STUDENTS' SPEECH MUST BE PROTECTED

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a potentially damaging blow to students'
rights to free speech in a ruling Monday.

In 2002, Joseph Frederick unfurled a 14-foot banner that read "Bong
Hits 4 Jesus" near his school in Juneau, Ala., as the Olympic torch
passed through town. Students were being led out to see the torch go
by, and Frederick, 18 at the time, was not on school property.

A teacher destroyed Frederick's banner and suspended him for 10
days.

In the ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts said, "Our cases make clear
that students do not 'shed their constitutional rights to freedom of
speech at the schoolhouse gate.'" He was quoting a 1969 Supreme Court
decision that defended the rights of three public high school students
in Des Moines, Iowa, to wear black armbands to school to protest the
Vietnam War.

But the 1969 decision stated school officials can not prohibit
expression of opinion if the expression doesn't interfere with school
discipline or the rights of others. Roberts claimed the decision in
the Alaska case was warranted because Frederick's banner suggested
illicit drug use.

While Frederick's message was cryptic, he said it did not refer to
drug use, and he was only trying to be funny to get on TV. He
displayed the banner away from school property, and he was only
censored because he was involved in a school activity.

His banner did not interfere with the school's educational process,
and it didn't put anyone in danger. He was a legal adult who should
have the right to display his opinion, regardless of how pointless or
childish the message was.

Even some conservative groups disagreed with the Supreme Court's
decision because they feared a subsequent clamping down on the right
to promote their own religious messages, according to the BBC.

The First Amendment is a fundamental principle of our society, and
anyone should have the right to promote their own unique ideas. This
means people can and will say things others disagree with, and no one
should be able to censor another person.

This ruling raises a red flag for the future of high school students
around the nation because it opened the doors for teachers and
administrators to suspend students for personal expression.

Frederick's banner was clearly the foolish work of a high school
student looking for attention, and the school teacher made the
appropriate decision by taking it down.

But the suspension went too far and, as a U.S. citizen, Frederick
should have had the right to promote whatever foolish message he
wanted without fear of serious punishment.