Harrison v. Morehouse Parish School Board

368 So. 2d 1113, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 3733
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 20, 1979
DocketNo. 13794
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 368 So. 2d 1113 (Harrison v. Morehouse Parish School Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harrison v. Morehouse Parish School Board, 368 So. 2d 1113, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 3733 (La. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

JONES, Judge.

Appellant, Morehouse Parish School Board, suspensively appeals a judgment requiring it to provide free school bus transportation to and from the residence and school for Tanya Harrison, age 6, daughter of appellee, John Harrison. We reverse the judgment of the trial court.

The distance from appellee’s home to Pine Grove School which Tanya attends is 17 miles. Appellee’s residence is on a rural road a distance of .2 of a mile from the main bus route. ■ The state statute pertaining to bus transportation for school children is LSA-RS. 17:158 which states:

“Each parish and city school board shall provide transportation for any student attending a school of suitable grade approved by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education if the student resides more than one mile from such school . . . ”

LSA-R.S. 17:81 provides:

“Each school board is authorized to make such rules and regulations for its own government, not inconsistent with law or with the regulations of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, as it may deem proper.”

Prior to August 1976 the Morehouse Parish School Board policy provided to all school children living in rural areas school bus transportation to and from their residences and school. In August of 1976, the Morehouse Parish School Board decided the policy of picking up all school children in front of their residences was too expensive and passed a resolution creating three buss-ing classifications for school children in rural areas: (1) school busses would continue to transport students living .5 of a mile or more from a main bus route to and from their residences and school; (2) school children living less than .5 of a mile from a main bus route were required to walk to a central meeting place on the main bus route where a school bus would pick them up and drop them off; and (3) the resolution contained a grandfather clause excepting from its provision those children residing less then .5 of a mile from a main bus route who had been picked up in front of their residences the previous school year (these children would continue to be picked up in front of their residences). This service to residences of children living less than .5 of a mile from a main bus route would be permanently discontinued when no children were picked up along such route for one school year.

The school bus driver, pursuant to the new policy, refused to pick up Tanya at her doorsteps (which was .2 of a mile from the main bus route) and required appellee’s child to meet the school bus at the main bus route. Appellee contends the Morehouse Parish School Board is arbitrarily discriminating against his school child in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, § 3 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 by refusing to pick up his school child in front of his residence while picking up other school children living less than .5 of a mile from a main bus route in front of their residences when such bus service was provided them during the previ[1115]*1115ous school year. Morehouse Parish School Board contends it is not discriminating against appellee’s school child because no child similarly situated to appellee’s child is being treated differently.

In its first reasons for judgment, the trial court held the school board policy of continuing residence to school transportation for school children living less than .5 of a mile from the main bus route but denying residence to school transportation to children similarly situated solely because of an arbitrary change of policy cut off date violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The court cited Dukes v. City of New Orleans, 501 F.2d 706 (5th Cir. 1974), wherein a New Orleans ordinance prohibiting street food vendors from doing business in the French Quarter was invalidated for denial of Equal Protection because of a grandfather clause excepting from its prohibition those who had been in business for 8 years. Upon learning City of New Orleans v. Dukes, supra, was reversed by the Supreme Court, 427 U.S. 297, 96 S.Ct. 2513, 49 L.Ed.2d 511, the court granted a new trial for argument only. In its written reasons for judgment on the new trial hearing the court held the school board’s policy treated plaintiff’s child differently from other children similarly situated by distance, and for this reason was a denial of constitutional guarantees of Equal Protection. The court distinguished Dukes v. City of New Orleans, supra, because it approved discriminatory classification in a local economic regulation, whereas this bus case involved a public service.

In the case of Dukes, supra, the Court stated:

“Unless a classification trammels fundamental personal rights or is drawn upon inherently suspect distinctions such as race, religion, or alienage, our decisions presume the constitutionality of the statutory discriminations and require only that the classification challenged be rationally related to a legitimate state interest. States are accorded wide latitude in the regulation of their local economies under their police powers, and rational distinctions may be made with substantially less than mathematical exactitude.” at 303, 96 S.Ct. at 2516.

In the case of State v. Bradley, 360 So.2d 858 (La.1978) the court stated:

“Neither the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment nor Art. 1, § 3 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 prevents the State in all cases from according different treatment to different classes. It is only when those classifications are not justified by valid State interests that a denial of equal protection may be found.” at 861

The bussing regulation does not involve a suspect classification such as race or religion. It does not “trammel fundamental personal rights”. The right in question is the right of a school child to free school bus transportation. In San Antonio Independent School Dist. v. Rodriquez, 411 U.S. 1, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973), the Supreme Court held education is not a fundamental right. It follows the right to free school bus transportation does not involve a fundamental right.

No suspect classification or fundamental right being involved, the issue presented is whether the classification created by the school board is rationally related to a legitimate state interest.

The trial court found the state interest asserted by the school board was “to operate and maintain its school bus system in an economical manner by preventing the creation of new bus routes of distances of less than .5 of a mile”. In Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 25 L.Ed.2d 491, the court held allocation of limited public funds to preserve fiscal integrity is a valid state objective.

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Bluebook (online)
368 So. 2d 1113, 1979 La. App. LEXIS 3733, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harrison-v-morehouse-parish-school-board-lactapp-1979.