History
In January 2002, Joseph Frederick, a student at JDHS, unfurled a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" across from the school in an effort to get on television as the Olympic torch relay passed the school. The principal at the time, Deborah Morse, took the banner from him and suspended him for ten days, on the grounds that the banner opposed the school's mission and anti-drug policy. On March 10, 2006, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that Morse had violated Frederick's right to free speech, overturning an earlier Alaskan federal court ruling. Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in the court's opinion, "Public schools are instrumentalities of government, and government is not entitled to suppress speech that undermines whatever missions it defines for itself." Frederick was also cleared to seek damages from Morse.
On December 1, 2006 the United States Supreme Court announced that they agreed to hear an appeal of the case; it is Juneau School Board v. Frederick, 06-278. On June 25, 2007, the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit, holding that the school district did not violate Frederick's First Amendment rights.
Read more about this topic: Juneau-Douglas High School
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“Don’t give your opinions about Art and the Purpose of Life. They are of little interest and, anyway, you can’t express them. Don’t analyse yourself. Give the relevant facts and let your readers make their own judgments. Stick to your story. It is not the most important subject in history but it is one about which you are uniquely qualified to speak.”
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“I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.”
—J.A.H. (James Augustus Henry)