Calendar No. 25,910 | Mich. | Mar 26, 1914
The relator is a private corporation; organized under the laws of this State. Its purposes, as expressed in article 2 of its articles of association, are the “support, care and education of homeless and needy boys and the promotion of their moral and material needs.” It is maintained solely by private subscriptions and donations, and its principal
It further appears that some 14 boys were being kept and cared for on this farm. Among them were Claude Diamond and Frederick Millen, both of the age of 14 years. Claude Diamond, in April, 1909, being found to be a neglected child, was committed to Lake Farm by an order of the juvenile division of the probate court of Kalamazoo county, and prior to that time he had lived with his mother and stepfather in the 'city of Kalamazoo. Frederick Millen was likewise committed to Lake Farm in July, 1910, by said probate court, and both of his parents also resided in the city of Kalamazoo. None of the parents of these two boys were residents of school district No. 2, the respondent. Neither of the boys had ever attended the school in this district, and during a part of the school year of 1912 they attended the public schools in the city of Kalamazoo, and during the remainder of the school year had a private tutor provided for them at Lake Farm. At the beginning of the present school -year, the two boys were sent to the school maintained in district No. 2 to enroll and attend. The district board, having theretofore duly determined not to receive nonresident pupils into its school, refused admission to the boys. Relator applied to the circuit court of Kalamazoo county for a writ of man
Section 4683, 2 Comp. Laws (4 How. Stat. [2d Ed.] § 9904), provides as follows:
“All persons residents of any school district, and five years of age, shall have an equal right to attend any school therein; and no separate school or department shall be kept for any persons on account of race or color: Provided, that this shall not be construed to prevent the grading of schools according to the intellectual progress of the pupil, to be taught in separate places as may be deemed expedient.”
The sole question here involved is whether or not the inmates of an institution chartered for the support, care, and education of homeless and needy children by their presence in such an institution for the purposes of education and maintenance shall become entitled to free admission to the schools of the district in which it is located, the same as resident children. The circuit judge held that, as the Lake Farm stood in loco parentis to the boys, they were entitled to admission, because to deny them that right would not be in accord with the liberal educational policy of the State and would be contrary to public policy. This conclusion must necessarily be based upon the proposition that, as the institution was in loco parentis to the children, mere physical presence is all that is necessary to constitute a residence within the meaning of the language pf the statute. We are of the opinion, however, that in construing this language some consideration must be had of the occasion and purposes of such presence. The parents of these children were not residents of the district, and the children were brought to the farm for the very purpose of giving them proper support and education, which the institution under its charter had agreed to do. Can it be said that, after having assumed this obligation, the institution can shift this responsibility
The principal case relied upon by appellee is State v. Thayer, 74 Wis. 48 (41 N. W. 1014). In that case the question was the relationship between the child and the person in whose family it was living. The child .had a mother residing in another part of the State, and the school district attempted to apply the
The writ of mandamus should not have issued. The order and judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the petition of relator for the writ of mandamus is dismissed.