Hail to the Chief

Since being appointed to the Florida Supreme Court in 1988, Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis has sometimes felt trapped inside a glass box.

"I like being a lawyer better than being a judge," Lewis confessed during a visit to Wewahitchka on Monday.

"I've been very isolated being a judge. When you're a lawyer, you're not in a glass box all the time."

Being bound to the bench sometimes makes Lewis sing the blues, but on Monday, the chief justice's spirits were high.

Lewis accepted Wewahitchka High School government teacher Matt Bullard's invitation to speak to his junior and senior government students.

Bullard met the Chief Justice while taking part in the Justice Teaching Institute, a workshop sponsored by the Florida Supreme Court, in Tallahassee last April.

Lewis arrived in the school's media center with his wife, Judith, daughter, Lindsay, and several staffers in tow, and gave an interactive, two-hour lecture on the First Amendment.

Tailoring his Power Point presentation to suit young students' interests, Lewis reviewed three U.S. Supreme Court cases that addressed First Amendment rights in school settings: Tinker vs. Des Moines (1969), Bethel School District vs. Fraser (1986) and Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier (1988).

In Tinker vs. Des Moines, public school students protested the Vietnam War by wearing armbands adorned with peace signs.

Fearing a disruption, the principal expelled the students, an action that the Supreme Court ruled (7-2) violated their First Amendment Rights.

In Bethel School District vs. Fraser, a student, Matthew Fraser, was suspended for making sexually suggestive comments during a speech in support of his friend's bid for Student Council.

The Supreme Court ruled against Fraser, saying that the First Amendment did not prevent a school from disciplining a student for making indecent remarks at a school assembly.

In the last case, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, a principal prohibited articles pertaining to students' experiences with pregnancy and the impact of divorce from being published in Spectrum, the school's newspaper.

The Supreme Court ruled that no First Amendment violations had occurred, and argued that "schools need not tolerate speech that is inconsistent with its educational mission."

Lewis asked the students' opinions on the cases, urging them to build on the knowledge gained from each one.

Many of the students agreed with the Supreme Court's decisions in Tinker and Bethel, but a discussion of Hazelwood drew a mixed response.

One student argued that ignoring the realities of teen pregnancy and divorce was prudish - "I think it should've been alright. 1988 wasn't that long ago. It's stuff that happens that you have to deal with."

Another student saw no problem with an article exploring teens' response to parental divorce, but drew the line at a discussion of teen pregnancy - "When you offer birth control, it's almost like you say, ‘You can go ahead and have sexual activity as long as you're careful.'"

After equipping students with a working knowledge of First Amendment laws, Lewis asked them to slip into the robes of Supreme Court justices to argue a 2007 Supreme Court case.

Lewis distributed a summary of facts in Morse vs. Frederick, withholding the Court's decision until the end of his presentation.

Morse vs. Frederick involved a student's decision to display a 14-foot banner bearing the phrase "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" during an Olympic Torch Relay which passed in front of Juneau-Douglas High School while school was in session.

The school principal and petitioner, Deborah Morse, permitted students to observe the relay from either side of the street, and treated their departure from school as an approved social event or class trip.

Respondent Joseph Frederick, a high school senior, did not check into school that morning, and joined his friends across the street from school to watch the relay.

When Frederick and his friends unfurled the banner, Morse crossed the street and demanded that the banner be taken down.

Frederick refused, and Morse suspended him for 10 days for violating a school policy that prohibited public expression that "advocates the use of substances that are illegal to minors."

Lewis asked the students to dissect the facts of the case, beginning with the "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" banner.

"What does this mean to you?" asked Lewis.

The students differed in their responses. Some argued that the sign contained an offensive religious message, while others said the sign promoted illegal drug use.

Several students said the sign represented only an attempt to garner attention.

"It was just kids trying to be funny," said one.

Lewis confessed that he did not understand the banner's phrase when he first heard the facts of the case.

"I didn't know what it meant. I never experimented with anything like (a bong), so to me it was just stupid. It didn't mean anything," he said.

Dividing the students into small groups, Lewis asked them to consider all facets of the case. "If you're going to be a judge in this case, you have to think about the facts," he said.

After 10 minutes of fierce debate, the students presented their decisions.

Of the five groups, only one unanimously argued in favor of Morse and the school district.

Those deciding on behalf of Frederick cited several reasons: the right to peaceable self-expression set forth in Tinker, Frederick's presence off school grounds, the ambiguous nature of the sign and Frederick's desire to get attention.

Many of the students believed Frederick's failure to check into school that morning made him innocent of any school-related wrongdoing.

Several of the students' arguments echoed those made by the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 in favor of the Morse.

Though four justices argued that "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" was ambiguously phrased, the majority held that the message could be reasonably interpreted as promoting marijuana use.

The decision in Morse v. Frederick allowed schools to prohibit students from displaying pro-drug messages.

Lewis used the students' disagreement with the decision to make a larger point about life in a democracy.

"The Constitution tells us that we have the right to disagree with what the Supreme Court is saying, but we have the obligation to follow the rule of law," said Lewis. "Is that (message) inconsistent?"

"I usually follow the rules regardless," said one student who ruled in favor of Frederick.

Lewis reminded the students of their power to elect officials responsive to their needs and wishes.

"If we don't agree with what a rule is, we vote," noted Lewis. "You do have recourse - it's called ‘We the People,' because who does the government belong to?"

Bullard's students responded with a collective "us," but Lewis had not concluded his argument.

"Are you going to take ownership or are you going to sit in Gulf County and say, ‘Let someone else do it?

"The choice is yours."

To express their appreciation for Lewis' visit, Bullard's students and members of the Wewahitchka High School faculty presented him with a school T-shirt and hats.

Principal Larry White gave large jars of Wewahitchka's famous Tupelo Honey to Lewis and his staff, noting that, unlike other honeys, pure Tupelo does not granulate.

Lewis appeared touched by the gesture.

"I always wondered what this tastes like," he said.