POLICY REFLECTS COMMON SENSE

Principal Should Have Right to Stop Drug-Promoting Publicity Stunt.

One year ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a
decision that confounded school boards and administrators nationwide.
A conscientious public high school principal enforced a longstanding
student conduct policy against a student entrusted to her care. For
that entirely appropriate action, the 9th Circuit subjected her to the
prospect of punitive damages. Principal Deborah Morse was in charge of
a school event celebrating the Olympic Torch Relay as it arrived in
Alaska for the first time ever. The event occurred during school
hours. The assembled student body (accompanied by teachers and
administrators) lined both sides of the street in front of the school.
Cheerleaders were in uniform. The pep band played. And four students
acted as torchbearers. At the very moment that the torch (and
television cameras) arrived in front of the school, then-senior high
school student Joseph Frederick unfurled his now-famous banner
festooned with the slang marijuana reference, "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS."

Principal Morse reasonably determined on the spot that Frederick's
obtrusive sign violated school policy prohibiting students from
advocating the use of substances that are illegal to minors. This
policy expressly applied to on- and off-campus activities. School
rules such as this are commonplace throughout the country.

For decades, local school officials, acting in loco parentis, have
relied on these policies to convey that illegal substances are wrong
and harmful. In view of the staggering drug problem in America -- half
of high school students use drugs illegally by graduation, often on
school property -- policies that keep pro-drug messages out of the
school environment reflect common sense.

Frederick certainly may have a First Amendment right to display his
banner on his own time, out of school. But in stealing the focus of a
school event for his own drug-promoting publicity stunt, he ran afoul
of a reasonable regulation. It would be unwise for the Supreme Court
to follow the 9th Circuit in rendering such rules unenforceable. The
Court should not compound further the problem by allowing a lifelong
educator like Deborah Morse to be saddled with the specter of a
draconian civil damages lawsuit.