"Bong Hits 4 Jesus" Is One Bloke Over The Line


Back whenever I was at high school (pun planned! ) this will be the sort of stop you laughed such as crazy about, nevertheless after you got caught, you apologized, accepted your consequence, which was the ending of it. But nowadays, if a student's juvenile exuberance leads your pet to show off a banner that cracks way up his cohorts nevertheless humiliates the high school administrators, he instead sues almost all the way to the Supreme Courtroom over his delay, pause.

The time had been January 2002, plus the occasion was the passing of typically the Olympic Torch via that snowy Alaskan town of Juneau. Of course, Frederick Frederick, the accused in this situation, was warned that will any inappropriate behaviour when the flashlight passed by (and the National multimedia showed their town's high school to the world) might not be suffered, but apparently the opportunity was too best for jokester Joe to upwards. For since the cameras whirled plus the flashlight paraded beyond daylight hours high school (with every one of the dutiful students standing up outside), Frederick plus the dudes unfurled a new fourteen-foot banner about national television which often read "Bong Strikes 4 Jesus. inches Juneau High School Principal Deborah Blocage angrily confiscated the particular sign and revoked Frederick for ten days for "advocating illegal drug work with, " if not necessarily downright idiocracy. Yet the kicker emerged when Frederick (who claimed he seemed to be just having fun) brought the situation to court upon the guise Juneau High violated his / her right to liberty of speech.

Nicely young boys and girls, five yrs have passed, which in turn must mean the Supreme Court is now going to listen to this case an excellent source of school hi-jinx; The law Ruth Bader Ginsburg surely shows the girl age when she says "... it isn't clear that this kind of [means] 'smoke pot. '" Justice Stephen Breyer is certainly nearer to the center together with his comment, "If kids bypass getting banners creating a laugh out of medication use, that definitely can make it tougher regarding me to convince students... not to work with drugs, " but I believe it truly is Chief Justice Steve Roberts Jr. that truly hits the nail on the head, or the particular pot in the water line as the situation may be. "There's a broader problem, " says Roberts, "of whether rules or teachers... possess to fear that will they're going to pay out of their very own personal pockets when they take steps pursuant to recognized policies. "

It just so happens that will (sadly) I feel now a bit of an specialist to both sides regarding the issue. Throughoutread more , I not only used to smoke marijuana, but my poem "Stoned" seemed to be every bit the anthem during my Midwestern seventies town that Dylan's ballad "Everybody Need to Get Stoned" has been in its sixties heyday. But I actually haven't partaken throughout pot within a quarter of a millennium and, as intended for Jesus, "the remedies of immortality"--the day-to-day Eucharist--has replaced marijuana as my medication of preference. I still laugh sometimes in Cheech & Chong movies and often still even go through "Stoned" (which nonetheless gets the most laughs of something I've written before or since) but ONLY in relationship with my later on poems like "The Convert" or "The Endless River plus the Timeless Tree" to show of which my life, like of which of the other Augustine's, has improved from wayward children to pursuit of Reality.

The really amusing (this time, "funny" as in "ironic") thing about this particular case is the fact, within the ensuing 5 years since typically the case began, Paul Frederick has come to be a teacher (in China, no less! ) himself. Regarding course, Joe have not, like myself, acquired the double lesson/blessing of being some sort of teacher AND father, nor has he previously as many years of experience. Yet, given everything (and allowing for the truth the Chinese children might be the tad more sincere of authority), I am just still surprised ol' "Bong Hit" Paul hasn't yet realized the need for student restraining. Hopefully the Substantial Court will obtain this one perfect, but if these people don't, this ex - stoner may individually take a slow boat (loaded using plenty of silly-druggie banners) to Tiongkok, seek out Mr. Frederick's classroom, and attempt to convince him or her myself.