[Civil Rights] Jesus Bong Hits Not Worth Fighting For

A case being argued in front of the Supreme Court this week is putting student rights back on the judicial front lines (and all over newspaper headlines) as Joseph Frederick of Juneau, Alaska is arguing his right to display a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" sign across the street from his high school during a public parade in 2002. The principal of his high school, Deborah Morse, confiscated the banner and suspended Frederick sparking the suit that has now reached the nation's highest court.

For those that have read my blogs before, you know that I am a vocal advocate of student rights, which his why this blog is even more difficult to write than most. Unfortunately for students with valid points to express, Frederick's is exactly the type of protest that make authorities think students do not deserve the same rights as adults.

Let me just first say that I believe that schools should have absolutely no right to punish students for speech activities that do not take place during school hours or events. As the event, during which the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" incident took place, was not during school hours, or a school sponsored activity, I side with Frederick's cliam that the school should not be allowed to levy punishment against him.

But right now, that is not my concern. My concern is protest for the sake of protest. Frederick displayed the banner simply to prove that he would get in trouble for what is little more than an asinine (albeit funny) comment during after-school hours. Okay, you made your point, but it is a silly point at that. If you are going to get in trouble for challenging your school's gag policy, do it for an issue that is worth fighting. The precedent at stake here is the famous Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court case of 1969, a student free speech suit in which 13-year-old Mary Beth Tinker challenged a supension she was given for wearing a black armband in protest of the Vietnam War.

Currently, I have a large issue with the way speech in this country works. Besides certain segments of the population being compelled to bite their tongues on serious issues, it seems that many are simply saying things because they believe it is their right to do so. In other words, free speech seems to have come to a point where people will say anything simply because they can. Speech may be a right, but words are a responsibility, or at least we should treat them as such. Saying something simply because it is your right to, when that expression is neither a belief you hold true nor one which is important to be heard, damages the reputation of the first amendment. Free speech is our right, but thinking before we speak is still our responsibility. The first amendment is not intended to severe intelligent thought before we speak. If anything, its intention is to promote intelligent thought. Unfortunately, many people seem to think our right to speak means our right to vacate intelligent thought and meaningful debate.

If students wish to show that they are deserving of their civil rights they should display their willingness to engage in those meaningful discourses, especially as many of the adults on cable television, and in politics, are incapable of doing so.

This could very well end up being a landmark case, and I hate to think that someday I may have to tell my child that they cannot voice their beliefs in school because some kid twenty years earlier wanted to make a mockery of their own first amendment rights by offering "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."