Bong Hits 4 Jesus

[DdC]

School's Fight To Censor Ensures We Won't Forget By Beth Bragg
CN Source: Anchorage Daily News  August 30, 2006 Juneau, Alaska

When it comes to Bong Hits 4 Jesus, here's some Advice 4 Dummies: If the phrase poses such a threat to the health and future of any teenager exposed to it, then stop making a federal case out of it.

If the Juneau School Board, in its infinite stubbornness, is so worried that the message waved on a banner four years ago at a nonschool event will lead high school kids down the path to illegal drug use, why does it insist on giving the message such tremendous exposure?

Google "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" and you'll get 14,100 hits. Included among them is proof positive that the message has become part of the vernacular: It has its own Wikipedia entry.

And all Joe Frederick wanted was to catch the eye of a TV cameraman.

Frederick is the man who, back when he was a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School, made a 10-foot banner to wave as the Olympic torch relay passed through Juneau. A true Alaska artist, he used butcher paper as his canvas and duct tape as his paint to craft the sign that now waves in perpetuity: Bong Hits 4 Jesus.

The school principal, Deborah Morse, went nuts -- even though Frederick wasn't on school property, wasn't at a school-sponsored event, wasn't under direct supervision of school employees and wasn't representing the school in any way imaginable.

Nor did he cause a disruption at school. School officials admitted as much to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Lawyers for Morse and the school board argue that Morse's confiscation of the banner and suspension of Frederick were justified because the poster was inconsistent with the school's mission to teach a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

Complete Title: School's Fight To Censor Poster Ensures We'll Never Forget It
Snipped: Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/k6td7

Contact: letters@adn.com * Website



Bong Hits 4 Posterity
School's Fight To Censor Poster Ensures We'll Never Forget It by Beth Bragg

Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ Case To U.S. Supreme Court?
CN Source: Associated Press August 30, 2006  Juneau, Alaska

Former Whitewater special counsel Kenneth Starr petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Alaska’s “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, a dispute involving a high school student, a banner and a tough school policy.

Starr, who gained national prominence while investigating former President Clinton’s Whitewater land deal and relationship with Monica Lewinsky, filed the petition Monday on behalf of the Juneau School District in response to a March ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appeals court sided with a high school student who displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” during an Olympic torch relay in 2002. It ruled former Juneau-Douglas High School principal Deborah Morse violated former student Joseph Frederick’s free speech rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court petition must receive a minimum of four of the nine justices’ votes to be heard.

Frederick, then a senior, was off school property when he hoisted the banner but was suspended for violating the school’s policy of promoting illegal substances at a school-sanctioned event.

“The principal’s actions were so outrageous, basically leaving school grounds and punishing a student for a message that is not damaging to the school,” said his attorney, Doug Mertz.

Superintendent Peggy Cowan said clarification is needed on the rights of administrators when it comes to disciplinary action of students who break the district’s drug message policy.

“The district’s decision to move forward is not disrespectful to the First Amendment or the rights of students,” she said. “This is an important question about how the First Amendment applies to pro-drug messages in an educational setting.”
Starr, of the Los Angeles-based firm Kirkland & Ellis, took the case pro bono.

The outcome could have implications on how student-conduct policies are enforced around the nation, said Eric Hagen, one of two other attorneys from Starr’s office named on the petition.

“It makes it a little harder when teachers and principals in their daily duties might be subject to a damages lawsuit and be held personally liable,” Hagen said.

School Board Stands by Plans to Appeal

'Bong Hits' To Supreme Court?

Protecting The Right To Dissent

MSNBC Live Vote
Do you agree with the federal court's ruling that the Alaska high school student's banner, unfurled across from his school, reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" is protected free speech?



Starr moves up from Presidential Blow-Jobs to Bong Hits for Jesus

Clearly, this is a free speech issue. And this extremely high-priced legal group, led by the blow-job prosecutor, is stepping up to make sure that Americans will not have the right to talk freely -- specifically about drugs or drug policy.
Fascinating. Anybody know who is paying the bill?
Drug WarRant by Pete Guither



You're asking the government to control individual morality.
This is a government that can't buy a toilet seat for under $600.
-- Peter McWilliams



President Clinton’s impeachment nemesis Kenneth Starr is staying busy. Monday, the former Independent Counsel is expected to file a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the suspension of a high school student disciplined for holding a banner across the street from campus reading, “BONG HITS 4 JESUS.”

The incident occurred in January 2002, as the Olympic torch relay wound through Juneau, Alaska, en route to the winter games in Salt Lake City. As the torch passed by the school, student Joseph Frederick and friends unfurled the banner across the street from campus apparently to attract the attention of television cameras.

A bong is a popular device used to smoke marijuana, inhalation from which is commonly known as a “bong hit.” The school principal suspended Mr. Frederick — allegedly the only student who disobeyed her command to put down the banner — for 10 days.

Mr. Frederick claimed the suspension violated his First Amendment right to freedom of speech. A federal district judge sided with the school, but a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously reversed.

