Jeffers
Jeffers Ex Rel. Jeffers v. Yuba City Unified School District
Opinion
Opinion
Wilkins, J.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Plaintiffs seek to have certain portions of the dress code pertaining to the length of male students’ hair at Yuba City High School declared unconstitutional and to enjoin the defendants from enforcing them. The motion for a preliminary injunction and the prayer for declaratory and permanent injunctive relief were consolidated for trial, which commenced April 7, 1970.
At the beginning of the 1969-1970 school year dress regulations were in effect which prohibited the wearing of “excessive hair styles” by male students. In February of 1970 the standards were formalized, prohibiting beards and forbidding sideburns below the ear lobe, and hair draping over the ears, shirt collars or eyes.
The plaintiffs Merle Keith Jeffers, Jr., Steven P. Smith and Alfred Gary Lopez are students at Yuba City High School. They brought this class action on behalf of all male students in the high school. On March 4, 1970, Steven Smith was suspended from school for having hair longer than allowed by the regulation. The following day Merle Jeffers, Jr., was likewise suspended for having excessively long hair. Both of these plaintiffs have been readmitted to school pursuant to a…