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!

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

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.

I don't believe that. I was just saying that I don't necessarily agree with the court's previous positions on speech in schools and therefore there might be something to talk about with this case but that is unnecessary since the kid was not on school property. Even if the school gave permission for the student to leave property for this event. Similarly, through high school I had permission to leave campus for lunch and to attend classes at a nearby community college, even though my presence in those places was sanctioned by the school I do not think they'd have any right to punish me for any speech (or even any actions) I might commit during that time.

However, even if he had been on school property I likely would have come down on his side since even though I think schools need to have an ability to control disruptive speech I don't think this would have qualified. Though it would be fuzzier for me.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Alex

I don't believe that.

With apologies for the misinterpretation.