CNN’s Bill Mears talks about an unusual Supreme Court case in his article titled ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ case limits student rights:

The Supreme Court ruled against a former high school student Monday in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner case — a split decision that limits students’ free speech rights.

Joseph Frederick was 18 when he unveiled the 14-foot paper sign on a public sidewalk outside his Juneau, Alaska, high school in 2002.
Principal Deborah Morse confiscated it and suspended Frederick. He sued, taking his case all the way to the nation’s highest court.
The justices ruled 6-3 that Frederick’s free speech rights were not violated by his suspension over what the majority’s written opinion called a “sophomoric” banner.

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When America’s Kids Play We All Seriously Lose

Ron Sims II

Joseph Frederick probably thought that is was pretty funny to place a
banner that read “Bong Hits for Jesus” in front of his school. While
he may have had a good laugh when his friends saw it, few are laughing
at the consequences of displaying it. His high school principal
suspended him for promoting drug use and he, in turn, sued the school
for trampling on his first amendment rights. The case went all the way
to the Supreme Court where he lost. The decision has just set a
precedent for limiting Americans’ right to say anything that might be
deemed illicit.

Some might try to paint Frederick’s case as one of a student assenting
his rights to protest an unjust law, but the bottom line is his prank
backfired in a major way. To be fair, Frederick is not totally at
fault for thinking it was perfectly harmless to make the banner in the
first place. American society no longer cultivates responsible
behavior; individualism has reached the brink of anarchy. An unspoken
tenet of today’s youth is “do what you like,” and “conformity in
anyway is unacceptable.”

Joseph Frederick is a perfect example of the tendency of today’s kids
to act out of context. He exemplifies the blindness that afflicts a
good percentage of his generation; they do not see the bigger
picture, or the consequences of what on the surface seemed like a
harmless prank. The moral whirlpool of misplaced irresponsibility is
rapidly dissipating; perhaps, American has finally realized that this
type of thinking is drowning our greatest assets.

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