BONGS ARE WRONG, ART TEACHER SAYS

TORONTO -- Students at a high school say they see nothing wrong with making
drug-smoking paraphernalia in ceramics class and are upset a teacher has
destroyed their work.

Several Grade 12 students at Northern secondary school say their teacher,
Louise Moran, told them they are not supposed to be using the school's
potters wheels to fashion clay into pipes, water bongs or items decorated
with a marijuana leaf.

The issue blew up this week after she refused to fire a piece in the kiln
depicting a man with a joint in his mouth and the word "pot" on his shirt,
they say.

"I had pot written across the shirt and she didn't like that and wouldn't
accept it to be fired," Emily McIntyre, 17, said yesterday.

McIntyre and other students argue making cannabis accessories in art class
is a matter of creative freedom and personal choice.

Two Ontario judges recently threw out charges of possession saying there are
no laws in Canada prohibiting possession of 30 grams or less.

Moran couldn't be reached for comment. But Steve MacNaughton, head of the
school's art department, said the issue is not about creative freedom. "It's
not about censorship at all; it's about drugs and drug use, it's not about
art at all."