Court upholds “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” student banner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An Alaska high school violated a student’s free speech rights by suspending him after he unfurled a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” across the street from the school, a federal court ruled on Friday. Joseph Frederick, a student at Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska, displayed the banner — which refers to smoking marijuana — in January 2002 to try to get on television as the Olympic torch relay was passing the school.
Every now and then I run across a story that just makes me proud to be an American. In the pursuit of the time-honored American pasttime of getting’s one’s face on television, Joseph Frederick knew he had to do something over the top to attract attention. So, he made a banner that said “BONG HITS FOR JESUS” in big, block letters, and when the Olympic torch passed through his hometown, he unfurled the banner…until the school principal intervened and confiscated his banner. No one should have to take such brazenly unfair treatment lying down, Frederick fought back by taking the principal to court, and it took a federal court to vindicate him.
If you think about it, isn’t cheap, drug-related humor an inalienable American right? Rob Americans of stoner humor, and…well, you might as well just force all of us into re-education camps, eh? Without brave souls like Joseph Frederick, who was willing to take on The Man in his quest to obtain justice, where would this country be? We should all be thanking Joseph Frederick for standing up for stoners (and, indeed, all Americans) throughout this great country.
