EDUCATION MATTERS on WGTD Public Radio with your host today, Dr. Steve Brown
“From black armbands to Bong Hits for Jesus.”
John Tinker and the late Judge Kenneth W. Starr share their divergent views about limitations on the freedom of speech in schools. Judge Starr passed away on September 13, 2022
This rebroadcast from 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. That case established that students, as well as teachers, do not "shed their constitutional right to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." The justices held 7 to 2 that students had a First Amendment right to wear black armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War as long as school was not substantially disrupted. This case remains the quintessential student rights case even though subsequent cases eroded some of those rights.
One of those later cases was the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Morse v. Frederick, also known as the "Bong Hits for Jesus" case. The Morse Court ruled that a student, Joseph Frederick, who displayed a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" sign at a high school event, was not protected by the First Amendment because school officials had the right to control drug-related expression in schools. Nevertheless, a majority of the justices did reaffirm Tinker's basic principles.
This interview, conducted by "Education Matters" host, Dr. Steve Brown, featured both John Tinker and Kenneth Starr for WGTD Public Radio in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Tinker continues to champion student rights. Starr, was dean of the law school at Pepperdine University, represented the Juneau, Alaska, high school principal, Deborah Morse, in the "Bong Hits" case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
This broadcast was awarded 'The Golden Gavel Award" from the Wisconsin Bar Association for 2009.