Pubdate: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 Source: Economist, The (UK) Copyright: 2007 The Economist Newspaper Limited Contact: http://www.economist.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/132 Alert: Bong Hits 4 Jesus Is About Free Speech, Not Drugs http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0344.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Bong+Hits+4+Jesus (Bong Hits 4 Jesus) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana) Free Speech in Schools OF BANNERS AND BONGS Washington, DC The Supreme Court Mulls a Schoolboy Prank THE American constitution protects the right to free speech even of those who have nothing to say. Take, for example, the banner that Joseph Frederick, then an 18-year-old schoolboy, unfurled beside an Olympic parade in Alaska five years ago. It read: "Bong hits 4 Jesus". Was he mocking Christianity? Or promoting marijuana? Neither, says Mr Frederick. He copied the slogan from a snowboard. He did not think it meant anything particular. But he calculated that it would be funny and controversial. Plus, it might get him on television. Deborah Morse, the head teacher at Mr Frederick's high school, was not amused. She thought the banner was a deliberate attempt to subvert the school's anti-drugs policy, and worried that it would spark unruliness. Students had been excused classes so they could watch the parade. Some were already throwing snowballs and plastic bottles from the pavement. On seeing Mr Frederick's banner, Ms Morse marched up and ordered him to furl it. When he refused, she gave him a five-day suspension. Annoyingly, the youth quoted Thomas Jefferson at her. She doubled his suspension. He sued. The case has been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was heard on March 19th. At the heart of the case is the tension between free speech and school discipline. Precedent pulls both ways. In 1969, the Supreme Court said a school could not stop students from wearing black armbands to class to protest against the Vietnam war. Pupils do not "shed their constitutional rights...at the schoolhouse gate," said the justices; they can say what they like so long as they do not substantially interfere with school discipline. Subsequent cases qualified this right a little. For example, in Bethel v Fraser in 1986, the court said a school was allowed to punish a student who gave a speech bursting with sexual innuendo. Mr Frederick is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. His case has several prongs. First, he was outside school, so the head teacher had no jurisdiction over him. Second, his banner was not aimed at interfering with school discipline. Third, he says he was making a statement about free speech, a right he had learned about in class but which the school did not, in his view, honour. The school's case is that Mr Frederick was at a school-approved event on a school day, so the principal was entitled to tell him what to do. Further, since illegal drugs are harmful and the school opposed them, Mr Frederick's banner was likely to "undermine the school's basic educational mission". And a school can censor statements that do that, argues Kenneth Starr (of Monica Lewinsky fame), who is representing the school board pro bono. Listening to both sides' arguments, the nine justices seemed torn. If they swallow all Mr Starr's reasoning, that would give schools vast leeway to restrict pupils' speech. That is why several conservative Christian groups are siding with the young pot enthusiast; they worry that politically-correct schools will punish devout students for expressing Biblical views about, for example, homosexuality. On the other hand, the case is not only about free speech. It is also about money, noted John Roberts, the chief justice. Mr Frederick is suing his former head teacher personally for damages. Mr Roberts was not the only justice to worry that if teachers live in fear of a ruinous lawsuit every time they tell a pupil to be quiet, they might find it hard to keep order. The court will probably take some time to rule. Some predict that it will uphold Mr Frederick's right to make his point, whatever it was, but scotch his attempt to squeeze damages out of Ms Morse. Mr Frederick, who was arrested for selling marijuana while at college, now teaches English in China, where free-speech-loving students are treated less gently. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake