[David Kelly]

Originally Posted by Elyse Holguin

I just wanted to know what you all think about this. One of my closest friends was not allowed to give this speech for our commencement on Tuesday, June 9th. The majority of students we have talked to feel this speech is well-written, and pretty good, and do not feel it should have been rejected. The link I gave also contains an article, and the speech itself is on the right-hand side of the screen.

I personally feel that given the reasons our principal gave as to why he can't say it, this was a violation of his freedom of speech (his view greatly contrasted with that of the principal.)

It's a high school, they can do whatever they want. The principal did the right thing because this kid did not follow the rules, which the was stated as:

Charles Hall, principal of Gavit Middle/High School, said he did not censor Blackwood. The valedictorian needed to prepare a speech about the future and the salutatorian needed to reflect back on the past years of school, Hall said. The speeches should invoke happiness and celebrate the positive day, he said.

Hall said Blackwood's speech was well-written, but it needed to represent the entire class and not just his viewpoint.

He was supposed to speak about the past years of school, not give his own political opinions. If the rules stated that he could talk about politics or a war, and the school said no, then I could see how the school would be out of line. It's that simple. It's not an issue about 'freedom of speech' this is an issue about how he didnt prepare a speech on what he was supposed to.


This is a non-issue issue. He didnt follow the outline and that's his own fault. Time to move on and get over it.