# Hugh Larry Bell v. West Point Municipal Separate School District

> Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · July 8, 1971 · 446 F.2d 1362

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9457212

## Case

- **Full name:** Hugh Larry BELL Et Al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. WEST POINT MUNICIPAL SEPARATE SCHOOL DISTRICT Et Al., Defendants-Appellees
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- **Decided:** July 8, 1971
- **Citations:** 446 F.2d 1362; 1971 U.S. App. LEXIS 9071
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Clark
- **Judges:** Thornberry, Morgan, Clark
- **Cited by:** 13 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

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- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9457212

## Opinion text

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(specially concurring) :
Under our recent decision in Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, F.2d 746 (5 Cir. 1971) (Part IV), not published at the time the district court acted in this cause, I agree that the present state of the record requires reversal. However my concurrence is based upon the understanding that this mandate does not deprive the district judge of discretion to determine whether he will hold additional hearings or consider additional evidence if such hearings or evidence might show that sound educational principles underlay the temporary discontinuance of the use of the Fifth Street and/or Northside school facilities. Cf. Gordon v. Jefferson Davis Parish School Board, 446 F.2d 266 (5 Cir. 1971).
The West Point Municipal Separate School District plan has that one controlling virtue found in too few court-mandated school operations of any racial makeup; it has worked! See Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430 , 88 S.Ct. 1689 , 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968). This majority black school district is the sole such example known to me which has been able to move from a totally segregated past to a totally integrated present, while preserving a disciplined atmosphere in which a meaningful education for pupils of both races has been afforded. Unless the trial court finds it must determine that this accomplishment was made at a constitutionally impermissible sacrifice on the part of the black community then the law does not *1364 require this court to intervene. Rather, the district can be left to continue to solve its problems in its own successful way.
We have always recognized school cases as unique. With equal certainty, we should recognize that no court should dismantle a viable unitary school system merely to worship at the altar of form. If the closing of these school facilities and the utilization of double shifts for student attendance can be demonstrated to be supportable on any nonracial ground, such as maintaining an extra busy school schedule during transition years, which while utilizing fully suitable physical facilities, maintained an atmosphere in which children could be successfully taught in a totally new system for West Point, then the district court ought to be free to determine that the school • district was justified in allowing the temporary discontinuance of these school physical plants as a matter of sound educational judgment. At least such a showing, if it can be made, is not foreclosed by our mandate here.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9457212. Public record. Not legal advice.