Steffes v. California Interscholastic Federation

• Decision Date: 16 January 1986
• Citation: 222 Cal.Rptr. 355,176 Cal.App.3d 739
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: , 29 Ed. Law Rep. 677 Conrad STEFFES, a Minor, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CALIFORNIA INTERSCHOLASTIC FEDERATION, an unincorporated assocation; California Interscholastic Federation, Los Angeles City Section, an unincorporated association; and Los Angeles City School District, a public school district; Defendants and Respondents. Civ. B011081.

Page 355

222 Cal.Rptr. 355

176 Cal.App.3d 739, 29 Ed. Law Rep. 677

Conrad STEFFES, a Minor, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. CALIFORNIA INTERSCHOLASTIC FEDERATION, an unincorporated assocation; California Interscholastic Federation, Los Angeles City Section, an unincorporated association; and Los Angeles City School District, a public school district; Defendants and Respondents.

Civ. B011081.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 3, California.

Jan. 16, 1986.

Review Denied April 2, 1986. ^*

Levine, Krom & Unger, Tina S. Schuchman, Beverly Hills, for plaintiff and appellant

Patterson & Lucas, Andrew Patterson and Robert C. Miller, West Covina, for defendant and respondent California Interscholastic Federation.

DeWitt W. Clinton, Co. Counsel, Nina W. Phillips, Deputy Co. Counsel, Los Angeles, for defendants and respondents Los Angeles City School Dist. and California Interscholastic Federation, Los Angeles City Section.

ARABIAN, Associate Justice.

INTRODUCTION

The principal question in this case of first impression is whether, under the California Constitution, the right to participate in interscholastic athletics is a "fundamental right."

FACTS

Plaintiff and appellant, Kent Conrad Steffes, a minor, by his Guardian Ad Litem, Jackson T. Steffes (Steffes), appeals from an order of the trial court denying his petition for a preliminary injunction to restrain defendants California Interscholastic Federation; California Interscholastic Federation, Los Angeles City Section; Los Angeles City School District; William Honig, as Superintendant of Public Instruction; and Brentwood School (collectively defendants) ¹ from enforcing a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) rule under which Steffes was declared ineligible to participate in varsity level competition in basketball and volleyball at Palisades High School (Pali High) during the 1984-1985 academic year.

Defendant CIF is a statewide organization that was established to enact and enforce rules and regulations governing secondary school interscholastic athletics in the state of California. Defendant CIF, Los Angeles City Section, is a division of CIF with responsibility for administering interscholastic athletics in the Los Angeles City School District. Defendant Los Angeles City School District is responsible for maintaining Pali High and its athletic program. Defendant William Honig, the Superintendant of Schools for the Department of Education, is responsible for enforcing the rules and regulations necessary for the administration of California public schools. Defendant Brentwood School is a private school located in Los Angeles County, California.

Steffes spent his freshman and sophomore years at Brentwood School. During his sophomore year (the 1983-1984 academic year), Steffes participated in junior varsity cross-country and varsity basketball and volleyball. At the end of his sophomore year, Steffes' parents decided to transfer him to Pali High, the public high school for the area in which the Steffes' family home is located. Steffes was not encouraged nor recruited for athletics by any of the personnel at Pali High.

Since Steffes transferred from Brentwood School to Pali High without a change of his parents' residence, CIF rule 214 (Rule 214) rendered him ineligible to participate in varsity athletics for one calendar year after his transfer.

Rule 214 provides: "A student who transfers from a school located in the United States, a U.S. Territory or U.S. military base (to be referred to as School A) to School B without a change of residence on the part of the parents or legal guardian from school attendance area A to school attendance area B shall be residentially eligible for all athletic competition, except varsity level competition in sports in which the student has competed in any level of interscholastic competition during the 12 calendar months preceding the date of such transfer, provided the athletic eligibility is approved by both principals of the schools involved. The student shall be ineligible According to Thomas E. Byrnes, Commissioner of the CIF, the purpose of Rule 214 is to "eliminate or minimize recruiting and school shopping."

for all sports for one calendar year in the event that either or both principals decline to approve athletic eligibility. The student shall become eligible under the rule after one calendar year from the date of first attendance at school B. Each CIF section shall establish rules and procedures to review an individual case in the event that either principal declines to approve such athletic eligibility, upon appeal by the student to the CIF section. Each CIF section may waive the ineligibility at varsity level provided the section establishes rules and procedures regulating same. This rule also applies to students 18 years of age or older."

