Court upholds student speech rights

[caligirl]

A high school principal violated a student's constitutional rights by suspending him for 10 days after the boy held up a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus'' at a televised parade near campus, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The principal said the teenager's words -- which the boy later called a meaningless phrase meant only to attract the cameras at the parade in Juneau, Alaska -- were a pro-marijuana message that clashed with school district policy. Regardless, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Friday, the student had a right to express himself as long as he didn't disrupt the school or its educational mission.







The student's lawyer, Douglas Mertz, said the ruling applied beyond schools to any government official who tries to "punish citizens for making expressions of free speech with which the official disagrees.''

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/13/BAG73HMU931.DTL

[FormerDittoHead]

1. I hope this will hold for students personal websites too...

I've heard of cases where stuff the principal didn't like was posted and the student given similar treatment.

The point is that schools don't "own" students in their personal time / space, and it seems to me this is a good ruling.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. There's already a Jihad against teen sites

Not a week goes by that local TV doesn't feature a scare story about the "on-line predators" on LiveJournal or MySpace.

The late Dr. Timothy Leary was right -- Computers are the new Drugs.

--p!

[NoAmericanTaliban]

2. Yea, a small victory for democracy...

which is under a huge assault now-a-days. Wonder what they were objecting to, references to pot or Jesus :) Do you think he would have been suspended isfthe sign read 'My school loves Jesus'? Besides, I don't recall Jesus having any issues with something God put on this earth.

[acmejack]

3. PLease this is most certainly NOT Breaking News!

It was last week though!

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Well, there goes the Ninth Circuit Court. Now * will be hot to dilute the

jurisdiction by breaking it up into two circuit courts.

[Ian David]

5. If one WERE to do bog hits...

wouldn't christians think it best that those bong hits be for Jesus?

As opposed to, for example, Bong Hits for The Doobie Brothers?

I know, I know... they'd rather dedicate touchdowns to Jesus, not bong hits.