Cloak v. Cody

326 F. Supp. 391, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13340
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. North Carolina
DecidedMay 12, 1971
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 326 F. Supp. 391 (Cloak v. Cody) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cloak v. Cody, 326 F. Supp. 391, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13340 (M.D.N.C. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

EDWIN M. STANLEY, Chief Judge.

The minor plaintiff, on behalf of himself and on behalf of others similarly situated, seeks injunctive relief and monetary damages against the defendants by reason of the fact that the minor plaintiff was denied the privilege of selling newspapers at a public school in Orange County, North Carolina, in which the minor plaintiff was enrolled as a student.

Following joinder of the issues, the parties stipulated the facts and submitted the matter to the Court for decision on the stipulated facts and briefs.

The pertinent facts are as follows:

1. Plaintiff Daniel Cloak, by his father and next friend, Frank T. Cloak, Jr., is a citizen of the United States. Until on or about October 22, 1969, he was a student in good standing at the Grey Culbreth Junior High School. Following that date, he was suspended from school for three days and was further prohibited from engaging in certain [392]*392conduct, as set forth more fully herein below. He formerly resided at 121 Kenan Street, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Plaintiff, since the time of the occurrences herein described, has moved from the State of North Carolina and no longer attends any public school within this State.

2. Defendants Lindahl, Scroggs, Guthrie, Weatherly, Silver, Billingsley, and Holton are citizens of the United States and of the State of North Carolina, and are now and were at all times material hereto the duly elected, qualified, and acting members of the Chapel Hill City Board of Education. As such, defendant board members have under their control all public schools and the respective officials and teachers of all public schools within the Chapel Hill city administrative unit. Defendant board members have general supervision over the enforcement of rules and regulations authorized by State law to be prescribed by the board for the conduct of all public schools within said unit.

3. Defendant Wilmer Cody is now and was at all times material hereto the Superintendent of the Chapel Hill City Administrative School District, and is responsible for the enforcement of rules and regulations prescribed by the aforesaid school board for the administration of said public school district.

4. Defendant Edmonds is now and was at all times material hereto the Principal of the Grey Culbreth School, a Junior High School within the jurisdiction of the Chapel Hill City Administrative School District, and is responsible for the enforcement of rules and regulations prescribed by the aforesaid school board for the administration of said public school within the aforesaid public school district. In his official capacity, he was responsible for the suspension of plaintiff Cloak and the continued prohibition of newspaper sales on the school grounds which this lawsuit seeks to enjoin.

5. On September 25, 1969, plaintiff Cloak, an eleven-year-old student at the Grey Culbreth Junior High School distributed free of charge the Protean/Radish newspaper at said school. There was no commotion or disturbance connected with this distribution. On several occasions thereafter, the plaintiff and his sister, Connie Cloak, distributed the Protean/Radish newspaper free of charge without incident.

6. On September 30, 1969, the plaintiff and his sister sold the Protean/Radish newspaper at the Grey Culbreth Junior High School. On that date, plaintiff and his sister were stopped by defendant Edmonds, principal of said school, who told them “selling” (and soliciting donations) on school grounds was prohibited. Thereafter, on October 16, 1969, plaintiff sought defendant Cody’s permission to sell the Protean/Radish newspaper on school grounds, which permission was denied, and upon inquiry by plaintiff as to what step he could take to have the decision overruled, he was advised that an appeal or request to the Board of Education would be appropriate.

7. Plaintiff appeared at a meeting of the Board of Education on October 20, 1969, and requested that he be permitted to sell the newspaper, the Protean/Radish, at the junior high school. At this time defendant Cody stated that, “School policy specifies that items can be sold in the schools only with the Superintendent’s approval. Items sold in school are limited to school supplies and student newspapers. To avoid having to decide on every item someone wanted to sell, the procedure has been to interpret the policy very narrowly. The school board does prohibit the solicitation of funds by students, on this basis. The students have been asked not to ask for donations for these newspapers on the school grounds.” Plaintiff at this meeting stated that his purpose for selling the newspaper at the junior high school was for two reasons, first, for students to be informed of what is going on, and second, to help a friend who had many debts to pay. The chairman of the school board said a decision would be made at a future meeting. At this time the writ[393]*393ten policy of the board of education read as follows: “No funds for non school purposes may be collected in the school, and no commercial organization may market or advertise its products through the school without the Superintendent's approval. No non school groups or individual may seek publicity or recruit in a school without the Superintendent’s approval.”

8. On October 22, 1969, while the school board had under consideration plaintiff’s request, plaintiff again sold the Protean/Radish newspaper at Grey Culbreth Junior High School. Later that day he was suspended from school for three days by defendant Edmonds for violating the directions previously given him not to sell or offer the paper for sale on school grounds.

9. On November 3, 1969, plaintiff attended a regular school board meeting. The board then adopted a policy regulation, which provides:

No individual or non-school sponsored group be permitted to either solicit the sale of any item or seek contributions for any item or cause at any of the schools within the Chapel Hill City School System.

Defendants Silver and Guthrie voted against the motion adopting said policy.

10. Plaintiff’s sister informed the Board of Education at the November 3, 1969 meeting that she and plaintiff were interested in organizing a club to distribute and sell newspapers. She said they were at the meeting to ask defendant Cody and inform defendant Edmonds of this interest. Plaintiff talked informally with one of the defendant members of the Board of Education, and plaintiff was informally advised by said defendant that he might want to form a club, whose members would purchase newspapers and meet regularly under the guidance of a school staff member to discuss the contents of the newspapers. None of the defendants, however, agreed that sale of newspapers on the school premises would be permitted.

11. Plaintiff submitted to defendant Edmonds a proposal for the formation of a school organization and request for school sponsorship of an organization to be known as Phillips-Culbreth Freedom of the Press Club. The proposal contained a constitution, as follows:

CONSTITUTION
Purpose: To make available to the student body, through selling and distribution, all types of newspapers. Article I: There will be no censorship within club-sold newspapers, as long as they are newspapers.
Article II:

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Bluebook (online)
326 F. Supp. 391, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cloak-v-cody-ncmd-1971.