Snyder v. Charlotte Public School District

333 N.W.2d 542, 123 Mich. App. 56
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 8, 1983
DocketDocket 60659
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 333 N.W.2d 542 (Snyder v. Charlotte Public School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snyder v. Charlotte Public School District, 333 N.W.2d 542, 123 Mich. App. 56 (Mich. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

J. E. McDonald, J.

Plaintiffs David and Patricia Snyder, and their minor daughter, plaintiff Brenda Snyder, reside in Eaton County, Michigan, where Brenda is enrolled in the sixth grade at the Charlotte Christian Academy. In 1981, Patricia Snyder attempted to enroll Brenda in the band course offered by the Charlotte Junior High School. The principal of the school refused to admit Brenda for [60]*60band instruction because of the school district’s policy of allowing attendance in its schools of only full-time students.

Thereafter, on September 8, 1981, plaintiffs filed suit in the Eaton County Circuit Court seeking an injunction requiring defendant Charlotte Public School District to admit Brenda to the band class. Following a bench trial held on September 25, 1981, a final judgment of no cause of action and dismissal of plaintiffs’ complaint was rendered by the trial judge. Plaintiffs appeal as of right. The Attorney General of the State of Michigan has intervened as an appellant, and various parties have filed as amici curiae.

On appeal, plaintiffs contend that defendant school district’s policy of denying admission to its courses violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and, further, that the school board is acting without statutory authority. After careful analysis of plaintiffs’ arguments, we disagree and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

I. Constitutional Considerations

Plaintiffs rely heavily on the Supreme Court’s decision in Traverse City School Dist v Attorney General, 384 Mich 390; .185 NW2d 9 (1971), for the proposition that defendant has refused to offer "shared time” band instruction to Brenda, thereby denying her equal protection of the law and coercing her into choosing between her constitutionally guaranteed right to freely exercise her religion and her desire for musical training. Defendant counters that it has elected not to provide any kind of shared time instruction whatsoever and is within its constitutional and statutory authority in doing so.

[61]*61The Supreme Court discussed the concept of shared time instruction at length in Traverse City, supra, a case which involved certified questions regarding the constitutionality of Proposal C, an amendment to Const 1963, art 8, § 2. Proposal C prohibited the state or any municipality from directly or indirectly aiding private or other nonpublic schools. Consideration of Proposal C required the Court to consider the ramification for shared time instruction as it has existed in Michigan since 1921. The Court defined shared time as:

"an operation whereby the public school district makes available courses in its general curriculum to both public and nonpublic school students normally on the premises of the public school.” 384 Mich 411, fn 3.

The Court invalidated that part of Proposal C which categorically prohibited any support for nonpublic school students for part-time instruction received at public institutions, holding that such a prohibition violates the free exercise of religion and equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the federal constitution. 384 Mich 414-415. In discussing the constitutional implications of the amendment, the Court stated:

"The Attorney General’s interpretation of Proposal C severely curtails the constitutional right of school selection while the state interests advanced by Proposal C do not require this intrusion upon the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right. Consequently, excluding private school children from receiving shared time instruction or auxiliary services at the public school is a denial of equal protection. This does not mean that a public school district must offer shared time instruction or auxiliary services; it means that if it does offer them to public school children at the public school, nonpublic [62]*62school students also have a right to receive them at the public school.
"When a private school student is denied participation in publicly funded shared time courses or auxiliary services offered at the public school because, of his status as a nonpublic school student and he attends a private school out of religious conviction, he also has a burden imposed upon his right to freely exercise his religion. The constitutionally protected right of the free exercise of religion is violated when a legal classification has a coercive effect upon the practice of religion without being justified by a compelling state interest. * * * As pointed out above, there are no compelling state interests advanced by Proposal C which justify the burden placed on the choice of attending a private school out of a religious conviction.” (Citations omitted; emphasis added.) 384 Mich 432-433.

When this language is considered together with the Court’s definition of "shared time”, it is clear that the Supreme Court meant that, while participation in shared time instruction could not turn on the status of the student seeking to participate, the initial decision to offer shared time instruction is discretionary with the local school district. Only after the initial decision to offer shared time instruction has been made are the constitutional strictures of equal and nondiscriminatory treatment imposed. A school district may permissibly decline to offer any shared time instruction whatsoever; however, once it chooses to offer such instruction, participation may not depend upon the particular religious or personal convictions of the individual student.

In this case, defendant has developed and implemented a policy of nonadmission to its courses to any but full-time resident students. Defendant has developed and administered its policy on a consistent and evenhanded basis. It has not denied [63]*63Brenda Snyder admission to its band class because of her religious beliefs. The district has simply elected not to make its courses available to nonpublic school students. Traverse City, supra, indicates that it was within its rights to do so. Consequently, plaintiffs’ remedy is not with the courts but, rather, to elect a school board which will change the district’s policy.

Decisions of the United States Supreme Court, with which Traverse City, supra, is fully consistent, support the conclusion that defendant’s policy in no way contravenes the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. In fact, these cases demonstrate that this case presents no bona fide constitutional issue.

In Norwood v Harrison, 413 US 455; 93 S Ct 2804; 37 L Ed 2d 723 (1973), the Court rejected the contention that a state’s refusal to lend free textbooks to racially discriminatory nonpublic schools constituted an invidious classification and denied equal protection simply because the parents had chosen to exercise their constitutionally protected right to send their children to nonpublic schools. Although that dispute involved racial discrimination, the Court discussed at length the implications of the First Amendment in resolving the permissible boundaries of state aid to nonpublic schools. The Court noted that, while the appellees had intimated that the state must provide assistance to private schools equivalent to that it provides to public schools,

"Clearly, the State need not. Even as to church-sponsored schools * * *, any absolute right to equal aid was negated, at least by implication, in

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Related

Snyder v. Charlotte Public School District
365 N.W.2d 151 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1985)
Wardlow v. Great Lakes Express Co.
339 N.W.2d 670 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1983)
Snyder v. Charlotte Public School District
333 N.W.2d 542 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
333 N.W.2d 542, 123 Mich. App. 56, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snyder-v-charlotte-public-school-district-michctapp-1983.