The Seattle School Board Executes the High School
A legal dispute over the state constitution prompts the sudden, controversial dissolution of Seattle's only high school, leaving teachers and students adrift.
The Seattle high school has been abolished; the senior grammar grade will be established in its place. In this way, the board of education will whip the devil of constitutional high school prohibition around the stump. President MacDougall, after consulting with legal counsel including Judge Burke and Judge Greene, stated that the board had no legal right to maintain a high school under current state law. The board passed a resolution immediately abolishing the school and notifying the faculty their services were no longer required. Principal Edwin Twitmeyer and Professor Barnard informed the students of the news, which was received with hisses and murmurs. Barnard urged the students not to despair, suggesting that by reorganizing as 'senior grammar grades,' they might continue their studies under a different name, effectively circumventing the legal blockades and calling for a mass petition to the board.
“I told them that they might wipe out the name, but they can't abolish the school. There is a clause, however, in the law, and there is a ray of hope shining. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
In 1893, Seattle's school board faced a bizarre legal crisis where 'constitutional prohibition' threatened the existence of secondary education. Today, the struggle remains essentially the same: how to fund a high school system when the state legislature fails to provide a sustainable path forward. The board's attempt to 'rebrand' the school to survive a legal technicality echoes the modern creativity—and instability—required to keep Seattle's public institutions afloat during budget crises.
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