"Perfectly Proper"

Nearly a year ago, New York City's Superintendent of Schools William Jansen summoned a teacher into his office and asked him this question: "Are you now, or were you ever, a member of the Communist Party?" The teacher refused to answer, and in time, seven others did the same. Last May, Superintendent Jansen suspended all eight for "insubordination and conduct unbecoming a teacher." Since then, New York City has been trying to decide whether Dr. Jansen had the legal right to do what he did.

Last week, after a special trial of the eight, set up by the Board of Education and presided over by Manhattan Lawyer Theodore Kiendl, the city got a verdict. Ruled Kiendl: since the Communist Party has "at all pertinent times [been] dedicated to the advocacy of the violent overthrow of the Government of the United States . . . membership in the party constitutes cause for dismissal of a teacher . . ." Therefore, said Kiendl, it was "perfectly proper" for the superintendent to ask the question he did, and it was the duty of each teacher to answer.

A man "may have the right to be a member of the Communist Party," continued Kiendl, "but he has no constitutional right to be at the same time a teacher in our public schools ... If and when academic freedom is relied on to permit the existence of a clear and present danger of the injection into youthful minds of any subversive doctrine, it is no longer academic freedom, but unrestrained academic license . . ."

As was to be expected, the defendants declared they would take their case "if necessary to the highest court in the land." Meanwhile, Superintendent Jansen had been reinforced in his right to ask questions, and would continue to do so whenever he thought it necessary.

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