Absolutely. At one time, the Naval Academy would've tossed any letter from the school principal, and admitted the student immediately. Of course back in that time, a student would never have received such a threat for a reference to their beliefs.
That said, those at the Academy also know that you should be held to your word. If the speech was pre-approved, those rules for its approval were valid and consented to by the student. It's not the student's privilege to change the outcome afterward.
The Academy is for grooming military and political leaders, but there's a right way and a wrong way to show leadership. As in all branches, it's about keeping your chain of command in the loop. This speech was not about some renegade sea captain going against the grain to beat the bad guy. The principal was the "Captain" here, regardless of his petty desire to uphold the poltically correct agenda.
I don't agree with the PC agenda, and I detest public schools, but if you're going to operate in that environment, you've got to play by their rules.
Ummm, your statement about having to play by their agenda...
That school exists in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and they ARE required to play by the LEGAL agenda! What the school did was ignore the law and institute illegal ‘’laws’’ that the student is NOT bound by law to follow.
Just because you are forced at a young age, to walk into a public school, does NOT mean you park your civil rights at the door at their demand.
The young man read the ‘approved’ speech in its entirety according to the article, but went on to speak his own heart.
The school was illegally behaving in censoring his speech in the first place. He had the legal right to speak what HE wanted to speak, and he knew that. And he retained his rights in the process. Good for him!