Pubdate: Sun, 01 Jul 2007
Source: Fairfield County Weekly (CT)
Copyright: 2007 New Mass. Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.fairfieldweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/149
Author: Nick Keppler
http://www.mapinc.org/people/Joseph+Frederick (Joseph Frederick)

THE OPENING SALVO

The Slippery Dope

In what's been dubbed the "Bong Hits for Jesus Case,"  the Supreme 
Court ruled 5-4 against bong hits. Morse v.  Frederick, settled 
Monday, concerned Joseph Frederick,  an Alaskan teenager who, in 
2002, unveiled a 14-foot  banner reading Bong Hits 4 Jesus as the 
Olympic Torch  passed his Juneau high school on its way to the 
Winter  Games in Salt Lake City. The principal suspended  Frederick, 
who sued on First Amendment grounds. He's  said he saw the phrase on 
a snowboard, had no idea what  it meant, and it was intended only to 
prove that he could say anything at school at any time.

The court's decision, written by Chief Justice John  Roberts, states 
that students do not have the right to  free expression that endorses 
illegal drug use in a  public school, although Roberts admitted "the 
message  on Frederick's banner is cryptic."

It's not just cryptic; it's moronic. But what if  another student 
statement concerning drugs isn't so  stupid? Consider the Iraq 
War"inspired play put on by  Wilton High School drama students this 
year. After  administrators shut it down for being "too 
controversial," theater groups and First Amendment  crusaders rallied 
around and helped resurrect the  production.

What if, instead of the war in Iraq, the students had  tackled the 
equally morally bankrupt War on Drugs? It's  an issue that absolutely 
affects them-especially with  so many juvies being tried as adults in 
drug cases.  What if there were lines in said play that suggested 
crazy shit, like harmless drug users are clogging up  the prison 
system, or countries that have  decriminalized some drugs tend to 
have lower addict  rates, or a few bong hits might not turn you into 
a junkie? School administrators would have the right to  shut them 
down with the blessing of the highest court  in the land.

Since the monumental Vietnam-era cases, the First  Amendment has been 
on shaky grounds in public high  schools. It doesn't apply to 
students quite the same  way it does the rest of us, but the court 
has ruled they don't lose all constitutional rights when 
the  home-room bell rings. The court has put itself in 
the  precarious position of deciding exactly which rights  apply to 
those 18 and under while on school grounds.  Bong Hits made for an 
easy straw man. It's a shame the  court used him to cherry-pick one 
view students can't  endorse, explicitly or cryptically, 
intelligently or by  means of a nonsensical 14-foot banner.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom