Free Speech & The Public Schools (Lesson Plans)

By now we all know about Joseph Frederick’s banner “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” that his principal, Deborah Morse tore down. I'll have to admit to a woefully inadequate public school education here as I had no idea what "Bong hits" meant, until I read about it in the paper. And honestly if Ms. Morse hadn't overreacted the majority of us would have probably never heard of this banner.

While it is hardly surprising to find the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship on Mr. Frederick’s side, it is the array of briefs from organizations that litigate and speak on behalf of the religious right that has lifted Morse v. Frederick out of the realm of the ordinary.

Even Christian Conservatives understand that limiting free speech adversely affects everyone.

In an interview, Professor Laycock said that religiously observant students often find the atmosphere in public school to be unwelcoming and “feel themselves a dissident and excluded minority.” As the Jehovah’s Witnesses did in the last century, these students are turning to the courts. The briefs from the conservative religious organizations depict the school environment as an ideological battleground. The Christian Legal Society asserts that its law school chapters “have endured a relentless assault by law schools intolerant of their unpopular perspective on the morality of homosexual conduct or the relevance of religious belief.” The American Center for Law and Justice brief, filed by its chief counsel, Jay Alan Sekulow, warns that public schools “face a constant temptation to impose a suffocating blanket of political correctness upon the educational atmosphere.”

The religious groups were particularly alarmed by what they saw as the implication that school boards could define their “educational mission” as they wished and could suppress countervailing speech accordingly.

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