Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jun 2007
Source: Patriot-News, The (PA)
Copyright: 2007 The Patriot-News
Contact:  http://www.patriot-news.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1630
http://www.mapinc.org/people/Joseph+Frederick (Joseph Frederick)

SPEECH AND DISCIPLINE

At a school event, court rightly finds in favor of principal over 
student's right to expression Thursday, June 28, 2007

We put adults in charge of schools and, while they don't always make 
the right decisions, it isn't in anyone's interest -- least of all 
students -- to undermine their authority.

The principal of the Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska could have 
chosen to ignore student Joseph Frederick's unfurling of a banner, 
"Bong Hits 4 Jesus," at a school-sanctioned event. But she viewed it 
as encouraging illegal drugs and suspended Frederick.

If Frederick had taken this action on his own, outside of school, at 
something other than a school-sanctioned event, we would view that as 
an exercise of free speech beyond the reach of school authorities.

Likewise, if Frederick had been engaged in some form of protest of 
school policies or even the quality of the cafeteria food, in our 
view that would be a legitimate exercise of the First Amendment.

But this incident was neither of those. We believe the U.S. Supreme 
Court's 5-4 ruling this week was correct in siding with the principal 
in finding that this was not a protected form of speech.

This is not to condone the response of principal Deborah Morse, who 
was in a running feud with the rebellious Frederick. He admitted that 
part of the prank was to get under the principal's skin. He also was 
hoping to get on television when the Olympic torch passed through 
Juneau on its 50-state tour in 2002. He succeeded in the first part 
of his quest, but not the latter.

Frederick had a history of trouble with school authorities, including 
failing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, which got him sent to 
the principal's office.

Students don't lose their First Amendment rights when they cross the 
"schoolhouse gate," as the high court ruled in 1969. But this 
incident, which Frederick admits was intended not as a statement 
about drugs or religion, but as an expression of free speech, goes to 
the broader authority of teachers and school administrators. They 
must maintain discipline and order among often rebellious and 
difficult teenagers without it becoming a "federal case" every time 
they rein in student excesses. That's true even when those decisions 
are imperfect.

There is little doubt in our mind that the principal overreacted in 
responding to Frederick's obscure banner. Better that she had counted 
to 10, or taken a deep breath, or pretended she had not seen the 
offending words, whatever they were supposed to mean. For this was 
simply a test of a principal's patience and good sense, and hardly 
the "epic" battle over the right of free speech that the lawyers 
would have us believe.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom