State ex rel. Henry v. Macdonald

Citations

• 25 Wash. 122
• 64 P. 912
• 1901 Wash. LEXIS 370

Syllabus

<p>SCHOOLS-COMPULSORY EDUCATION-REFUSAL TO PLACE CHILD IN SCHOOL —• CONTEMPT OF COURT.</p> <p>Under the school law of 1897, as amended in 1899, which provides that it shall be the duty of parents and guardians of children between the ages of eight and fifteen years to send them to school at least three months in each year; that any parent or guardian who, after notification hy the county superintendent, refuses or neglects to send such child to school, shall, upon complaint of such superintendent, be summoned before the judge, who shall have power to issue an order commanding the parents to place the child in school, or appear before him and show cause for refusal so to do; and that any person summoned before a superior judge to answer why he has not kept such child in school, who fails to give satisfactory cause for refusal to comply with the law relating to school attendance, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined; no authority is vested in the superior judge to adjudge such parent or guardian guilty of contempt for failure to comply with an order to place .a child in school, since the only penalty the statute imposes is to declare the ofíense a misdemeanor punishable by fine.</p> <p>SAME-PENALTY-NOT EMBRACED IN TITLE OP ACT.</p> <p>Under § 19, art. 2, which provides that no. bill for an act of the legislature shan embrace more than one subject, whicn must be expressed in the title, a section in the school law defining a misdemeanor and providing for its punishment is illegally embraced within an act entitled “an act to establish a general and uniform system of public schools in the state of Washington.”</p>