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| Total Votes : 8 |
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TACH
Retired Number
Joined: 03 Nov 2005
Posts: 28461
Location: Chillin on the Delaware.. from the Jersey Side
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 Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:08 pm Post subject: Student-Speech Case Gets High Court Review (Poll) |
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| Quote: | The U.S. Supreme Court, agreeing to assess free-speech rights in public schools, will consider the case of an Alaska high school student who was suspended for displaying a banner that read, ``Bong Hits 4 Jesus.''
The justices today said they will review a federal appeals court ruling that said student Joseph Frederick was entitled to collect damages from the Juneau School Board and the school's principal for violating his First Amendment rights.
The case will test the ability of educators to bar students from advocating illegal activity. Although Frederick says the banner was designed to be humorous, school officials say the reference to drug paraphernalia undermined the school's anti-drug efforts.
``In view of the devastating impact illegal drug use has both on students and the learning environment, schools should be afforded significant latitude in discouraging substance abuse,'' the school board and principal argued in court papers filed in Washington. Anti-drug groups and school administrators' organizations joined the appeal.
Frederick, then 18, displayed the banner during the January 2002 Olympic torch relay, which passed by Juneau-Douglas High School during the school day. Frederick was among hundreds of students who were permitted to gather outside the school to watch the event.
Frederick, who hadn't been in class earlier in the day, was standing on a sidewalk across the street from the school. Principal Deborah Morse told Frederick to take down the banner and, when he refused, confiscated it. She later suspended him for 10 days, and the school board upheld her decision.
Off-Campus
The display ``did not occur on campus, did not occur at a school-sponsored event and did not cause any disruption of the educational process,'' Frederick argued in papers that urged the court not to hear the case.
Morse and the school board dispute that characterization, calling the event ``school-sponsored and faculty-supervised.'' That could be a key issue because the Supreme Court in the past has given educators broad power to control student speech at school events.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, voting 3-0, concluded that Morse and the school board violated Frederick's free-speech right. The appeals court also concluded that Morse wasn't entitled to ``qualified immunity,'' a legal doctrine that shields government officials from personal liability unless they violate a ``clearly established'' right. The justices will hear arguments next year and rule by July.
The case is Morse v. Frederick, 06-278. |
Just something were we debating at the office around the water cooler.... |
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ocho
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Joined: 24 May 2005
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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when i was in high school people got suspended for a lot less.
of course the school isn't going to allow it but honestly....does this do ANY harm?
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TACH
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Location: Chillin on the Delaware.. from the Jersey Side
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:44 pm Post subject: |
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| ocho wrote: | when i was in high school people got suspended for a lot less.
of course the school isn't going to allow it but honestly....does this do ANY harm? |
His arguement was, he displayed the banner at a non school event, and did not attend school that day.
IMO, I think it's alittle of both... |
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Lakers_2000
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Joined: 12 Apr 2001
Posts: 8333
Location: Cincinnati, OH
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Enticing someone to commit an illegal act is not protected speech, particularly in a school. If I hung a banner that said, "Lynch a minority for MLK", I don't think the 1st Amendment would protect me. |
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ocho
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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^^he's not advocating hurting anyone and he's not advocating racism. he's advocating something that is not necessarily a crime. and when it is considered a crime it is a victimless crime.
again...who does this hurt?
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TACH
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:17 pm Post subject: |
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| ocho wrote: | ^^he's not advocating hurting anyone and he's not advocating racism. he's advocating something that is not necessarily a crime. and when it is considered a crime it is a victimless crime.
again...who does this hurt? |
Exactly... he's offering 'hits' to a fictional character 
j/kidding... 
Ocho is right, who is it hurting.. personally, I think the kid 'duped/goaded' the school into taking action, and they fell for it... now he's getting 15 minutes of fame...
Won't be surprised if he got some kind of grant or scholarship when all is said and done... either way this kid gets to write one helluva an essay for college admittance.... |
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Surfitall
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Joined: 12 Feb 2002
Posts: 3829
Location: South Orange County
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| Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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A lot of this depends on whether this really was a school sanctioned event or not. Clearly, it was meant to also be satirical, which is a whole other issue.
Let's say that he was seriously advocating doing bong hits for Jesus. Just because something is illegal doesn't mean that you can't protest to make it legal. As long as you are not putting the public in danger, inciting people to riot, Etc., the right to protest bong hits for Jesus, or anything else should be protected.
If it was in a school sponsored, faculty monitored event, I think the level of free speech that you have might change...but you'd have to talk to the ACLU about that one.
The wonderful thing about free speech is that it all washes out in the end. The people that say stupid things generally become widely regarded as being stupid. I'd rather let those who I am completely opposed to philosophically, morally, or whatever, have the right to scream at the top of their lungs their beliefs in order to protect my own ability to do the same. Censoring free speech, no matter how assenine we may believe it to be, has a chilling effect on the speech of others. |
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