The City Health Board Closed Two Schools. The School Board Asked Who Gave It the Power.

The school board met yesterday to consider the order from the board of health to close the Rainier and the South schools for the remainder of the school year because of the prevalence of scarlet fever. An opinion from the board's attorneys was read, in which they said that the board of health had no authority to order the schools closed; that orders and regulations of the board of health must be approved by the council by ordinance. The opinion said:

'The power to preserve the health and safety of the inhabitants is one of the chief duties of municipal government, and powers granted for so important an object as the preservation of the health of the people should receive a liberal construction for the advancement of the ends for which they were bestowed. While this is so, yet the principle of law applying to the exercise of summary powers by boards of health is that they are strictly confined to and by the statutory provisions of the acts by which they are created. Tested by this principle of law, the arbitrary order of the board of health closing the Rainier and South schools for the remainder of the school year is a doubtful stretch of authority.

'Under the charter of the city of Seattle the board of health is clothed with the following powers touching public buildings: They have supervision of all matters appertaining to the sanitary conditions of the city and its public institutions. The health officer shall visit the public schools and investigate the sanitary conditions of the same. Whenever the health officer shall certify to the board of health that any building is for any cause unfit for human habitation, the board may issue an order requiring all persons to vacate such building until such time as the board may determine. In case of infectious diseases, the premises where the person having such disease is may be visited and a quarantine flag displayed and a placard setting forth the fact that infectious disease exists therein. Reports must be made by the health officer to the city school superintendent of the names and residences of any persons sick of infectious disease. It is made the duty of the city school superintendent and principals of schools to refuse admittance to the public schools to any member of a household in which the infectious disease exists, until advised by the health officer that there is no longer any danger. The board of health may proclaim such quarantines as may in their judgment be necessary for the preservation of public health. The board of health shall make rules and regulations for the government of the quarantine or the health of the city as from time to time the public health may require. Such orders and regulations as the board of health may adopt must be approved by the council by ordinance.

'Ordinance which is an ordinance to enforce the provisions of the city charter above cited provides that the health officer shall immediately report to the superintendent of schools the residence of every person sick with a contagious or infectious disease which the health officer deems dangerous to the public health, and if the superintendent of schools after such notification shall suffer any member of a household in which any such disease is found to be admitted to the schools under their charge before being advised by the health officer that there is no longer any danger from contagion from such household, he shall be punished by a fine.

'In view of the charter provisions and of this ordinance, it is extremely doubtful whether the board of health can make a valid order closing the public schools. The charter and the ordinance seem to contemplate that the schools shall continue and only those of the infected households shall be excluded.

'In an extraordinary emergency the board of health, under regulations approved by the council, may close all the public buildings, such as churches, the theaters, schools, etc., but we fail to find in the board of health the power to single out two of the schools, as in this instance, and to arbitrarily order them closed until the end of the school year.'

No definite action has yet been taken in the matter, but the board adjourned last evening to meet again this afternoon to further consider the order and decide upon a policy with reference to establishing a rule. A number of the board said yesterday that if it was proper to close the schools they would be closed, but first the board wanted to establish a rule and come to an understanding as to what authority the health board had in the matter, to avoid misunderstanding and difficulty in the future.

In regard to the cases of scarlet fever at the Rainier school, Principal W. R. Gerard made the following communication to the Post-Intelligencer:

'To the Editor: Please allow me to make a brief statement in regard to the readmission of Maggie and Eddie Haight to the Rainier school, after the existence of scarlet fever in their father's family. After an absence of six weeks I readmitted them with the distinct understanding that the law had been complied with in every particular, and that they had the permission of the attending physician, with the consent of the health officer.

'We have been extremely careful to inquire into the character of every case of sickness since scarlet fever first made its appearance. Not a case so far has been traced to the Rainier school. Mr. Haight's children returned April 1 and were sent home April 5. Since that time there has been no sickness among the children of that room, and no scarlet fever has made its appearance in any of the families with which they are connected.

'Jennie Jewell, a pupil in an adjoining room, left school April 3, three days before the return of the Haight children, and afterwards contracted scarlet fever. Milton Randolph, a pupil in another room, played with Mr. Haight's children before their return to school, and afterwards contracted the disease. There are other children in the district who have contracted the disease, two of them being too young to attend school, the third, living next door to one of these, no doubt contracted it from that source. I repeat that we have been extremely careful, and have done all in our power to prevent the spread of the disease.'