Bong Hits 4 Jesus

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Arrian
Well no. Hmm.

-Arrian, still pondering.

If you don't feel they loose the right to discipline students who act up on field trips, why is it a gray area then?

[MichaeltheGreat]

DD - Who's the true patriot who got lost? I don't stop by often enough to know what's going on.

[Nikolai]

I guess this thread will make much more sense to me when someone tells me what a Bong Hit is and why dedicating that to Jesus is a bad thing.

[Kuciwalker]

MtG: Captain America.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
DD - Who's the true patriot who got lost? I don't stop by often enough to know what's going on.

Marvel killed Captain America.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Oh.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Nikolai
I guess this thread will make much more sense to me when someone tells me what a Bong Hit is and why dedicating that to Jesus is a bad thing.

A bong is a water pipe used to smoke marijuana. A hit is what it's called when you inhale a lungful of the smoke. Or something like that, I'm not sure if there's a precise mathematical unit defined as a "hit."

Anyway, the kid was being stupid. No, endorsing drug use on a school field trip does not constitute protected speech. If he had instead yelled the word "fart" over and over again, and a teacher had told him to shut up and suspended him when he refused, would he have had a case then?

[Nikolai]

I see. Stupid of him. But the example of "fart" is a bit far off, if I had heard of a poor child being suspended for something so trivial as shouting "fart", I'd been in favour of suspending the teacher.

[SlowwHand]

Field trip is still under school control.

[OzzyKP]

A dispute over a simple sign, pitting student against principal, may alter the rules for students' free speech rights for the first time since the height of the Vietnam War.

The Supreme Court sparred with attorneys Monday over an Alaska high school student's banner held aloft as the Olympic torch passed his school.

The court lists the case on the docket as Morse v. Frederick, but spectators affectionately refer to it by its defining slogan: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

Joseph Frederick, then 18, displayed that phrase on a 14-foot banner, which he showcased before television crews five years ago during a Winter Olympics torch-running ceremony in Juneau. The principal suspended him.

Because the school classified the event as a field trip, Frederick was still under school administrators' jurisdiction, even though he was absent from school that morning and was not on school property.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer said he worries the court's eventual ruling would tip the balance between student speech and disciplinary authority in schools.

"A rule for would result in people testing this all over the place," Breyer said. "A rule against may really limit free speech."

Part of the debate centered on what, exactly, Frederick meant.

Former U.S. solicitor general Kenneth Starr, representing school officials, argued the message dealt with "illegal drugs and the glorification of the drug culture."

The banner conflicted with the school's anti-drug policy and, therefore, disrupted the rights of other students attending the event, Starr said.

In contrast, Douglas Mertz, representing Frederick, said, "This is a case about free speech, not about drugs."

Because Frederick asked for money damages from the principal, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. interjected, "This is a case about money."

He said a ruling for Frederick could cause teachers to worry about their own finances when they discipline students.

"One could look at these words and say this is just nonsense," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said.

Justice David H. Souter said he questioned to what extent Frederick's sign was disruptive "on a sidewalk, in a crowd, with kids throwing snowballs waiting for a TV camera to come by."

Outside the court, Mary Beth Tinker was among those demonstrating to support Frederick. She spoke on the same steps where she walked 38 years ago, before the landmark student free-speech decision that bears her name, Tinker v. Des Moines.

As a junior high school student, Tinker refused to remove a black armband she wore to protest the war in Vietnam. Her name came up frequently inside the court, as justices and lawyers tried to apply the Tinker ruling. It prohibits school officials from censoring student expression unless it causes substantial disruption or material interference with school activities.

The justices and lawyers probed just how disruptive various forms of protest could be - from buttons worn in class to banners unfurled in a student assembly.

"It's baffling that a court could see fit to so severely punish an educator for her good faith effort to do her job," said Francisco Negrón, general counsel for the National School Boards Association, in a March 14 press release.

While most of the debate focused on the first half of Frederick's phrase, several religious organizations are siding with Frederick in defense of Jesus.

A win for the principal, according to a brief filed by the Christian Legal Society, "would almost certainly end up undermining legitimate expressions of religion by public school students."

Other religious organizations, including the Alliance Defense Fund, Liberty Counsel and the Liberty Legal Institution, also filed briefs in support of Frederick.

With a reputation for challenging authority, Frederick borrowed the phrase from a snowboard sticker to spark the First Amendment debate. "Bong hits" refers to smoking marijuana - an illegal activity that struck against school policy.

"I wasn't trying to spread any idea. I was just trying to assert my right," Frederick said in his brief.

After she witnessed Frederick holding the sign at the ceremony, Deborah Morse, then the principal of Juneau-Douglas High School, crossed the street and confronted him. Morse suspended Frederick for 10 days.

The principal initially suspended Frederick for five days, but after the student quoted Thomas Jefferson on free speech, she doubled the punishment.

Frederick said he was a private citizen practicing free speech in a public space. Morse said Frederick's sign promoted smoking marijuana and violated the school's policy banning students from advocating drug use.

Outside the court Monday, about 60 students joined the demonstration to support Frederick, many holding signs that read: "FREE SPEECH 4 STUDENTS."

"We are concerned, if the court sides with the school board, that students can no longer question random locker searches, school drug testing or the effectiveness of drug education programs like DARE," said Tom Angell of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, speaking of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

Anthony Valenzuela and Christopher Fuentes, both 18, students at Stevens High School in Rapid City, S.D., said they came to witness the arguments because they were similarly confronted by school administrators for wearing pro-medical marijuana shirts to school.

They said Morse v. Frederick echoed the need for political discussion in schools.

"This is what school is about - the learning process is about hearing multiple sides." said Alex Koroknay-Palicz, executive director of the National Youth Rights Association.

The court's decision is expected by summer.

http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=13255

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
If you don't feel they loose the right to discipline students who act up on field trips, why is it a gray area then?

The school doesn't have the right to discipline students off school property who didn't attend school. There were other community members there, he wasn't with his class or with his school.

Was it disruptive to the education of the students? No, they weren't learning anything by going outside for a photo-op. I'd bet money they learned more about the first amendment and free speech because of Frederick's actions than if he hadn't started this.

[DinoDoc]

"I wasn't trying to spread any idea. I was just trying to assert my right," Frederick said in his brief.

Bull****.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
The school doesn't have the right to discipline students off school property who didn't attend school.

So a school has no right to discipline students on a field trip that goes off school grounds. If he wanted to skip school that day, he should have you know maybe skipped school that day.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by DinoDoc

"I wasn't trying to spread any idea. I was just trying to assert my right," Frederick said in his brief.

Bull****.

I'm very interested to hear what message "bong hits 4 Jesus" is. Perhaps you can explain it to me DD. Was it a political message? Was it a religious message? What idea was he trying to spread?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
I'm very interested to hear what message "bong hits 4 Jesus" is.

I don't believe I said it had a message in any of my posts in this thread. My 1st post in this thread states what I believe his purpose was in making the sign and I don't believe for one second that he woke up that day saying, "I want to see the state of my free speech rights today."