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| Our View on Freedom of Expression |
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Posted by CN Staff on March 20, 2007 at 22:04:31 PT Editorial Source: USA Today 
Washington, DC -- The 18-year-old high school student in Juneau, Alaska, who unfurled a "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" banner on a sidewalk across from his school when the Olympic torch passed by in 2002 says he was merely trying to provoke his school's strict principal and get himself on TV.
If that was the goal, he certainly succeeded. The principal did get angry. Concluding that "bong hits" clearly meant pot smoking, she crumpled up the banner, suspended the student for 10 days and touched off a free-speech dispute that's pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case sounds like something out of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the 1986 film featuring a wisecracking senior who bedevils the dean of students. But the court's decision, likely to come by the end of June, is expected to be an important marker of the limits of student expression — one that should be settled in the student's favor. As any principal knows, kids often say and do things adults find dumb and offensive; when that happens at school, it's reasonable to restrict disruptive speech that interferes with education. But the bong-banner incident neither took place on school property nor disrupted classroom activity. Teachers and principals have to make tough calls like these every day, and their authority extends off campus to school-connected events such as field trips or football games. Yet the courts have appropriately set a high bar for limiting student speech: Their standard is a landmark 1969 Supreme Court ruling that allowed students to wear black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War, because students didn't give up their free speech rights "at the schoolhouse gate" unless their actions significantly disrupted or interfered with school activities. Complete Title: Our View on Freedom of Expression: Protect Student Speech — even 'Unwise' Bong Banner Note: Precedent, common sense favor student in Supreme Court case. Snipped: Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/yr7gxh Source: USA Today (US) Related Articles: Opposing View: Policy Reflects Common Sense High Schooler's Fun Unites Right and Left Up in Smoke At The High Court Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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