Steffes filed an "Application for Residential Eligibility Form 214" with the CIF Los Angeles City Section to obtain a waiver of his ineligibility to participate in varsity level athletics at Pali High. In the application, Steffes stated that he had not been influenced to transfer schools for recruitment reasons. Despite this fact, the principal at Brentwood, Hunter M. Temple, declined to approve unrestricted athletic eligibility for Steffes. In a letter to Jim Cheffers, the Los Angeles City Section Director of Athletics for CIF, Mr. Temple stated that he supported the Rule 214 restriction because "a coherent athletic program can only be achieved if students complete [their] program here [at Brentwood School]."

Steffes then began an appeal process which eventually took him through the multiple stages of CIF administrative review. He first filed an appeal petition with the CIF, Los Angeles City Section, for unrestricted eligibility (an application for a "hardship" waiver). Steffes' "hardship" waiver application set forth three categories of asserted hardship: financial, academic and transportation. The petition was denied by the Rules Committee of the CIF, Los Angeles City Section. Steffes unsuccessfully appealed that decision to the Los Angeles City Section of the CIF Interscholastic Athletics Committee; to the Los Angeles Unified School District Administrator; and to the Commissioner of the CIF.

Finally, on December 20, 1984, Steffes filed a complaint against defendants for injunctive relief, declaratory relief and emotional distress. On the same day, Steffes filed an ex parte application for a temporary restraining order and an order to show cause re preliminary injunction, seeking to enjoin the enforcement as to him of Rule 214 athletic ineligibility.

The court denied Steffes' request for a temporary restraining order but scheduled a hearing on his request for a preliminary injunction. At the January 24, 1985, hearing on the application for preliminary injunction, the court applied the "rational basis" test to review Rule 214. It determined that "there is a rational basis for the rule," and that "Rule 214 is a reasonable, necessary and valid provision for the prevention of practices detrimental to the educational objectives of California high schools." The court further found that "the CIF L.A. City section [had] adopted and administered, in a fair, impartial and reasonable way, rules and standards for the implementation of the hardship exception to the ineligibility provisions of Rule 214." Accordingly, the court denied Steffes' request for a preliminary injunction. Steffes appealed the denial.

CONTENTIONS

1. The trial court erred in applying the "rational basis" test, rather than the "strict scrutiny" test, to review Rule 214 because, under the California Constitution, the fundamental right to a public school education includes the right to participate in interscholastic athletics.

a. Rule 214 impermissibly deprives Steffes of his fundamental right to participate in extracurricular activities offered by a public school.

2. Rule 214 violates state law because, according to the California Education Code 3. Waivers of Rule 214 athletic ineligibility are administered in an arbitrary manner because the CIF, Los Angeles City Section, has not promulgated rules and regulations in regard to these waivers.

promulgation of rules governing interscholastic athletics is limited to the Department of Education and the Superintendant of Public Instruction.

DISCUSSION

I. Mootness

The Los Angeles City School District, CIF, and CIF, Los Angeles City Section, urged that the appeal in this case be dismissed for mootness. They point out that, inasmuch as Rule 214 rendered Steffes ineligible for varsity level athletic competition for only one calendar year, its restriction on Steffes' athletic participation is no longer effective.

A similar argument was raised in John A. v. San Bernardino City Unified School Dist. (1982) 33 Cal.3d 301, 187 Cal.Rptr. 472, 654 P.2d 242. In that case, a public high school student, expelled for assaulting two other students after a football game, appealed from the trial court's denial of his petition for writ of mandate to compel the high school to readmit him. (Id., at p. 304, 187 Cal.Rptr. 472, 654 P.2d 242.) The school district argued the appeal was rendered moot by the student's readmission to school. (Id., at p. 307, 187 Cal.Rptr. 472, 654 P.2d 242.) In refusing to dismiss the appeal for mootness, the appellate court stated: "Even if that were so, this case comes within the well-recognized qualification to the general rule that where, as here, the appeal presents questions of continuing public interest that are likely to recur, the resolution of those issues is appropriate." (Ibid.)

The questions presented by the instant appeal concern the rights of a student who seeks participation in interscholastic athletics after transferring from one school to another. The answers to these questions are of significance to students, parents, school boards, school administrators, and voluntary organizations, such as CIF, which have...