REEFER MADNESS

Spirit Week Marred By Controversy Over "Herbology" T-Shirts

Spirit week at Palo Alto High School this year was about more than
face paint, costumes and lunchtime rallies. It was about herbology too.

A few hundred T-shirts with the slogan "Herbology. And we're not
talking Oregano" were printed by a senior who sold them to students
to wear during spirit week. The back read: "Paly Seniors '06/We're
higher than you." Some students admit it was a blatant reference to
marijuana. Others say it was just "a joke." Even more say it had less
to do with the shirts and more to do with their right to express
their opinions.

For Paly Principal Scott Laurence, it simply crossed the line.

"It referenced drugs; it caused disruption in classes. It hit a
number of different levels for me that had a cumulative effect," he
said. "It crossed my threshold for disruption to school."

Teachers and administrators admit Paly's dress code is not strict and
usually handled on a case-by-case basis. However, it specifically
prohibits "any clothing advertising or displaying illegal substances
or activities."

While that would clearly ban senior Robert Henahan's herbology
T-shirts, other elements surrounding the controversial apparel turned
what should have been a simple situation into a school-wide struggle
between students and administrators about free speech. "It wasn't a
big deal, everyone knew it was a joke," said senior Greg Murphy. "The
school largely over-reacted. They were afraid of a large-scale
defiance and I think they just wanted us to know who was boss at school."

At a senior-class meeting held at the beginning of the school year
ideas were tossed around for the class' spirit week theme. Henahan
pitched "herbology," an idea he and some friends came up with after
last year's spirit week as a joke, and was surprised when it was
widely accepted.

Herbology and a few other themes went on a ballot to the entire
senior class. It won by a large number of votes, Henahan said. A few
weeks later, the official theme was announced -- "Obey Your Seniors."
Members of the student body council and administration had put an end
to the whole idea.

Henahan decided to have about 100 herbology T-shirts made anyway.
Administrators said anyone caught wearing the shirts would be
suspended and the class would lose spirit week points for every one worn.

"They are suggestive just like everything else," Henahan said,
referencing some of the school's sports teams shirts, including
badminton's "Whack it hard" and waterpolo's "We do it better in the
pool" shirts.

"It seemed to me that it's pretty reasonable to have the school not
support it. What I was not OK with was that they were saying they
were going to suspend each and every person who wore the shirts," he added.

Dozens of students ended up sporting the banned apparel. To skirt
suspension, however, many turned the shirts into political
statements, taping over the slogan with sheets of paper, some
reading, "legalize it, so we can all smoke it."

The district's policy on student free speech allows students "the use
of bulletin boards, the distribution of printed materials or
petitions and wearing of buttons, badges and other insignia" to
exercise free expression.

"Students do have a right to free speech on a high school campus.
It's when the free speech starts to disrupt school activities ...
then you hope to be able to have a reasonable, rational conversation
about what they're trying to do," Laurence said.

The herbology T-shirts disrupted school enough that administrators
continued to have students take the shirts off or turn them inside
out. Many students were also pulled out of class to talk with
Laurence or another administrator. No one was suspended, but the
senior class lost the week's spirit games with a negative point total.

Henahan's shirts touched upon another explosive topic in the
district. For the past two years, officials have run a campaign,
based on surveys given to the students, that advertises the number of
students who don't use drugs or alcohol or engage in other risky
behavior. It's called social norming and it's meant to crack the myth
that "everybody's doing it."

In last spring's survey, for example, 67 percent of Paly's students
said they have never used marijuana. But that means 33 percent said
they have. The campaign ignores the flip side of the statistics and
does not break the numbers down by grade.

"That's propaganda to me, those numbers. If they're going to make us
take that test, they should release all the results, a break down of
the scores," Henahan said.

Henanhan, who emphasized that he cannot speak for Paly's student
body, said the T-shirts were not meant to promote marijuana and that
it's not a large problem on campus.

"I just think we all think it's funny. It's just something that they
can make fun of that's so small," he said. "Most people I sold shirts
to have probably never smoked weed in their life."

Laurence said the situation with the herbology T-shirts was not
uncommon. There are occasionally senior classes that want homecoming
floats or T-shirts with references to illegal, illicit or
confrontational items on them, he said.

"A lot of it has to do with an adult culture versus the adolescent
culture. All of us, no matter when you went to school -- the time of
Elvis or the Beatles, the '50s and the start of rock 'n' roll --
there has always been this, what is acceptable and what is not
challenge," he said.

For the most part, the students understood where Laurence and the
administration was coming from and why the T-shirts were not allowed.
They also know why they probably did it.

"For a lot of people, it's amusing. We're young. We like to push the
envelope. It's the youthful mentality," said senior Anique Drumright.

"I understand how a public school can't support marijuana. I do
believe that a school has to follow some sort of rules and they do
have to enforce the law and they can't support marijuana," she added.