Mr. Starr and other attorneys in the Los Angeles office of Kirkland & Ellis have accepted the case pro bono. Should the court grant the petition, the outcome could hinge on whether the banner disrupted the educational process, whether watching the relay was a school-sponsored event, and whether Mr. Frederick — who had yet to enter school property that morning because his car had been stuck in the snow — was officially on campus. –Ben Winograd

* Read the petition to be filed with the Supreme Court



Banner Canned: Free Speech Rights at Issue By Andrew Krueger
FoM Source: Juneau Empire January 31, 2002  

Two students have been suspended from Juneau-Douglas High School after being in a group that unfurled a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic torch passed the school last week.

One of the suspended students says his free speech rights were violated when school administrators confiscated the banner and disciplined him. School officials say the banner was displayed during a school activity, thus falling under school control.

Last Thursday, as the torch passed the high school on Glacier Avenue, senior Joseph Frederick and a group of about 20 other students and nonstudents standing across the street from JDHS unfurled a 15-by-3-foot white paper banner with their message emblazoned in duct tape.

High school officials took the banner down and took disciplinary action against some members of the group. Frederick said he and one other student in the group received suspensions; Frederick's was for 10 days.

Frederick said the group displayed the banner - whose content was gleaned from stickers seen on cars and snowboards - to see how people would react and as a test of their First Amendment rights.

"Some people laughed, some people cheered," he said. "Nobody really seemed bothered by it."

Frederick said the group specifically went off school grounds to display the banner. In addition, Frederick said that given the composition of the group and the fact that he had not been in school that morning due to car trouble in the snow, he did not consider the group to be part of a school activity.

"We went across the street, standing with adults and people who don't go to high school," he said.

JDHS Principal Deb Morse said even though the banner was displayed off school grounds, it was removed and the students disciplined because watching the torch relay "was a school activity. It was sanctioned by the school that students could be out (to watch the torch pass)."

Morse said students let out of class lined both sides of Glacier Avenue, and school policy states that discipline enforcement extends to "any school sponsored/sanctioned activity." She also said the disciplinary action taken in this case addressed "more than just the banner."

Frederick said he is unsure about whether he is going to appeal the suspension, but he feels his rights were violated.

"There's no reason that because someone is still in high school that they shouldn't have First Amendment rights," he said.

Morse said the school was within its rights to take action against displaying the banner.

"At school it's a bit different," she said. "There are things that are appropriate and inappropriate, and that was inappropriate."

Note: 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' sign at Olympic Torch Relay leads to two JDHS students being suspended.

Contact: editor1@alaska.net * Website

CannabisNews - Cannabis Archives



Bong Hits For Jesus!
posted by Slutia on January 31, 2002 at 18:39:40 PT:

I am not sure if these guys got the slogan from our annual Mardi Gras counter protest (where we taunt the hundreds of self righteous fundamentalist bigots are bused in from the bible belt to try to bust up the party. They are given bullhorns with which they shout at people, telling them they are going to hell for wearing beads and other crazy slogans, and hateful signs stating that God hates fags and un-submissive wives.).

Last year there were hundreds of pictures taken of our protest, and the Yahoo! club has been around for about a year. I don't know if these guys borrowed the slogan, or came up with it independantly, but all I can say is Right On! If anyone would lika a BHFJ! T-shirt (perfect for getting sent home from school!), you can get them @ cafepress.com/bonghitjesus These T-shirts are sold at cost. Spread the word! Peace, Brian (That is me in the photo with the T-shirts BTW)



Bong Hits For Jesus @ Yahoo!

Jesus saves with kind buds. Thank you Jesus for dank and heady nugs. Every year on Mardi Gras day, Alcoholics for Jesus gathers in Jackson Square to testify with all our Jesus loving friends. Come witness with us on Feb. 12th brothers and sisters! Let's save New Orleans, the city of sin.

[DdC]

Remember when Joseph Frederick lost his famous Bong Hits 4 Jesus case in the Supreme Court?

Where are they now? Part 2
Monday, November 10, 2008



Well, there were a few extra issues lying around that didn't get included in the first case (having to do with the school violating his free speech rights under the Alaska Constitution), and Frederick eked out a victory.

The district will pay Frederick $45,000. In exchange Frederick will drop remaining claims not heard by the U.S. Supreme Court [...]

The settlement also calls for the district to spend as much as $5,000 to hire a neutral constitutional law expert to chair a forum on student speech at JDHS. This is to be done before this school year ends next spring.

Congrats, Joseph!

'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' case finally settled
A P: Anchorage Daily News 11/6/08 JUNEAU

Bong Hits 4 Jesus Free Speech DWRf

Bong Hits 4 Jesus - Supreme Court case
Morse v. Frederick (06-278)

2007 Rebels with Just Cause Award

Look at this picture! Do you believe they did all the work to stage this for a fleeting, brief TV shot at fame? They were promoting moral and fiscal responsibility against policy that is a scandalous waste of our precious lives and resources. Their cause was just, Joe and his Buds will go down in history as true patriots!