"Bong Hits 4 Jesus" Is One Groundling Above the Line

Back any time I was in high school (pun meant! ) this is definitely the type of stop you laughed such as crazy about, nevertheless after you got caught, you apologized, accepted your abuse, which was the finish from it. But currently, if a student's teenager exuberance leads him or her to show off a banner that cracks upward his cohorts but humiliates the high school administrators, this individual instead sues most the way in order to the Supreme Judge over his suspension.

The time was January 2002, along with the occasion was the particular passing of the Olympic Torch by means of that snowy Alaskan town of Juneau. Of course, Frederick Frederick, the offender in this circumstance, was warned that will any inappropriate behavior when the torch passed by (and the National press showed their town's high school in order to the world) would certainly not be tolerated, but apparently the ability was too great for jokester Joe to way up. For as the digital cameras whirled as well as the torch paraded beyond daylight hours large school (with all of the dutiful students standing up outside), Frederick along with the dudes unfurled the fourteen-foot banner upon national television which often read "Bong Visits 4 Jesus. " Juneau High Institution Principal Deborah Frein angrily confiscated typically the sign and hanging Frederick for ten days for "advocating illegal drug make use of, " if not necessarily downright idiocracy. But the kicker came when Frederick (who claimed he was just having fun) brought the case to court in the guise Juneau High violated his right to flexibility of speech.

Well children, five yrs have passed, which usually must mean typically the Supreme Court is now about to notice this case of high school hi-jinx; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg surely shows the girl age when states "... it isn't clear that this kind of [means] 'smoke pot. '" Justice Stephen Breyer is certainly closer to the center using his comment, "If kids bypass possessing banners setting up a joke out of medication use, that really can make it tougher regarding me to persuade students... never to work with drugs, " although I believe it is Chief Justice Steve Roberts Jr. who truly hits the nail on typically the head, or the pot within the water pipe as the situation may be. "There's a broader matter, " says Roberts, "of whether rules or teachers... possess to fear of which they're going in order to pay out of their personal pockets when they take activities pursuant to set up policies. "

It merely requires so happens that will (sadly) I am now a tad of an pro on both sides of the issue. ThroughoutAdditional info , I actually not only used to smoke marijuana, but the poem "Stoned" has been every bit the anthem during my Midwestern seventies town that Dylan's ballad "Everybody Need to Get Stoned" had been in its sixties heyday. But I haven't partaken in pot in the 1 / 4 of a hundred years and, as intended for Jesus, "the medication of immortality"--the day-to-day Eucharist--has replaced cannabis as my medication of choice. I nonetheless laugh sometimes with Cheech & Chong movies and oftentimes still even read "Stoned" (which still gets the most laughs of everything I've written ahead of or since) nevertheless ONLY in connection with my later poems like "The Convert" or "The Endless River plus the Timeless Tree" to show of which warring, like that of the some other Augustine's, has changed from wayward youth to quest for Reality.

The really funny (this time, "funny" as in "ironic") thing about this particular case is the fact, in the ensuing 5 years since the particular case began, Joseph Frederick has turn into a teacher (in China, no less! ) himself. Regarding course, Joe hasn't, like myself, had the double lesson/blessing of being a new teacher AND father, nor has he had as many many years of experience. But, given everything (and allowing for the fact the Chinese children might be some sort of tad more well intentioned of authority), I am just still surprised ol' "Bong Hit" May well hasn't yet recognized the advantages of student constraint. Hopefully the Supreme Court will get this one right, but if that they don't, this former stoner may privately take a sluggish boat (loaded together with plenty of silly-druggie banners) to Cina, look for Mr. Frederick's classroom, and effort to convince him myself.