HIGH COURT MULLS 'BONG HITS'

School Control Over Student Speech at Stake During Arguments

WASHINGTON-A high school senior's 14-foot banner proclaiming "Bong
Hits 4 Jesus" gave the Supreme Court a provocative prop for a lively
argument Monday about the extent of schools' control over student speech.

If the justices conclude Joseph Frederick's homemade sign was a
pro-drug message, they are likely to side with principal Deborah
Morse. She suspended Frederick in 2002 when he unfurled the banner
across the street from the school in Juneau, Alaska.

"I thought we wanted our schools to teach something, including
something besides just basic elements, including the character
formation and not to use drugs," said Chief Justice Roberts on Monday.

But the court could rule for Frederick if it determines that he was,
as he has contended, conducting a free-speech experiment using a
nonsensical message that contained no pitch for drug use.

"It sounds like just a kid's provocative statement to me," Justice
David Souter said.

Students in public schools don't have the same rights as adults, but
neither do they leave their constitutional protections at the
schoolhouse gate, as the court said in a landmark speech-rights ruling
from Vietnam era.

Morse, now a Juneau schools' administrator, was at the court Monday.
Frederick, teaching and studying in China, was not.

Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, whose Kirkland and Ellis law
firm is representing Morse for free, argued that the justices should
defer to the judgment of the principal. Morse reasonably interpreted
the banner as a pro-drug message, despite what Frederick intended,
Starr said.