232 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
Denver directors was framed with the Washington case before them. 
It certainly appears to be a safe precedent to follow. Briefly, George 
Wayland, a minor eighteen years of age, by his father and guardian, 
sued the Seattle school board, seeking to enjoin them from depriving 
the said minor from certain high-school privileges. He alleged that he 
was of school age and entitled to all school benefits; that he was a 
member of a certain secret Greek-letter society, and that he was unjustly 
prohibited, with his fellow members, from belonging to debating clubs, 
school bands, glee clubs, orchestras, cadet corps and other kindred 
organizations of said school; that unless they withdrew from said frater- 
nity he and they would also be deprived of the customary honors attend- 
ing graduation; that they had no privileges except that of attending 
classes; that the rule so excluding them was in excess of lawful authority; 
that there was nothing objectionable in said fraternity, their meetings 
being held at the homes of their parents with consent of such parents and 
always after school hours, at which meetings all improper conduct was 
prohibited and a high-class literary programme carried out. From a 
final judgment refusing injunctive relief in the trial court, an appeal 
was taken to the Washington supreme court; and there the judgment 
of the lower court was affirmed, all five of the judges concurring. 
From the facts of the case it would be hard to discover a state of 
affairs more “upon all fours,” as the lawyers say, with those with which 
the Denver school board was concerned when it passed its order above 
quoted. The case, of course, is not of binding authority upon the courts 
of other states should a similar question arise in them, but the reasoning 
of the judge who pronounced the opinion is very persuasive, as anyone 
who reads the official report will perhaps acknolwedge. The trial 
court had made findings of fact which were not favorable to the society; 
extracts from its official magazine were quoted, and letters from the 
Sacramento, Calif., and Denver, Colo., chapters were published, which, 
together with the testimony of the principal of the school, all tended to 
show a seditious spirit in the organization, an inclination to snobbish and 
patronizing airs not only toward other pupils but toward the teachers, 
and contempt for school authority, and that the members of the society 
considered their obligation to the fraternity greater than that to the 
