"High" court
Published Fri, Dec 1 2006 9:23 PM
Technorati Tags: News and Politics, Courts, Political Correctness, Education
From CNN.com:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court entered into a free-speech dispute Friday involving a high school student suspended over a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.
The justices accepted an appeal from a school board in Juneau, Alaska, after a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit by the family of Joseph Frederick to proceed.
Frederick was suspended in 2002 after he unfurled the 14-foot-long banner -- a reference to marijuana use -- just outside school grounds as the Olympic torch relay moved through the Alaskan capital headed for the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"Bong," as noted in the appeal filed with the justices, "is a slang term for drug paraphernalia."
Even though Frederick was standing on a public sidewalk, school officials argue that he and other students were participating in a school-sponsored event. They had been let out of classes and were accompanied by their teachers.
Principal Deborah Morse ordered the 18-year-old senior to take down the sign, but he refused. That led to a 10-day suspension for violating a school policy by promoting illegal drug use.
He filed suit, saying his First Amendment rights were infringed upon. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California, agreed, concluding the school could not show Frederick had disrupted the school's educational mission by showing a banner off campus.
It seems to me that the kid has a case. I don't agree with illegal drug use (anymore). But I also don't agree with the school, especially since Alaska, where this incident happened, has decriminalized marijuana use and possession. I also don't buy the school's argument that the Olympic torch relay was a school sponsored event.
I don't exactly agree with Mr. Frederick either. "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"? Somehow that message seems more than a little confused. While the Bible doesn't say anything explicitly about marijuana consumption it has a lot to say about drunkenness, and none of it is complementary. Sure, getting stoned isn't "exactly" the same thing as getting drunk, but a Christian should never come before his Lord in such a state.
We're taught to avoid the appearance of evil as Christians, and to be a beacon of light to the world. Mr. Frederick's actions hardly fit that standard. That's not the point in this case though. The school has trampled upon his rights to free speech, and it did so in a public place that clearly wasn't school property. The school-sponsored event justification is pretty weak too.
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