## Facts

- Eunice Kelley, a 12-year-old sixth-grade student, attended a Lincoln public school.
- The school board’s sixth-grade curriculum required domestic science (practical training such as cooking).
- Domestic science instruction was held at a separate building over a mile from Eunice’s school and took almost half a day.
- Eunice’s father directed her not to attend domestic science because of the travel/time burden and resulting interference with other studies.
- School officials refused to excuse Eunice from domestic science and dismissed her from the public school for nonattendance of the required class.
- The father sought a writ of mandamus to compel her readmission; the district court granted the writ, and the school officials appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a public school board has statutory authority to prescribe an elementary curriculum that includes domestic science and to require student attendance.
2. Whether a parent may require the school to excuse a child from a required subject while insisting the child remain enrolled in other classes.
3. Whether dismissing a student from school for refusing to attend a single required class was a lawful and reasonable exercise of school disciplinary discretion.
4. Whether mandamus is an appropriate remedy to compel readmission when exclusion is unlawful.

## Decision

- The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s judgment granting mandamus.
- The Court recognized that school boards have broad statutory authority to establish courses of study, including industrial or domestic science.
- The Court held that, on this record, excluding Eunice from the school entirely for refusal to attend domestic science was not justified and exceeded permissible disciplinary discretion.
- The Court upheld mandamus as a proper means to correct an unlawful exclusion and to compel reinstatement.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory grants to local school boards to establish branches and grades of instruction generally authorize inclusion of industrial and domestic science in the prescribed curriculum.
- A student’s right to attend public school cannot be denied through arbitrary or unreasonable disciplinary action.
- School discipline and curriculum enforcement must be reasonable in light of the circumstances; total exclusion may be an improper sanction for a limited curricular dispute.
- Mandamus may issue to compel school officials to restore a pupil to enrollment when officials act beyond lawful authority or abuse discretion by excluding the pupil without sufficient legal cause.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed a writ ordering a student’s readmission, holding that while school boards may require domestic science as part of the curriculum, expelling a child from all public schooling solely to enforce attendance in one contested class—given the burdens shown—was an unreasonable and unlawful exclusion remediable by mandamus.


State ex rel. Kelley v. Ferguson, 95 Neb. 63, 144 N.W. 1039 (Neb. 1914)