ANDERSON STUDENTS VOICE CONCERN ABOUT HIGH COURT RULING

School Districts Have Ability To Censor Speech

The Supreme Court of the United States extended the ability of school
districts to censor the speech of high school students on Monday, and
some Anderson-area students are concerned about what the ruling will
mean for them.

In 2002 Joseph Frederick, then an 18-year-old high school senior in
Juneau, Ala., displayed a 14-foot banner that read "BONG HITS 4
JESUS" as the Olympic torch passed through his town. Mr. Frederick
was suspended from school when he refused to take it down.

The school board said though Mr. Frederick was off school grounds,
students had been dismissed from classes to attend the parade and
were accompanied by teachers, making it a school event. Principal
Deborah Morse felt that the banner advocated drug use and violated
the school's drug policy. Mr. Frederick said the phrase was
nonsensical.

Mr. Frederick fought the suspension, and the case went all the way to
the Supreme Court. The majority opinion written by Chief Justice John
Roberts said it was reasonable for the principal to interpret the
banner as advocating drug use, and she did not act contrary to the
First Amendment by confiscating it.

"Students' free speech must be balanced against the school's
educational mission to educate students about the dangers of drugs
and discourage their use," according to the opinion.

Jay Bender, Reid H. Montgomery Freedom of Information Professor at
the University of South Carolina, said the recent decision worried
him because it gave one person the ability to interpret someone
else's speech, and punish the speaker based on one of multiple
interpretations.

"Previously speech had to be disruptive (to be censored) where this
one was not," Mr. Bender said.

Sheila Hilton, assistant principal for instruction at T.L. Hanna High
School in Anderson, said it boils down to the ability of a school to
maintain order and she would have done the same thing as Ms. Morse.

"In a school setting, in order to maintain an atmosphere conducive to
learning there has to be some ability to censor certain things," she
said. "It's like profanity."

Students aren't so sure.

"I definitely think that it (the opinion) will affect students
rights," said A.J. Ethridge, a 15-year-old junior at Hart County High
School in Georgia. "It doesn't really worry me now because it is just
one case, but if there are more, yeah."

"He should be able to say what he wants," said 16-year-old Brittany
Shaw, a junior at Palmetto High School in Williamston who disagreed
with the court's opinion. "You decide what what you say means.
Someone else can't tell you."

"They tell you you can say what you want, but you really can't," said
Kirstie Brady, a 16-year-old junior at Westside High School in
Anderson, about most schools' student free speech policies.