Quote:
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Originally Posted by David Kelly
A high school student was supposed to speak about his past year in his high school career, and a former President was hired and paid to give a speech on whatever he wanted to.
I don't even see how these two situations can be compared to each other....
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The principal of our school said nothing at all about the subject matter that should be in these speeches. No one did, in fact. By now it's become custom that the #1 and #2 give speeches. Ian was not informed that he was only supposed to be speaking about his experiences in high school only, and if (as was announced today in our government class) the salutatorian ALWAYS is supposed to give a speech on past high school esperiences, I have video that proves that some of the past #2s have strayed from this and have still been avle to give their speech, oftentimes over their select group of friends that completely isolates the remainder of the class.
On his blog, Ian had this to say:
The Times ran the story this morning, and to clear this up, the Times called my house and asked me about the situation - I did not contact them - but I would like to thank the person that did contact the paper, Brittany, because it brought out the truth. Now for some clarification. On Wednesday I made it pretty clear that I would not be changing the speech for various reasons, reasons that I'm sure you all know, but I told Mr. Hall I would talk it over with my parents and tell him Thursday. So Thursday I walked into his office on my way to lunch and told him that I would not be rewriting my speech, and that if it was "unacceptable" as is, then he should find someone else to speak (Like Sarai
(our #3), who I am sure would have done an excellent job.) His exact words were "All right then, we'll just cut it from the program and go with the one speech [Colie's]
(our valedictorian). It's done now." Keep in mind, this was on my way to lunch.
I was perfectly prepared to let the situation end there. I felt wronged, but I didn't want to cause a huge controversy or anything of the sort (great job there, eh?). But it didn't end. Why? Because certain members of the staff decided to gossip and word soon got around that my speech was "extremely negative" and that I wanted to "ruin everyone's graduation day." People who hadn't even read what I wrote were saying these things. I mean, when five or six people come up to me and ask to see my speech because they've been hearing all these terrible things about it, it's discouraging. Basically the powers that be were portraying what I wrote in a horrendous light, and everytime someone else came up and told me "Hey, you know I just left the office and they were talking about you and what you wrote. They said you wanted to ruin everyone's day, what did you write?" I got angrier and angrier.
I got a phone call when I got home from a Times reporter who asked if she could talk to me. I agreed and explained the whole situation to her. She said that she had talked to Mr. Hall and he had said that as far as he knew I was still going to rewrite my speech and there was no problem. I said, "Well what time did you talk to him?", because I didn't give him my final word until lunch time that I was refusing to rewrite my speech. She said that she just got off the phone with him...literally. She talked to him just before she called me. So Mr. Hall lied to the reporter. Also, when I got home I told my mom everything that had gone on and she went to see Mr. Hall. When she came home, she told me what Mr. Hall had to say. He lied to my mother as well, more than once I can assure you, but this post is all ready long enough without me getting into it...so he lied to to the reporter but more importantly he lied to my mother. It was shameful, and I was angry to say the least. He also tried cracking a joke about the fact that my mother is a Catholic - and you can imagine how I felt about that...
So, I wake up this morning and the Times (much to my suprise) put the story on the front page. Thousands of people now had the chance to read what I wrote and make up their own mind, which is all I wanted in the first place. Fox News Chicago also called my house, twice.
An administrator with the School City called my house and wanted to talk to me, so I talked with this person for a while and she asked me "What if, on Monday morning, they tell you you can give your speech?" I told her I wasn't sure what I would do, that I would have to think it over.
Well, after all this has happened, I would respectfully decline to speak at graduation if they offered me the chance, because personally I feel that speaking after all this would overshadow the graduation as a whole. I don't want my speech to be the focus of the graduation ceremony, and after everything the school did, that is exactly what would happen. The graduation ceremony isn't about me, it's about our class, and if they let me read my speech now I think that the controversy the school manufactured would overshadow the entire ceremony.
The reason I wrote that speech was to get everyone thinking, and I feel that my goal was achieved.
Again, without all of you, none of this would have been brought to light and I sincerely thank and applaud every one of you.
The administration at Gavit high school has been doing things like this all year: The cancelling of Underclassmen Honors Day, the cancelling of dances and activities, inappropriate remarks, racist remarks....it goes on for days. I know Mazur
(our student council president) plans on doing something about all of these things and I encourage everyone to support him.
Just Remember: This isn't their school, it's your school. You have the power, not them.
/Ian's quote