Lindros v. Governing Board of the Torrance Unified School District

510 P.2d 361, 9 Cal. 3d 524, 108 Cal. Rptr. 185, 1973 Cal. LEXIS 208
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedMay 31, 1973
DocketL.A. 30059
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 510 P.2d 361 (Lindros v. Governing Board of the Torrance Unified School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lindros v. Governing Board of the Torrance Unified School District, 510 P.2d 361, 9 Cal. 3d 524, 108 Cal. Rptr. 185, 1973 Cal. LEXIS 208 (Cal. 1973).

Opinions

Opinion

TOBRINER, J.

In this case we examine Education Code section 13443,1 which establishes the conditions under which the governing boards of local school districts may decline to rehire probationary teachers. At the end of the 1969-1970 academic year, the Governing Board of the Torrance Unified School District2 terminated petitioner Stanley Lindros, a proba[527]*527tionary teacher, because he read a theme to his English class which contained controversial language, and because he allegedly on one occasion allowed students to return needed books to the library without proper authorization. •

For the reasons set forth below, we hold that these incidents fail to establish “cause” for termination which is reasonably “relate[d] to the welfare of the schools and pupils thereof” as required by section 13443, subdivision (d); in so doing we note that in both incidents Lindros acted in the good faith pursuit of concededly legitimate educational objectives, and that the Board demonstrated no significant adverse impact on the students or the school.

The Torrance Board employed petitioner as a tenth-grade probationary English teacher at South High School for the 1969-1970 school year. Petitioner’s record attested to his eminent qualification for the position. Not only did he hold a California teaching credential but also he had studied for, or obtained, advanced degrees in philosophy, theology, and the communication arts. A Catholic priest on leave of absence from the Church, petitioner had enjoyed a wide range of experience: he had served as a parish priest, prison chaplain, resident counselor, and secondary level teacher. Nothing in the record suggests, that petitioner had failed to fulfill his promise as an effective English instructor or had been unable to relate well with young people; indeed “teacher evaluation” records indicated that he proved himself “above average” in both competency in subject matter and in rapport with students.

The incident which constituted the main charge against the petitioner occurred early in the school year. In mid-October 1969 petitioner assigned his tenth-grade English classes the task of preparing a short story relating a personal emotional experience. The purpose of this assignment, as later described by petitioner, was to stress “the relationship between good creative writing and personal experience. I believe this to be the key in communicating with students and encouraging better writing.”

At the request of several students that he present them with an example of his own work, Lindros read a short story, “The Funeral,” which he originally wrote as a rough draft for a television play at Loyola University. Autobiographical in nature, the story recorded petitioner’s emotions at the funeral of one of his students who, during the time Lindros taught at a predominantly black high school in Watts, died of a heroin overdose. The theme contained language later deemed objectionable by South High’s principal—including a slang expression for an incestuous son. We set forth the full text below:

[528]*528“The Funeral
“I was mad, disgusted . . . tense. If Agnes hadn’t reminded me I’d still be watching Shoes of a Fisherman at the film director’s studio. But whether it was guilt or concern, I knew I should be at Ed’s funeral at 2 p.m.
“The highway provided me with nothing but a blanket of mist and melancholy. Splashing past 110th and Compton Ave. I caught sight of Greater Antioch Baptist Church just as four of my students were carrying Ed’s body into the dismal looking building.
“Water dripped from the ceiling as the small choir intoned, Come Sweet Jesus. . . . Only the appearance of plump Rev. Black, Bible in hand, saved us from their uncoordinated efforts.
“I couldn’t catch what Black was reading but it was unimportant. I was here, somber, moody, thoughtful; and all to the testimony that I as a white man did care for a young black hipe who died too young . . . too soon.
“Lloyd made it . . . Larry, Fred, Benard, Fuzzy—they were all there. Seemed like every addict in the community was on the scene with his leather jacket and shades, as if to collect ... or to pay off to Ed. What a lineup! Sargent [sic] Masterson from Precinct 77 would have raised a brow or two at this gathering.
“Kelly had tears streaming down his face; perpetually high . . . who could blame him; deserted father, bitch mother; in and out of jail since thirteen. He shot with Ed for the last time that Saturday night.
“The wailing, so characteristic at a Black funeral did not begin until the second stanza of l Believe, delivered by Hessie Jones. The little Black kid next to me stared at the solitary tear that rolled down my cheek.
“Why are women so goddam hysterical? Did they really know Ed? Did they care? Were they using Ed’s ‘time’ from their own shackles of welfare and project living? I do not know. I do not live in Watts; but 1 feel for them now, in their strange melodramatic way.
“Only the obituary read by Sister Maebelle shook me out of my depression. ‘Ed Leavy Pollard. Born in Greenwood, Miss., 1952; Died Jan. 11, 1969. . . .’ She droned on in a pitifully low, uneducated tone.
“Curley, a steady shooter with Ed was moved to bellow out, ‘Louder Lady, I can’t hear ya.’ Choresetta in the fourth pew from the front [529]*529responded to this abrupt remark with a deep shaking sob. The storm grew louder. I noticed at least three leaks from the roof now. God, what a depressing hole; wet, dam [.sv"c] pictureless, peeling paint, worn, dam pews; only the cossack of Ed and us. ‘Only us O Lord,’ I thought ‘but what the hell are we here for?’
“I sit here white, middleclass, secure, while the' goddam system rapes these poor people of every vestage [sic] of dignity.
“Rev. Galine, a slick looking ‘Tom’ began the eulogy; Jeremiah was the scapegoat. First there was the woman in the back row. She was joined by three others; then another . . . and another; soon everyone in the drama had his chance to chant a response back to the Baptist Preacher; ‘Oh Lord’ . . . ‘That’s right’ . . . ‘I’m listnin’ . . . ‘Speak God.’ . . . Only the periodic gasping signs (sobs) interrupted the Rev’s show.
“Ed would have rolled over and grimaced if he would have heard the hysterics when David, his classmate, opened his cossack for the finale. The weeping and gnashing lasted long enough for all of us to troop past Ed and glance at his ashen, black face.
“I felt whipped out; this was a strange two hours; strange to a white who had no blackness in him; strange to a white who knew no such poverty and desperation; even stranger outside when I greeted a young Black in a Panther-like outfit:‘White-mother-fuckin Pig.’ . . .”

Before reading the controversial words at the end of “The Funeral,” petitioner pondered their appropriateness for the classroom, and decided in good faith that their use was permissible in some, but not all, of his classes.3 As petitioner stated, although he recognized that “a few words in ‘The Funeral’ [were] not acceptable in common usage . . .

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Lindros v. Governing Board of the Torrance Unified School District
510 P.2d 361 (California Supreme Court, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
510 P.2d 361, 9 Cal. 3d 524, 108 Cal. Rptr. 185, 1973 Cal. LEXIS 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lindros-v-governing-board-of-the-torrance-unified-school-district-cal-1973.