Students Suspended For Buying Lunch in Pennies

In protest at what they feel was an unfairly short lunch period, 29 New Jersey students paid for their school lunches in pennies last Thursday. They had rolled the coins, but lunch ladies complained that the time spent counting the coins meant that some students didn't get lunch.

So, why the combined 58 days of detention? Apparently the federal government (through the school system) has the authority to enforce the ethereal concept of "respect". Do any of you remember "respect"? It's an attribute demanded by those ignorant, paranoid members of society who deserve it least. And nobody demands it more than public school teachers, for when they have failed to earn their children's respect they must demand it.

This is all a very roundabout way of asking just how on earth a "public" school erected and maintained by the government through public taxes has the right to curtail free speech.

EDIT: . . . and, by extension, the right to do something obnoxious but benign.