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Joseph Frederick was the only student suspended for holding this sign at Olympic torch rally in 2002 because he refused to let go when his principal grabbed it. (Photo courtesy ACLU) |
“Bong Hits 4 Jesus” Pits
Ken Starr vs the ACLU,
Oral Arguments Monday
For Student Speech Case
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Joseph Frederick |
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Joseph Frederick was an Alaskan rebel in high school. On a cold morning in January of 2002, the then 18-year-old senior prepared for the 2002 Olympic torch relay through Juneau that was to pass in front of his high school by unfurling a large banner.
It read “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”
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He said he hoped his sign would get on TV. Instead,
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Frederick’s principal, Deborah Morse, tore the 14-foot sign from the hands of Frederick and the other students who waved the banner.
The principal suspended Frederick from school for 10 days.
And now, the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case will be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court today (March 19, 2007). It is being called the most important high school free speech case since the court’s famous Tinker vs Des Moines ruling in 1969 that established the idea that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Frederick maintains he was off campus, an adult and wasn’t advocating smoking pot. The Juneau School District argues the Olympic torch parade was a school field trip and Frederick was being disruptive by advocating illegal drug use.
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sided with Frederick.
Frederick, now 23, teaches English to students in China, a country not well known for tolerating free speech. Frederick won’t be in Washington, D.C., for the oral arguments by his American Civil Liberties Union lawyers and Kenneth Starr, who is representing the school district. Starr led the investigation into former President Bill Clinton over Whitewater, the death of Vince Foster and Clinton's affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
Mary Beth Tinker plans to attend the Supreme Court hearing, according to the ACLU. She was the one who refused to remove a black armband protesting the Vietnam War while a high school student in Des Moines.
Tinker’s protest was significant and timely. Frederick admits he wasn’t advocating for legalizing drugs or smoking pot. He just wanted to get on TV.
But Justin Goldberg says that doesn’t matter. Goldberg edits the quarterly journal for the National Coalition Against Censorship.
“If the court rules that the principal did have the right to suppress Frederick's speech off campus ... then it creates the potential for schools to interfere more broadly with student speech, such as off-campus theater productions, or even what students put on their Myspace pages or blogs,” Goldberg said.
"This case presents the Court with a much-needed opportunity to resolve a sharp conflict among federal courts … over whether the First Amendment permits regulation of student speech when such speech is advocating or making light of illegal substances." Kenneth Starr’s brief to U.S. Supreme Court.
“This case raises fundamental First Amendment issues about the ability of school officials to censor speech solely because that speech disagrees with the school’s own, preferred message.” ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro’s brief to U.S. Supreme Court.
(ACLU's web page on "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case)
