"BONG HITS 4 JESUS" BANNER BRINGS DUO TO DC

RAPID CITY -- The two Stevens High School seniors who showed up for
class last fall wearing T-shirts supporting medical marijuana are
headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rapid City Stevens High School students David Valenzuela and Chris
Fuentes will address a free-speech rally Monday on the front steps of
the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The two will be speaking
as the High Court prepares to hear a free-speech case that addresses
the suspension of an Alaska student who displayed a banner "Bong Hits
4 Jesus" at a school outing. (Journal file photo)

David Valenzuela and Chris Fuentes, both 18, don't have a case before
the high court. In fact, they won't even go inside.

The two students will, however, address a free-speech rally Monday on
the court's front steps. "Students are the future generations of
America, so I think we have a big say in this kind of thing," Fuentes
said Friday, in an interview after school.

Their expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., comes courtesy of
Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which has 100 chapters nationwide.

The group's rally coincides with oral arguments Monday morning in a
case before the Supreme Court.

The court will consider whether Alaska student Joseph Frederick's
free-speech rights were violated in 2002. Frederick's school
suspended him for displaying a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner at a school
outing to an Olympic torch parade. School officials said the banner
violated a policy against advocating illegal acts.

Defending the Alaska school will be Kenneth Starr, the former special
prosecutor who investigated President Clinton.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy filed a friend-of-the-court brief
supporting Frederick. A paragraph in the 30-page brief tells the
story of Valenzuela and Fuentes and their controversial T-shirts,
which urged support for last year's initiated measure to legalize
medical marijuana in South Dakota.

Voters rejected the measure Nov. 7.

A few days before, school officials rejected the T-shirts, forcing
Valenzuela and Fuentes to change clothes and threatening to suspend them.

Rapid City School Superintendent Peter Wharton said at the time that
the shirts' political message wasn't the problem. The problem was the
picture of a large marijuana leaf on the front of each shirt. Rapid
City schools forbid clothing promoting drugs, alcohol or tobacco.

Valenzuela and Fuentes argued that they weren't promoting illegal
drug use and that the marijuana leaves were political speech.

Wharton called that argument "absurd."

Now, Wharton's comment, originally made to the Rapid City Journal, is
part of the Supreme Court's record in the Alaska case.

"We think that was blatantly unconstitutional," Students for Sensible
Drug Policy spokesman Tom Angell said. He monitors such cases from
his group's Washington headquarters.

A week ago, Angell called Valenzuela's mother to offer her son and
his friend first-class airline tickets to Washington. "We were
jumping up and down, hugging each other," Fuentes said.

Both seniors say their notoriety has made them more aware of First
Amendment issues, but neither is headed for a political career.
Fuentes hopes to become a tattoo artist. Valenzuela will enroll at
the Job Corps at Nemo. He wants to be a firefighter.

The two seniors will have to take a day off from school Monday for
the Supreme Court rally, but Fuentes will get credit in history for
writing a paper about the trip.

Valenzuela cited another reward. "What we did helped another kid," he
said. "Now, it's going to affect the whole nation. I feel pretty
proud of that."

However, Valenzuela did point out that on the flight home Monday,
they're booked in coach.