Hughes v. Board of Trustees, Tarrant Co. Jr. Col. Dist.

480 S.W.2d 289, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2528
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 14, 1972
Docket17300
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 480 S.W.2d 289 (Hughes v. Board of Trustees, Tarrant Co. Jr. Col. Dist.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hughes v. Board of Trustees, Tarrant Co. Jr. Col. Dist., 480 S.W.2d 289, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2528 (Tex. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

This appeal is from a temporary injunction. The Court found that the defendants had “engaged in unlawful, violent, threatening, and disruptive conduct on the South Campus of Tarrant County Junior College,” and temporarily enjoined them from such unlawful conduct.

The plaintiff, The Board of Trustees, Tarrant County Junior College District, and the defendants, Arthur Hughes et al., will be referred to in this opinion as appel-lee and appellants, respectively.

In order to clarify the situation leading to the issuance of the temporary injunction the facts appearing in the record are summarized as follows: on October IS, 1971, at about 10:00 or 10:15 A.M., about 75 students appeared in the hallway of the Administration Building on the South Campus of Tarrant County Junior College, outside the offices of the President, the Dean of Instruction, and the Dean of Student Services. Dean Van Cleef went to the hallway and was advised by the group that they wanted “to speak to everyone in the Administration Building.” Van Cleef suggested that they proceed to the Student Center where there would be enough room for discussion. Before leaving for the Student Center several students then went to the office of Dr. Dan McLallan, Dean of Instruction, and said to him, “We want you to come along too, Whitey.”

At the Student Center, the group referred to increased to about 125. “And, there was a great deal of confusion and noise . . . . ” One of the defendants, Madison Hogan, started the meeting by saying, “We’ve come, not to talk with you fellows, not to have requests with you, not even to give demands, but to tell you how it’s going to be.”

Another defendant, Arthur Hughes, interspersed his talk “with many obscene, vulgar and threatening kinds of words.” He said, “You have a student who is coming before the discipline committee tomorrow. This student will not be dismissed from classes at TCJC. If so, there will be problems and troubles at TCJC.” He also stated that, “If one of the black students on this campus is dismissed, all of the black students on the campus will have to be dismissed, and before we go, we’re going to make problems for TCJC,” and “that there would be no more TCJC when they went.” In reference to a particular teacher, he said “we would get his white ass.” He claimed that there were “some teachers on the campus who were white racists” and that if they “were not fired immediately that the whole black student population would have to be dealt with.”

Another defendant, Kelly Scott, “then took over the meeting and made a lot, a number of statements regarding white racist teachers and wanting them fired. He spoke in a very emotional and very angry voice,” came up close to Dr. Van Cleef who testified that Scott “pointed at me with a paper that he had in his hand, and indicated that he was sick of me and that they would not be satisfied until I was gone, and they were going to get me. . . His tone was very loud and very angry, and the group cheered, a number of them stood and showed the black power sign.” When Scott said: “I will not stop until I get you”, the crowd became quite agitated, began to give black fists salutes and began to yell obscenities of this nature.

Hughes then spoke again and “indicated again that they were tired of talking to us, and they were going to take things into their own hands and that they just didn’t want to talk any more. . . . We’re telling you how things are going to be, we’re tired of talking to you, we will handle things in our own way with our methods.”

“. . . the meeting was highly emotional, ... it was best characterized as being a climate where there were inciting *291 kind of threatening statements being made, . . . hardly an atmosphere for trying to accomplish anything productive.” The faculty members were not permitted or invited to talk. “. . . the tone of the whole meeting was demanding, threatening, highly stated, agitated.”

The following questions and answers appear in the Statement of Facts:

“Q. Now, Dr. Van Cleef, it is necessary that I ask you if you will repeat verbatim, please, the profanities and obscenities that you say did take place, and that the students engaged in during the meeting.

“A. I-You want me to say it exactly as they-

“O.-Yes-

“A.-The words as they used them-

“Q.-To repeat into the record the words which were used in reference to obscenities and profanity and that sort of thing.

“A. The words, ‘mother fucker, fuck, shit, fucking shit, and white racist pig’ were terms that were thrown out frequently.”

The events above described occurred on Friday, October IS.

On Saturday, the Discipline Committee proceeded with its duly scheduled meeting and after a full hearing, it voted to suspend James Stein. This was the student Arthur Hughes referred to when acting as spokesman for the group assembled in the Student Center and threatened reprisal action in the event of his dismissal by the Committee.

Monday, October 18, was the next school day following the Friday confrontation and the Saturday meeting of the Discipline Committee. As defendants, Madison Hogan, Lester Hays, Arthur Hughes and Kelly Scott, had threatened on the previous Friday they and their followers did “take things into their own hands” on Monday' and proceeded to “handle things in (their) own way with (their) own methods” and “make problems for TCJC.” Their threats of violence on Friday were followed up with acts of violence on Monday.

First, a group of students went through the cafeteria line at the Student Union Building and got cups of ice which they carried up to the overhanging balcony on trays, each tray holding “anywhere from a dozen to twenty cups of ice on it.” They began by throwing ice, cokes, icetrays, trash cans and chairs off the balcony onto the floor below, where students were peacefuly assembled. After awhile they ceased, but then they regrouped. They were heard to say, “ . . . we’re going to throw everything off; going to throw chairs, coffee tables, everything.”

In the second barrage, “they were aiming at people, trying to hit people.” Among other objects, they threw a six-foot coffee table over the balcony. “It landed right beside” students who were seated below. Several students were struck by various objects thrown at them. A student who went upstairs “To see if I could stop it, or help stop it, because there were people that were going to get hurt,” was set upon by the rioters, beaten, hit in the eye and kicked in the chest. They tried to throw him over the side of the balcony. He was “hanging onto that balcony like it was his last hope.”

During the rioting, a plate glass door was broken by an ashtray which was kicked into it. Another object was thrown from the outside, breaking a large pane of glass in the lobby of the Student Center, “shattered glass in several directions, nearly hitting students.” Numerous chairs, trash cans, and large ashtrays were broken. This destruction is clearly revealed by the photographs which are in the record.

After things had quieted down, some of the group said, “ . . . they weren’t going to stop until a certain student was *292

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480 S.W.2d 289, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2528, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hughes-v-board-of-trustees-tarrant-co-jr-col-dist-texapp-1972.