Public schools may take down a student banner stating “Bong Hits 4 Jesus,” the US Supreme Court rules. But not in California.
By Anthony Sanchez
(CFAC) Student speech promoting drug use can be restricted by public school officials, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week. But that may not be the case in California because the state Education Code provides greater free speech protection.
The new Supreme Court decision, Morse v. Frederick, stems from a public high school’s suspension of a student who, while at a school event, unfurled a banner reading, “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” The Supreme Court ruled against Frederick and held that student speech at public schools can be censored if it “can reasonably be regarded as encouraging illegal drug use.”
The Court held that the government has an “important–indeed, perhaps compelling interest” in deterring the use of dangerous drugs by students and that the First Amendment “does not require schools to tolerate at school events student expression that contributes to those dangers.” Citing Bethel School District v. Fraser and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, the Court said that the First Amendment rights of students in school are not as broad as those of adults in other settings.
However, in California, students have free speech rights under Education Code 48907 that are, by design, closer to the First Amendment rights of adults. Under EC 48907, public school students “have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press” and can only be censored under two circumstances: if that expression is “obscene, libelous, or slanderous” or if it “incites” a “substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school.”
EC 48907 provides more free speech protection for students than the qualified student speech rights under the First Amendment, which were the basis for the Morse v. Frederick ruling. EC 48907’s higher level of protection was reflected in another recent First Amendment case before the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco involving a Novato High School senior who wrote a controversial anti-immigrant editorial in the student-run school newspaper.
In Andrew D. Smith v. Novato Unified School District, Smith’s editorial was retracted by the School after it caused an uproar and disrupted “an orderly school environment.” Under the First Amendment, student speech can be restricted if it “materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others…” However, the court noted that under EC 48907 that’s not enough to suppress student speech. Only student speech inciting a “material disruption” can be prohibited.
Banners proclaiming “Bong Hits 4 Jesus”—whatever that means—may be forever banished in public schools in most states across the country. But not in California.
Anthony Sanchez, a CFAC intern, is a June 2007 graduate of Stanford University.