Miss Jean West
School Case in Court Monday; Girl Dismissed
Article taken from The Lima News, April 17, 1931
HAMILTON, O., April 17-(AP)-William West, Portsmouth, city plumbing inspector, filed suit here today in common pleas court asking that Miami university be enjoined from dismissing his daughter, Miss. Jean West, as a student.
Miss West was a student in the teachers' college. A. K. Morris, instructor in the college, said the girl, registered for a two years course, was dropped at the end of last semester because of low grades. At the start of the second semester she registered for a four-year course.
Morris said Miss. West again failed to meet required scholarship requirements at the recent mid-semester examination and was not expelled but dropped because of low grades.
West filed suit to test authority of a state institution to drop a student because of poor scholarship.
Judge E. J. Kautz, Butler-co, requested Chief Justice Marshall to assign another judge to hear the case. Marshall appointed Judge J. B. Barnes, Sidney. The case was scheduled to be heard Monday.
Court Returns Expelled Girl To Her Studies
Article taken from The Lima News, April 21, 1931
HAMILTON, April 21 -- (AP) -- Until Judge J. B. Barnes rules upon her suit. Miss Jean West, 19-year-old co-ed, can go back to go to her classes at Miami university, but she can't recite.
The judge so decided yesterday after hearing on the girl's suit to compel Miami university to allow her to remain in school. She had been dropped because of low scholastic standing.
Attorneys for Miss West and the school were given eight days in which to file briefs, after which Judge Barnes promised a decision as soon as possible.
The suit was filed by the girl's father. william West of Portsmouth, who contends that a state school cannot deny a student who has paid the required fees the right to attend classes because of deficient scholastic standing. The hearing brought out that Miss West had standing of 23 points in the school's grading system, four points above the old standard but two points less than the new requirements.
School Decision Soon
Article taken from The Lima News, April 28, 1931
Hamilton, Ohio, April 28 (AP)
When briefs are filed for Miami University which is seeking to drop Miss Jean West, Portsmouth, freshman, because of low scholastic standing, Judge J. D. Barnes, Sidney, will hand down a decision. Briefs for Miss West were filed yesterday.
Miami to Carry West Case to High Court
Article taken from The Lima News, May 15, 1931
HAMILTON , O., May 15 - (INS) Facing a critical situation in
scholarship discipline which threatens to affect all state institutions of
higher learning, authorities of Miami university today pondered over what
course of action they will follow in combating an injunction against the
dismissal of a student for failure to attain required scholastic standards.
The injunction wa handed down in common pleas court here yesterday by Judge
J. K. Barnes, of Sidney, in the cause of Miss Jean West, 19, of Portsmouth,
a freshmen at Miami university, who fought a attempt to dismiss her from
the institution because of poor grades.
Miss West, thru her father, William West, city plumbing inspector at Portsmouth,
sued the university on the contention that schools supported by the state
have no right to drop a student failing to make specified marks when the
student has paid the required entrance fee.
In ruling that the school had no authority to expel Miss West, Judge Barnes
stated that the institution could, however, compel her to remain in the
same grade until her scholastic work qualified promotion.
Although declining to comment upon the court's ruling, officials of Miami
university indicated that an appeal would be make to higher court.
Bettman Confident of Defeating West Case
Article taken from The Lima News, May 22, 1931
Columbus, O., May 22 Siding with Miami university trustees in their controversy with Jean West, Portsmouth co-ed, Attorney General Gilbert Bettman today declared that "the right of a university to drop a student for failure to meet reasonable scholastic standards seems to me to be inherent in all universities."
The Opinion was addressed to Dr. Alfred H. Upham, president of Miami university, after university officials appealed to Bettman for his assistance in obtaining a reversal of a recent decision preventing them from expelling Miss West for low scholarship.
Ohio Appeal in School Case Starts in Court
Article taken from the Lima News, Oct. 14, 1931
HAMILTON, O., Oct. 14 -(AP)- The first district court of appeals today heard arguments in the case of Jean West, Portsmouth, a former Miami University co-ed, against trustees of that institution, the question being whether or not a student not meeting scholastic requirements can be dismissed. Miss West was dismissed from Miami last year and took her case to common pleas court where she won. The state appealed.
Attorney General Gilbert Bettman and Assistant Attorney Earl R. Hoover represented the tax supported institution.
"The right of a university," argued Bettman, "to stop a student for failure to meet reasonable scholastic standard seems to me to be inherent in all universities. That the university in state operated or supported should not change this rule because the people, in giving their money to the institution give it for the purpose of maintaining a university and a university cannot be maintained without scholastic standards.
"The conduct of universities thruout centuries will, I believe, demonstrate that the cornerstone on which thier scholastic attainments rests is the right to drop from the rolls those students who fail to meet reasonable scholastic requirements.
"Denial is the right," the attorney general continued, "would inevitably lead to the cluttering up of the university with student dead wood, and in a few year Ohio's institutions of higher learning would cease to be universities in real sense.