Michael Braun's Blog

Those were the words Joseph Fredrick displayed on a banner when he was 18 during a gathering to watch the Olympic torch pass thru his town. He was suspended for the action and his suit against the school wound all the way up to the Supreme Court. The Court rejected his claim that his rights were violated, and used the ruling to further restrict student free speech. Here’s why the whole thing is stupid.

1. The kid is stupid. He wanted to get in trouble, he has reported, as he had been recently disciplined by his principal. So he unveils a banner with a stupid message. ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus’? That was the best thing he could come up with? He was asked by the principal to stop displaying the banner, which he refused. At that point in time, he had the banner confiscated and was suspended.

2. The principal is stupid. Didn’t she realize that he was trying to get a rise out of her. There must have been a better way she could have handled the entire situation. Instead, she takes it too far. It wasn’t enough to take the banner from the kid; she had to go and suspend him as well. Was the banner’s message so dangerous?

3. The court is stupid. I agree that the kid’s suspension should have been held up. He did something stupid and was punished accordingly. He was at a school supervised event and then refused to cooperate with his principal. This is not free-speech rebellion. He’s just acting like an idiot. But to then use that ruling to say schools have a right to advance their educational mission? The terms are so vague that this could be applied to so many different cases. Students protesting something by remaining silent for a day – if you aren’t speaking, you aren’t learning, which is the educational mission of most every school (I would hope). So hello suspension, for doing nothing.

In the end, I hope the ruling will not be applied as far as it could be. This could put an end to a lot of positive activity by students. And in a day and age when we want to encourage civics in our high schools, anything that restricts legitimate political action and speech is sure to be a detriment to that mission.