Dawson
East Side Union High School District v. Whittle Communications, L. P.
Opinion
Opinion
Bamattre-Manoukian, J.
These appeals require answers to four questions:
(1) Whether the trial court properly rejected the contention of the California Superintendent of Public Instruction, and other plaintiffs, that a public school district may never lawfully contract for classroom display of “Channel One,” a current events video program which contains commercial advertisements;
(2) Whether the trial court correctly concluded that “Channel One” may lawfully be used by a school district only so long as the students are not coerced to view the advertisements;
(3) Whether in the circumstances of record the trial court properly granted injunctive relief which, in practical effect, compelled a school district to adopt, as a condition of continued use of “Channel One,” court-specified procedures by which students could “opt out” by choosing not to watch the programming; and
(4) Whether in the circumstances of record the trial court could properly retain jurisdiction to appoint, without a further showing of need, a qualified individual to monitor the parties’ compliance with the judgment.
We shall conclude that the third and fourth questions must be answered in the negative but shall answer the…