"Bong Hits 4 Jesus!"?
The first thing to remember is that this happened in Alaska, for goodness sake. What the heck else is there for high school students to do but to unfurl a 14-foot banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus'' when the Olympic torch passes through town?
Joseph Frederick got into a lot of trouble when he did just that. He got suspended for 10 days back when he was in high school in Juneau in 2002.
But now it seems he's going to have his day in the U.S. Supreme Court. And I hope he wins.
I'm pretty much an absolutist when it comes to the First Amendment. But I do understand that high school students' free speech rights have to be balanced with the need of school officials to maintain order.
But the kid wasn't in class. And his message is goofy, practically a nonsequitur.
He meant the banner to be provocative, he says.
Sounds like good parenting to me. I've always tried to teach my kids to be provocative, to use humor to challenge authority or just to carve out a little freedom in their lives.
I want to raise iconoclasts and by and large I think I've succeeded.
One thing I find interesting about this case is that Kenneth Starr, Bill Clinton's bete noir, is arguing the case for the school district. How the prudish have fallen!
"It was the wrong message, at the wrong time and in the wrong place," Starr has been quoted as saying, as if the First Amendment isn't precisely about protecting "wrong messages.''
Joseph Frederick got into a lot of trouble when he did just that. He got suspended for 10 days back when he was in high school in Juneau in 2002.
But now it seems he's going to have his day in the U.S. Supreme Court. And I hope he wins.
I'm pretty much an absolutist when it comes to the First Amendment. But I do understand that high school students' free speech rights have to be balanced with the need of school officials to maintain order.
But the kid wasn't in class. And his message is goofy, practically a nonsequitur.
He meant the banner to be provocative, he says.
Sounds like good parenting to me. I've always tried to teach my kids to be provocative, to use humor to challenge authority or just to carve out a little freedom in their lives.
I want to raise iconoclasts and by and large I think I've succeeded.
One thing I find interesting about this case is that Kenneth Starr, Bill Clinton's bete noir, is arguing the case for the school district. How the prudish have fallen!
"It was the wrong message, at the wrong time and in the wrong place," Starr has been quoted as saying, as if the First Amendment isn't precisely about protecting "wrong messages.''
posted by Michael Riley at 10:55 AM
7 Comments:
I bet if it read Bong Hits for Allah..he'd be protected somehow..
If it read "Bong Hits for Allah," he'd probably have been detained without writ of Habbeas Corpus as per the PATRIOT act.
"But the kid wasn't in class." -- Reverend Michael Riley
As such, and if your claims are accurate -- and I have no reason to doubt those claims, mind you -- then the issue before the Court is a no-brainer. The kid's remarks, albeit idiotic, are constitutionally protected speech. To conclude otherwise would ignore considerable precedent. I doubt the Court is inclined to do just that.
TINKER v. DES MOINES SCHOOL DIST., 393 U.S. 503 (1969)
"I'm pretty much an absolutist when it comes to the First Amendment." -- Reverend Michael Riley
As am I. I'll hit you in the head with a Louisville Slugger if I catch you burning an American flag, but I'll go to my grave -- or, most likely, to prison -- defending your right to do just that. That said, and on a personal note, please accept my thanks, gratitude and admiration for your own commitment to free speech on this particular blog site. It is easy to love free speech when someone is saying, "Hey, I think you are great!" It takes balls not to click that "delete post" key that every blog owner/administrator has at his or her disposal when the poster in question is being particularly obnoxious to you personally. To your credit, you haven't banned anything that I am aware of. I'd still prefer to read Dave Barry's column in the APP instead of yours, mind you, but you do deserve some credit for being a patriot.
"I've always tried to teach my kids to be provocative, to use humor to challenge authority or just to carve out a little freedom in their lives. I want to raise iconoclasts and by and large I think I've succeeded." -- Reverend Michael Riley
I don't know whether your wife and yourself have succeeded or not. If I recall correctly, your youngest is not yet a teen. I suppose that still leaves time to raise another Himmler. (Just kidding) That said, your sons have a fine example in their father. Rather than "ban" the speech you dislike -- a coward's way out, to be sure -- you embrace it and, if inclined, respond with effective (or, mostly, not so effective) counter-speech. For that reason alone, your sons have much to be proud of -- even if their "anonymous" blog posts here in defense of their Pop demonstrate a clear ignorance of the basic rules of capitalization, punctuation and/or grammar, their alleged stellar and impressive college GPAs notwithstanding. :-) (I, too, have kids that are part of the Instant Message generation. Much to my consternation, they write as if they were ee cummings as well.)
"One thing I find interesting about this case is that Kenneth Starr, Bill Clinton's bete noir, is arguing the case for the school district." -- Reverend Michael Riley
And why is that? Kenneth Starr, like any other lawyer in America available for hire, is, at the end of the day, just a hired gun. He, consistent with his oath to "zealously advocate the interests of his client within the bounds of the law and the canon of ethics," gets paid by the hour to put the best spin on the position and/or interests of whomever is paying him. Accepting that retainer check in no way implies that he is married to his client or that he, on a personal level, even subscribes to the positions held by his client. (Truth be told, most lawyers personally dislike their clients, and I am not so sure that is a bad thing.)
That being the case, we can't fault Kenneth Starr for making a living, can we?
"How can you pretend to support the idea that one has the right to free speech when you say you'd hit him over the head with a baseball bat if he disagreed with you?" -- Ray
The word for today, boys & girls, is hyperbole. Can you say hyperbole?
Difinition of Hyperbole
Typo ... I meant "definition."
Anonymous wrote:
"For that reason alone, your sons have much to be proud of -- even if their "anonymous" blog posts here in defense of their Pop demonstrate a clear ignorance of the basic rules of capitalization"
The "anonymous" blogs without capitalization or grammar are probably from Josh Riley ;)
Mike, I think Chris is funnier than you are. Though the apple doesn't fall far, eh?
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