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Editorial: Public-school case poses troubling questions

Saw this while reading my local paper this morning, i think something about this story has already been posted but what the hell :P -lifeischeese

No speech 4 U: Public-school case poses troubling questions

Clint Talbott, for the editorial board
Thursday, March 22, 2007

The wit and wisdom of unfurling a banner espousing "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" is, perhaps, most evident to those still too young to vote. But the adults charged with running public schools should see such a banner as a harmless prank, not grist for a federal case.

In 2002, an Alaska high school student watching an Olympic-torch procession displayed his banner, which he describes as a publicity stunt. It worked, though too well. The principal seized the banner and booted the kid from school for 10 days.

The student correctly argues that his First Amendment rights were abridged. The school district says the principal was only striving to stifle a harmful pro-drug message, which undermined the school's just-say-no curriculum.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District agreed with the student, and on Monday the case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation's high court often overturns the Ninth District's rulings, and the justices' questions this week suggested some disagreement with the student's arguments.

That is distressing. In a landmark case in 1969, the Supreme Court upheld the free-speech rights of students in public schools, holding that such speech could be suppressed or punished only when it is disruptive.

Wearing a black armband to protest the Vietnam War (the central event in the 1969 case) was not sufficiently disruptive to warrant censorship, the court ruled. Displaying a farcical "Bong Hits" banner in 2002 (at an off-campus site, incidentally) poses no more of a pedagogical threat than the armband did.

The "Bong Hits" stunt was silly. But the high court must not transform an inane incident into a chilling precedent.

Clint Talbott, for the editorial board

Posted by: lifeischeese
Source Article

Posted in: News on March 22, 2007 @ 12:00 AM

Tags: School

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