SUSPENDED STUDENT A ROLE MODEL, NOT A PROBLEM

Presumably there are people out there who agree that Saskatchewan teen
Kieran King deserved a school suspension for daring to talk about
marijuana. I'm not one of them.

In fact, I'm hoping the kid sues somebody over the whole misadventure,
and wins. What happened to the 15-year-old boy was a flagrant abuse of
power.

The news in brief: A Grade 10 student at Wawota Parkland School feels
unconvinced after an anti-drug presentation at his school. He decides
to do some research of his own before making up his mind.

He goes deep. His mom says King loves a good research project. The boy
eventually reaches the conclusion that compared to both alcohol and
tobacco, marijuana is less harmful.

He's right, but let's leave that debate for a moment. For now, let's
just focus on the actual series of events that then unfolded for
Kieran King.

Having finished up his research, the teen tells a few friends what
he's learned. One complains to the principal that King is advocating
marijuana use.

The principal tells him to keep a lid on it. She calls his mom and
tells her that if King talks about marijuana again, "I'm calling the
police."

King organizes a small and peaceful protest outside the school in the
name of free speech. True to her word, the principal calls the police.

RCMP and school counsellors gather soon after to do a "threat
assessment" on the teenager, finding that he has talked about
marijuana at least four or five times in the past. (He's never
actually used it, however.)

King gets a three-day suspension that bars him from school just as
final exams are beginning. That destroys his year-end marks, as he
gets zero on the exams that the ban prevented him from writing.

You can imagine the lessons the teenager will likely take away from
the whole sorry experience.

That it's wrong to seek insight, for one, or to share new knowledge
with others. That it's wrong to question what you're being told, even
when you don't feel convinced.

And of course, that it's wrong to question authority.

That point is underlined in this case by the fact that for no other
reason than the fact he organized a little free-speech protest, King
ended up the subject of an RCMP "threat assessment."

Anyone who cherishes the right to challenge prevailing wisdom without
having the police called out to arrest them will recognize this turn
of events for the truly alarming development that it is. Sure, it's
just one kid and a tiny school in Wawota that we're talking about at
the moment, but we can't take any infringement lightly.

As for the subject being marijuana, that's largely irrelevant. The
subject that day could have been abortion, religious belief,
euthanasia. The subject isn't the point.

What matters is that Kieran King got curious. He looked into a subject
more thoroughly, and along the way reached an informed conclusion that
was different than what the school was telling him. He told a few
classmates what he'd learned, and the response of one of them was to
report him to the school authorities.

But even when you do factor in the subject, none of it makes
sense.

Is talking about marijuana at school really something that warrants a
three-day suspension?

And if marijuana's on the no-speak list, what other subjects are
considered taboo for students to raise? Who decides what's on the list
- -- and where can I get a copy?

Like any drug, marijuana has its downsides. And yes, it's illegal,
although King's interest was confined to its potential health risks.

What he concluded at the end of his research was that marijuana use
didn't have as many health risks as did alcohol or tobacco use.

He's got a fair amount of science on his side. No drug can be
considered safe, but alcohol and tobacco are particularly damaging to
people's health. That doesn't change just because they're legal and
other drugs aren't.

King also has a lot of potential converts to his way of thinking. In
B.C. alone, 1.8 million B.C. adults report having used marijuana at
some point in their lives. A third of that group used it in the past
year.

But for King's sake, I hope people don't get too caught up in turning
his story into one about marijuana. We can't be getting sidetracked
with more marijuana debate when what's actually on the line in the
King case is a valued Canadian right.

King questioned what he heard. He was reluctant to just accept what he
was being told. When his school tried to silence him because it didn't
like what he had to say, he didn't go along with it. He fought back,
because he knew it mattered.

Good on you, kid. That's exactly what I like to see in a good
Canadian.