July 2, 2007
MANHATTAN, KAN. — The Journalism Education Association board of directors, today urged administrators, teachers and students to recognize the limitations of the recent Morse v. Frederick United States Supreme Court decision.
“We see this ruling as potentially damaging to robust discussion of a whole range of important issues in America’s classrooms,” JEA President Jack Kennedy said.
Commonly referred to as “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS,” the case resulted in the Court voting 5-4 to give school administrators the authority to limit expression that advocates illegal drug activity and to do so without violating students’ existing First Amendment protections.
“The special characteristic of the school environment,” the Court wrote, “and the governmental interest in stopping student drug abuse, allow schools to restrict student expression that they reasonably regard as promoting such abuse.”
However, dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the minority opinion, said the decision started with a silly nonsensical banner and ended with a special First Amendment rule.
“The Court,” Stevens wrote, “does serious violence to the First Amendment in upholding — indeed, lauding — a school’s decision to
punish Frederick for expressing a view with which it disagreed.”
JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission Chair John Bowen said the decision should be seen in its limited light.
“Clearly, this decision should not be used as an excuse to control or prevent speech school officials do not agree with or find
controversial,” Bowen said.
In a second concurring opinion, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined the majority, but added their concerns that restricted speech must relate only to that which advocates illegal drug use and must not include any comments on political and social issues.
JEA had harsh words for the concurring opinion of Justice Clarence Thomas. Thomas said historically students have not had and should not have First Amendment protection that Tinker v. Des Moines, a 1969 Supreme Court decision, guaranteed.
“That view appears to return us to the era of ‘children should be seen but not heard,’” JEA President Kennedy said. “That’s hardly the leadership we need as schools undertake the important task of encouraging thoughtful, articulate and involved citizens.”
Kennedy said JEA soon will release talking points for educators, students and administrators to help them deal with issues arising from this decision. JEA is also creating a national contest for student journalists specific to the court’s decision. Information about this contest will be available soon.
“Most students do not shed their brains at the schoolhouse gate,” Justice Stevens wrote in his dissent. “Most students know dumb advocacy when they see it.”
JEA supports Stevens’ position and will continue to provide educational materials to administrators, teachers, students and communities who support and endorse the value of free student expression.
-30-
READ MORE:
-
CLICK HERE for Cornell Law School legal information
-
CLICK HERE for a PDF file of the Supreme Court ruling
-
CLICK HERE for Student Press Law Center information on the case
-
