School Board Spreads the Bong Hits for Jesus “Message”
A great article from the Anchorage Daily News points out the fatal flaw in the reasoning of the prosecuters in the now famous “Bong Hits for Jesus” case. For those who don’t know the story, it goes something like this:
A few years back, when the Olympic Torch Ceremony was passing through Juneau, then high school senior Joe Frederick, in a juvenille prank, held up a giant banner that read “Bong Hits for Jesus.” The school suspended him for 10 days. Frederick brought the school board to court–and won–on the grounds that his free speech was violated (he was neither on school grounds when holding the sign, nor caused a disruption). The school board is now pushing for the case to be reviewed in Supreme Court (at a sizable expense to local taxpayers) and Lewinsky scandal lawyer Kenneth Starr has become involved.
As writer Beth Bragg points out in her article (available here), if the school board sincerely believes that Frederick’s message should be censored on the grounds that it promotes dangerous drug use, then the best thing they should do is drop the case. Because now, the infamous phrase has now become a household joke. And so has the Juneau School Board.
Thanks to The Media Awareness Project for the link.