Light up, or lighten up?

[Kevy Baby]

I looked through some of the stuff in the OP's links. I may have missed some details, so correct me if I did.

Was the event a school sanctioned event and under the direction of the school? If Frederick was there as part of a school event (which, according to the Wikipedia entry, he was), then I believe that the "not on school grounds" argument does not apply. He was "on school grounds" by extension of it being a school sanctioned event and would normally have been under the jurisdiction of the school. I give a parallel to the definition of "US Soil". Susan (my wife for those who don't know) was born in Germany, but it was on a US military base and to parents who are both US citizens (biological father was in the military at the time). She is considered a full US citizen just as if she were born in the California (or any of the other 49 US states).

So is this censorship/were Frederick's First Amendment rights violated? Like Alex, I believe that the school has a right (if not responsibility) to limit expressions which could be reasonably interpreted as promoting illegal drug use. Unlike Alex, I don't believe the 5-day suspension was unreasonable. Frederick made a flagrant and intentional effort to display the banner in such a way as to make the message more highly visible (to TV cameras). Had the banner just been hung in the school and only visible to students and/or faculty (not TV cameras), that would have been different (from a punishment perspective).

Finally, I believe that Frederick knew that what he was doing was wrong and would illicit negative response. He should have not been surprised when he got busted!