2. Summary January 24 th 2002, Students and Staff at Juneau-Douglas High School were permitted to leave classes to watch the Olympic Torch pass by, Joseph Frederick who was late for school that day, he had joined some friends on the sidewalk across from his high school, off school grounds. Frederick and his friends had waited for the Television camera’s so that they could show a banner that read “BONG HITS 4 JESUS” . Frederick said he had first seen the phrase on a snowboard sticker. When they had shown the banner off Principal Deborah Morse ran across the street and seized it. Morse suspended Frederick for 5 days for violating school district’s anti-drug policy.
3. Constitutional Issue The Court is being asked to decide whether or not his freedom of speech is being violated or not. They are fighting that the school is violating the first Amendment right to freedom of speech assembly and press against the issue of the drug-policy.
4.
5. Reasoning: The majority said that Frederick's message, though "cryptic," was reasonably interpreted as promoting marijuana use - equivalent to "Take bong hits" or "bong hits are a good thing."
6. Opinion: Students do have some right to political speech even while in school, this right does not extend to pro-drug messages that may undermine the school's important mission to discourage drug use.
