U.S. v. School Dist. of Ferndale, Mich.
| Citation | 577 F.2d 1339 |
| Decision Date | 17 May 1978 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 76-1110,77-1426,s. 76-1110 |
| Parties | , 3 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 225 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SCHOOL DISTRICT OF FERNDALE, MICHIGAN, Willie W. Sawyer, Thomas Plunkett, Robert Cicci, William Morris, Donald P. Flavin, Hanna Clampitt, Jon H. Kingsepp, William G. Coyne, The State of Michigan, William G. Milliken, Michigan State Board of Education, and John W. Porter, Defendants-Appellees. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SCHOOL DISTRICT OF the CITY OF FERNDALE, MICHIGAN, William G. Coyne, State of Michigan, Michigan State Board of Education, and John W. Porter, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit) |
James K. Robinson, U.S. Atty., Detroit, Mich., John C. Hoyle, Brian K. Landsberg, Civil Rights Division, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., J. Stanley Pottinger, Thomas Keeling, J. Gerald Hebert, Alexander C. Ross, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.
Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Gerald F. Young, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lansing, Mich., Robert A. Derengoski, Thomas Schimpf, Lansing, Mich., Burton R. Shifman, Philip Goodman, David M. Black, Southfield, Mich., for local school authorities, defendants-appellees in No. 76-1110.
Burton R. Shifman, Philip J. Goodman, Michael Moquin, Southfield, Mich., Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Gerald Young, Mary Kay Bottecelli, Lansing, Mich., for defendants-appellees in No. 77-1426.
Before EDWARDS, CELEBREZZE and LIVELY, Circuit Judges.
The School District of the City of Ferndale, Michigan, covers a small suburban area immediately north of Detroit. Approximately fifty years ago, the local school board ordered construction of the U. S. Grant elementary school in the southwest corner of the district. The attendance area for Grant was carved out of that for the Thomas Jefferson elementary school, an institution with a predominantly white student body located approximately one-half mile from the Grant school site. The first class of students at Grant was entirely black, save for one student.
There is little dispute that, at least until 1975, Grant remained overwhelmingly black. Between 1968 and 1974, no white students attended Grant. During the same period the Grant faculty was predominantly and sometimes entirely black. Of the other nine elementary schools in the district, all have overwhelmingly white student and faculty populations. In the 1974-75 school year, for example, only fifteen of the district's 277 black elementary students attended schools other than Grant. The total elementary student population that year was 3527. Jefferson school had only one black student in each year between 1971 and 1975, out of an average enrollment of 350. During the same period, black teachers In 1969, the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) instituted administrative proceedings against the school district under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That statute permits federal agencies to cut off financial assistance to state programs that subject persons to racial discrimination. 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000d, 2000d-1. After extensive hearings, an HEW hearing examiner ordered termination of all HEW aid to the school district, based on the following findings:
constituted over 85% of the faculty at Grant, while only about 12% of the faculty district-wide. 1
The Examiner rejects the contentions of the School Board that the Grant School was innocently established and innocently maintained as a "neighborhood" school; that its student body is and was all black because the residential area in which the school was established was and is all black and the School District did not create this residential pattern. The weight of the evidence requires the findings (Findings of Fact below) that the School Board established the Grant School as a separate school for Negro children for the purpose of segregating the Negro children in the Grant area from the white children in its elementary schools; that it continued to maintain the school with an all-black student body for that purpose: and that it assigned a segregated all-black teaching faculty to the school for many years in accordance with a purpose to discriminate against the black children in the Grant area; that the School Board's course of conduct for forty-four years has been consistently one of segregating the Negro children residing in the Grant area and the Township, from the Ferndale City elementary schools.
Further, it must be found that the course of conduct of the School Board was consistent with the pattern of private discrimination and adjuvant public action, that created and maintained racially separate black and white residential neighborhoods, and that the residential segregation and the school segregation each supported the other.
On the basis of the foregoing, the Hearing Examiner finds that the Grant School is and was a de jure segregated school. The school is maintained in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, supra. (footnote omitted) (filed 9/28/70).
This fund termination order was affirmed by a Reviewing Authority at HEW, and a petition for review was subsequently denied by the Secretary of HEW. On March 1, 1973, this Court affirmed the fund termination order, finding that it was supported by substantial evidence. School Dist. of City of Ferndale v. H. E. W., 474 F.2d 1349 (6th Cir.) (unpublished order), cert. den., 414 U.S. 824, 94 S.Ct. 126, 38 L.Ed.2d 57 (1973).
After the cutoff of federal funds, Ferndale school officials instituted two educational programs at Grant school for 1975-76 and 1976-77 schools years: 1) A traditional academic program for Grant students in grades kindergarten through six; 2) An "open classroom" program for other students in grades kindergarten through six. The open classroom approach differs from the traditional program in that it is less structured, and allows for more individualized treatment of students. The program was open to all elementary students in the district on a voluntary basis. In addition to the changes at Grant, the school district implemented an "open enrollment" or freedom of choice plan under which black students residing in the Grant attendance area were provided the choice of attending any other elementary school in the Ferndale school district.
These programs produced the following attendance figures for the 1975-76 school year. 2
The two programs at Grant, while housed in the same building, were conducted in separate classrooms. Only seven black students in the Grant attendance area elected the freedom of choice option for the 1975-76 school year.
Projected faculty composition at Grant for the 1975-76 school year was as follows:
Traditional Program Open Classroom
Teachers: Teachers
7 black 0 black
3 white 7.5 white
-- ---
10 total 7.5 total
The school district projected a total of eight teachers in the traditional program for 1976-77: four black and four white.
In the spring of 1975, the United States filed a desegregation suit against the Ferndale School District under the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 (EEOA or the Act), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1758. The complaint alleged, inter alia, that the Grant school had been illegally maintained as a racially segregated institution. Approximately one year later, the United States filed a second desegregation suit based on similar allegations, but this time under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000c-6. Both of these actions are now before this Court on interlocutory appeals filed by the United States. Because the cases involve a common factual basis, we have consolidated them for purposes of review.
The EEOA action was brought under a provision of the Act that permits the Attorney General to institute a civil action in the name of the United States on behalf of individuals denied "equal educational opportunity" as defined in the Act. 20 U.S.C. § 1706. Under that definition, an educational agency is prohibited from deliberately segregating students on the basis of race or failing to take affirmative steps to eliminate the vestiges of a dual school system. 20 U.S.C. §§ 1703(a) and (b). The Act also generally prohibits racial discrimination in the employment or assignment of faculty or staff. 20 U.S.C. § 1703(d).
The Attorney General's complaint named as defendants the School District of the City of Ferndale, members of the Ferndale Board of Education, and the Superintendent of the school district (local defendants). Also named as defendants were the State of Michigan, the Governor of Michigan, the Michigan State Board of Education, and the Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction (State defendants). 3
The proceedings in the District Court have been fully reported, and need not be recited here. United States v. School District of Ferndale, 400 F.Supp. 1122 & 1131 & 1135 & 1141 (E.D.Mich.1975) (4 opinions). Suffice it to say that the District Court dismissed the EEOA claims on various grounds, and simultaneously denied a motion for summary judgment by the United States. 4 The District Court has certified these rulings for interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b).
The first ruling appealed is the dismissal of the EEOA allegations in the complaint 5 for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). The District Court held that the complaint did not comply with the following EEOA provision An individual denied an equal educational opportunity, as defined by this subchapter may institute a civil action in an appropriate district court of the United States against such parties, and for such relief, as may be appropriate. The Attorney General of the...
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