The Public School Law of North Carolina ...

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION.

AN ACT RELATING TO SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE
INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

SECTION 1. In addition to the branches in which instruction is now required by law to be given in all schools supported wholly or in part by public money, instruction shall also be given as to the nature of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics and their effect upon the human system, in connection with the various divisions of physiology and hygiene, and such subject shall be taught in each school year below the second year in the high schools, and shall be taught as thoroughly as arithmetic and geography are taught in said schools: Provided, that the minimum amount of such instruction shall be two lessons each week for ten weeks, or the equivalent of the same, in schools employing one teacher, and three lessons each week for ten weeks, or the equivalent of the same, in schools employing two or more teachers. Such instruction shall be given by the use of text-books in the hands of all pupils in all grades from the fourth grade to the first year in the high school, inclusive, or in corresponding classes in graded schools, and orally to all pupils in the first three or primary grades, by teachers using text-books adapted to such oral instruction as a guide and standard; and all pupils must pass such tests as may be required in other studies before promoting to the next succeeding year's work, and such instruction shall be given as aforesaid to all pupils in all public schools of the State.

SEC. 2. The text-books used for the instruction required to be given by the preceding section shall be graded to the capacities of the pupils, and for students below high-school grade such textbooks shall give at least one-fifth their space, and for students of fifth school grade they shall give not less than twenty pages to the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics; but no book in which the required amount of this subject shall appear, in whole or part, as a separate chapter at the end of the book shall be considered as complying with the requirements of this statute, and no topical outline of study for the guidance of teachers which reduces the amount of temperance instruc

tion below that which is required by the text-books provided for in this act shall be considered as complying with the intent of the law. No text-book on physiology and hygiene not conforming to this act shall be used in the public schools except so long as may be necessary to fulfill the conditions of any legal adoption existing at the time of the passage of this act.

SEC. 3. In all normal schools, teachers' training classes, teachers' institutes, teachers' associations, summer schools and all other organizations for the equipment of teachers, adequate time and attention shall be given to instruction in the best methods of teaching physiology and hygiene with special reference to the nature of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics; and no teacher shall be licensed who has not passed a satisfactory examination in this subject and the best method of teaching it.

SEC. 4. That it shall be the duty of the proper officer in control of any school or schools described in the first and third sections of this act to enforce the provisions of this act; and any such officer, school director, committee, superintendent or teacher who shall refuse or neglect to comply with the requirements of this act or shall neglect or fail to make proper provision for the instruction required and in the manner specified by this act for all pupils in each and every school under his control and supervision shall be removed from office and the vacancy filled as in other cases; and if it be satisfactorily proved that trustees or board of education or board of educational institutions, receiving money from the State have failed to enforce this act, as far as they have authority, it shall be deemed sufficient cause for withholding the warrant for the State appropriation of school money to which such district or educational institution would otherwise be entitled.

SEC. 5. This act shall be in full force from and after its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times, and ratified this the 11th day of March, A. D. 1907.

1907, c. 957,

HEALTH LAW.

CONTAGIOUS DISEASES.

3440. BOARD OF HEALTH TO NOTIFY SCHOOL COMMITTEES OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. The boards of health of cities and towns wherever organized, and, where not, the mayors of the same, and in other cases the county superintendent of health, shall give the school committee of the city or town, the principals of private schools, and the superintendent of public instruction of the county, when the schools are in session, notice of all cases of contagious diseases reported to them according to law. A failure to perform this duty for twenty-four hours after the receipt of the notice shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and subject the delinquent upon conviction to a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars.

1893, c. 214, s. 12.

3441. CHILDREN EXPOSED TO CONTAGIOUS DISEASES NOT TO ATTEND SCHOOLS. The school committees of public schools, superintendents of graded schools, and principals of private schools shall not allow any pupil to attend the school under their control while any member of the household to which said pupil belongs is sick of either smallpox, diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, yellow fever, typhus fever, cholera, mumps, whooping-cough, itch, or during a period of two weeks after the death, recovery, or removal of such sick person; and any pupil coming from such household shall be required to present to the teacher of the school the pupil desires to attend a certificate from the attending physician, city health officer, or county superintendent of health of the facts necessary to entitle him to admission in accordance with the above regulations. A willful failure on the part of any school committee, superintendent of a graded school, or principal of a private school, to perform the duty required in this section, shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall subject each and every member of the same to a fine of not less than one nor more than twenty-five dollars: Provided, that the instructions in accordance with the provisions of this section given to the teachers of the schools within twenty-four hours after the receipt of each

and every notice shall be deemed performance of duty on the part of the school committee. Any teacher of a public school and any principal of a private school failing to carry out the requirements of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than one nor more than twenty-five dollars.

1893, c. 214, s. 13; 1903, c. 690.