incident that precipitated this litigation occurred in March 1974 during Ronnie's junior year. At the close of one of Ronnie's band classes, his music instructor David Raper told Ronnie (so he testified) "to go in on the stage and take the chairs from the stage into the bandroom," whereupon "I (Ronnie) threw my coat down, went in to get the chairs, then I got took to the office (of Jerry Smith, the then principal of Sarcoxie High School) for throwing my coat down disrespectfully . . . ." In Ronnie's presence, principal Smith questioned instructor Raper at length about the foregoing incident and concluded that by his action Ronnie had shown disrespect for Raper, in fact had defied him. Apparently having in mind also that "there had been other problems (with Ronnie) throughout the year," principal Smith summarily suspended Ronnie for three days as he (Ronnie) remembered it or for an indefinite or indeterminate period according to Smith's recollection. The principal explained that this indefinite period normally would run from one to ten days. ¹

Either the next day by relator Ronnie's account, or "about five days later" according to principal Smith, the latter called Ronnie's home and requested that he report to the principal's office. Upon trial, principal Smith recalled that, when Ronnie did report, "his attitude (was) that of indifference toward returning to school and behaving" in short, that "his attitude hadn't improved," so Smith told Ronnie "to go home until his attitude improved." Ronnie's recollection was that, in the course of this meeting, principal Smith had exclaimed "You don't even know what you are doing here, do you" and, when Ronnie agreed and answered "No," the principal "just said, '(w)hy don't you just check out your books and go home.' " Although the principal declared that Ronnie's check-out and withdrawal were voluntary and without compulsion by any school official, certain portions of the principal's testimony cast doubt upon that characterization of Ronnie's withdrawal. ² But, regardless of whether the principal's above-quoted utterances to Ronnie constituted a mere suggestion, an admonition or a command, Ronnie did "go home" after having completed a "checkout form" obtainable only from the principal or upon his authorization. This "checkout form" was dated April 1, 1974, which was approximately eight weeks prior to the last day of the 1973-74 school year.

Ronnie reentered Sarcoxie High School in September 1974, was listed as a senior, continued in school through the 1974-75 academic year, and (with his academic credits from the three previous years) earned the twenty units of credit required for graduation. However, he was denied a diploma (so superintendent Ledbetter declared) because he had not completed "eight semesters of attending" as prescribed "in the policy that is made by the Board of Education" (hereinafter the eight-semester requirement).

When Ronnie's parents learned that he would not graduate with his class, one of the parents attended a meeting of the board of education and requested that the board waive the eight-semester requirement and give Ronnie's diploma to him, but the board refused to do so. However, acknowledging that Ronnie had satisfied all other requirements for graduation, superintendent Ledbetter declared that, if Ronnie would enroll for "(e)xactly the amount of time that was lacking from the time he dropped out (April 1, 1974) until the end of school which, I believe, (was) eight weeks, give or take a day or two," he would receive his diploma.

Since the Sarcoxie eight-semester requirement hatched this controversy, it becomes both appropriate and necessary to note the evidence concerning its origin, meaning and prior enforcement. We observe initially that the eight-semester requirement was not imposed or ordained by statute, but was a requirement for graduation formulated and prescribed by the Sarcoxie Board of Education (so superintendent Ledbetter declared) pursuant to a recommendation nestling in a footnote to the last sentence of paragraph 17, "High School Graduation Requirements," in the Handbook for Classification and Accreditation of Public School Districts in Missouri (1973) published by the Missouri State Board of Education, that sentence and footnote reading as follows:

"The local board of education may require more than 20 units, adopt specific course requirements, and/or specify the number of semesters of attendance ** required for graduation from their local school district."

Inasmuch as the proper disposition of this appeal does not involve or depend upon the wisdom vel non of this recommendation, the acceptance of which mandatorily herded all high school students, without regard to ability, aptitude, ambition, intellect, motivation, performance or prior scholastic record, onto the same conveyor belt geared to the pace of the mediocre or average student, we eschew comment concerning its adoption by the Sarcoxie board.

In fact, the Sarcoxie school board minutes of August 13, 1968, revealed that the board then adopted the requirement of "4 years in one or more high schools for high school graduation." However, on February 12, 1974, the board also adopted the above-quoted eight-semester recommendation in the 1973 handbook of the State Board of Education and included that adopted recommendation in the particularized "Graduation Requirements for Sarcoxie High School" which concluded as follows: "Each student shall attend school for four years in grades nine and above. These graduation requirements are to be implemented July 1, 1974." ³ This sheet neither defined "attend school" nor offered any elucidation as to its intended meaning in the quoted context.

Respondents' position in this proceeding (as initially stated by superintendent Ledbetter) ⁴ was that, by reason of Ronnie's absence during approximately the last eight weeks of his Junior school year, he did not satisfy the four-year requirement and will not be entitled to receive a diploma until he does. Thus, Ledbetter initially declared that relator Ronnie would be required to attend Sarcoxie High School for "exactly" the additional number of school days that he missed in his Junior year from his suspension or "checkout" on April 1, 1974, to the end of that school year. However, Ledbetter subsequently conceded not only that the eight-semester requirement did not demand or necessitate any attendance but also that relator Ronnie already had earned the twenty units of credit which constituted and satisfied the "measure of academic achievement" required for graduation, from which it followed that it would not be necessary for Ronnie to earn any additional units of credit, pass any courses in which he might be enrolled, or for that matter even attend any classes. ⁵ Thus, it becomes plain that the additional requirement of enrollment for eight weeks imposed by the school authorities would do no more than work an exercise in futility which would benefit neither the school district nor relator Ronnie and thus would fly in the teeth of the commonsense maxim that the law does not require the doing of a useless thing. ⁶

Although the foregoing is dispositive of this appeal, the earnest presentations of counsel move us to note other record evidence pointing to and supporting the same conclusion. At a school board meeting on October 10, 1972, a motion was made, seconded and...