'BONG' RULING LIMITS STUDENT RIGHTS IN U.S.

WASHINGTON -- No marijuana jokes, please, we're Americans.

That was the message yesterday from a divided U.S. Supreme Court,
which ruled against an Alaska student who was kicked out of his high
school for unfurling a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner on a public sidewalk.

In a 5-4 decision that restricts the free-speech rights of American
students, the high court said a school principal was justified in
suspending 18-year-old Joseph Frederick because his homemade banner
promoted the use of drugs.

"Student speech celebrating illegal drug use ... poses a particular
challenge for school officials working to protect those entrusted to
their care from the dangers of drug abuse," Chief Justice John Roberts
wrote in the majority opinion. "The First Amendment does not require
schools to tolerate, at school events, student expression that
contributes to those dangers."

The ruling closes one of the most bizarre -- and potentially
significant -- cases involving free speech to reach the Supreme Court
in two decades.

It began when Frederick displayed his five-metre-long banner during an
Olympic torch relay event in Juneau, Alaska, ahead of the 2002 Winter
Olympics, held that year in Salt Lake City. Frederick, then a senior
at Juneau-Douglas High, insisted the banner was intended as a
publicity prank simply to attract television coverage -- and that he
never intended to promote the use of marijuana.

Although he was standing on a sidewalk off school property at the
time, principal Deborah Morse bolted across the street, seized the
banner and subsequently suspended Frederick for 10 days.

In the majority ruling, Roberts described the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"
banner as "offensive to some, amusing to others," but said the
principal's view that it could inspire drug abuse "is plainly a
reasonable one."

The "bong hits" controversy drew national attention when Frederick
sued the Juneau school board and even prompted the Bush administration
to submit a brief supporting the principal. The administration argued
that students' rights to free speech are limited when they violate a
school's educational mission, including advising teenagers against
drug use.

The ruling also highlighted a deepening divide on the U.S. Supreme
Court between liberal justices and the more conservative judges headed
by Roberts.

In a stinging minority dissent, 87-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens
said student speech should only be limited when it violates specific
rules or "expressly advocates" illegal behaviour.