Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007
Subject: #348 Students Can’t Speak Freely?
STUDENTS CAN’T SPEAK FREELY?
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #348 – Monday, 2 July 2007
On Monday, June 25, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down
their ruling on the case known informally known as “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”
High school student Joseph Frederick was subjected to school
suspension in 2002 for his display of a homemade banner while standing
across the street from school property, albeit during normal school
hours. While initial court rulings held in favor of the Juneau, Alaska
school district, the Ninth Circuit Court reversed in favor of Frederick.
In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that since the school
officials might interpret Frederick’s message as some form of
“promoting illegal drug use”, disciplining the student with school
sanctioned penalties is appropriate.
MAP has already archived over a hundred news clippings on this ruling
from across North America. These, and additional clippings during the
days ahead, may be found at:
http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Bong+Hits+4+Jesus (Bong Hits 4 Jesus)
Please consider writing and sending a Letter to the Editor directed to
the newspaper closest to your hometown. We invite additional
consideration of sending appropriate letters to other newspapers which
have covered this story. If you elect to write to more than one
newspaper, we strongly suggest at least some modification of your
message so that each newspaper receives a unique letter.
Additionally, MAP has archived a large number of Opinion pieces – most
being critical of the ruling – from newspaper editorial boards and
columnists, including nationally known writers George Will and Debra
Saunders. Most of these opinion items saw print within the past one
to three days. They make excellent targets for readers to voice their
own feelings about the ruling from the Supreme Court.
Letters of 200 words or less have the best chance of print unless
otherwise noted in MAP headers.
Thanks for your effort and support.
It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do
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Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/
Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for personal tips on how
to write LTEs that get printed.
heath@mapinc.org
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PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER
Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ( sentlte@mapinc.org ) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to heath@mapinc.org if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.
Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( sentlte@mapinc.org ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.
To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form
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Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource
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