Bong Hits

Some of you may remember the Alaskan student with the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner back in 2002. Students were allowed outside during a special assembly in order to view the Olympic Torch and runner pass by. Joseph Frederick unfurled his banner and held it up in order to attract television cameras' attention. The principal confiscated his banner and destroyed it on the spot and then suspended him for ten days.

Joseph Frederick brought a federal lawsuit, claiming that his father [an employee of an insurance company which provides insurance to the public school he went to] lost his job [and was subsequently awarded a smooth 200,000 bucks in damages] and thus Frederick the younger had to drop out of college. No year was given for that. In 2004 Frederick the younger pleaded guilty in a case involving the misdemeanor sale of pot at a University in Texas. It seems that Joseph Frederick's former principal was right on the mark.

The Supreme Court has affirmed the right of principals and teachers to limit First Amendment free speech in schools.

radical sapphoq says: A sad day has come to us all when school principals and teachers have to get a high court ruling to defend the enforcement of an anti-druggie behavior school policy. An even sadder day when conservative groups side with the student for fear of limiting student speech in regards to opposition of homosexuality or abortion.
This student took a historical event and turned it into a mockery, and then had the nerve to declare that he was asserting his right to "say anything at all." Or, alternatively state that he'd seen the slogan on a snowboard and thought it was cute, nonsensical, or worth of emulation.