This did not work either the pupils then began to wear fraternity and sorority pins openly and to engage in pledging, "dogging," and other activities peculiar to their organizations, in the schools. In 19 the school authorities, because of these protests from parents and their own feeling of uncertainty as to how far they could go in the enforcement of the law, abandoned the pledge system, and adopted a policy of ignoring the societies as long as they kept their activities out of the schools. Sometimes, when the issue arose, parents protested that the particular organization involved was not a secret society and that it was not operating in the schools. The system was found only partially effective. If it was discovered that a pupil had violated the pledge he was suspended afterward he and a parent could come to the superintendent's office and agree that the pupil would resign *475 from the organization, whereupon the suspension would be lifted. In 1936 a pledge system was inaugurated under which pupils and their parents were required to sign a pledge that the pupil was not and would not become a member of any such society.
Until 1936 the school authorities seem to have done little if anything to discharge their statutory duty to "suppress all secret societies" in the high schools, although there were for many years in the high schools of Portland a number of secret fraternities and sororities, some of the former being local chapters of national organizations. 1, Multnomah County, Oregon, up until the time of the action of the school board of that district which brought on the present litigation, the statute appears to have been more honored in the breach than the observance. In the high schools of the city of Portland, which embraces School District No. These provisions were originally enacted as Ch 215, General Laws of Oregon 1909. "This act shall not apply to either the state agricultural college or the state university." "It is hereby made the duty of each school board within the state, to examine, from time to time, into the condition of all schools under its charge and to suppress all secret societies therein, and for this purpose such boards are hereby authorized to suspend or expel from school, in their discretion, all pupils who engage in the organization or maintenance of such societies." "Secret societies of every kind and *474 character, including fraternities and sororities, so called, which may now or hereafter exist among the pupils of any of the public schools of this state, including high schools, either local or county, are hereby declared unlawful." Since 1909 secret societies in the high schools of this state have been prohibited by law. With them on the brief were King, Wood, Miller, Anderson & Nash, of Portland, and Koerner, Young, McColloch & Dezendorf, of Portland.īefore BRAND, Chief Justice, and HAY, ROSSMAN and LUSK, Justices. Anderson argued the cause for respondents and Clarence J. Sayre, of Portland, argued the cause for appellants.
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