Valedictorian's speech cut short by school district

KBBC - Las Vegas ^ | 6-16-06

[Indy Pendance]

A local high school graduation ended with roars of protest after school officials turned the microphone off right in the middle of one of the valedictorian's speeches. The microphone cut out after the valedictorian at Foothill High made reference to God.

The family says the District's decision isn't fair. Brittney McComb says she's a straight A student, number one in her class, and is headed to Biola University in the fall.

Brittney attributes all of her success to God. Trouble is, she tried to explain that during her speech which the school district said they told her beforehand was a no-no.

"God's love is so great."

This was part of the speech that Brittney McComb says she so wanted to give on graduation night. But because it did have numerous references to God and Jesus Christ, the school district cut off the mic, leaving her practically silent. That's when many people stood up and booed, showing their support.

Now, the day after, McComb says she got nothing but support from her fellow students. "All of my classmates came up to me and were so happy. They told me they loved me and I said God's awesome because I couldn't have done it without him."

McComb says the district reviewed her speech beforehand, just like everyone else. But she says they sent it back with the last half chopped off.

"They said it was offensive, it identifies a particular religion," explains McComb. "I really think it's free speech; we're American, we should be able to handle that."

We asked her father about that.

Rob McMillan: We have freedom of speech, but what about separation of church and state?

Michael McComb: They brought that up, and they say they were going to give us some documentation to prove why she could say that in her speech.

They said the documentation was ambiguous. That was when Brittney said she took it upon herself to go ahead and give her speech as written, no matter what the consequences might be.

The district tells News 3 there are guidelines for what valedictorians can and can't say, but they didn't get back to us on our request for an interview. A district spokesperson told us they were not trying to avoid interviews on this subject and that multiple graduation ceremonies prevented top administrators from giving us an interview.

The school district maintains it was simply following procedure at the Foothill Graduation.

We're told students are required to submit their speeches in writing ahead of time and they're told if they deviate from the script at all, their microphones will be cut off. The district maintains that's exactly what happened in this case.

[Shimmer128]

Why don't the teachers and principal just write the speeches for them then???
Why invite someone to give a speech and then cut it off in the middle for mentioning God and giving thanks to a higher power??
Listen to yourselves! this is just crazy!

[Indy Pendance]

There's no such thing in the constitution as seperation of church and state.

[Indy Pendance]

Neither is teaching my 8 year old kid how to put a condom on a banana. Or my 14 year old daughter having an abortion without my consent. These things are happening, and I have no say. Just because it's the 'rules' doesn't make them right.

[fr_freak]

She sounds like a rule breaker.

Oh no! Not a rule breaker! I can't imagine a worse horror.

I know what you might say to that - that I probably wouldn't be so tolerant of the rule-breaking if it were done by someone whose beliefs I disagreed with, but you'd be wrong. My personal philosophy is that unjust rules, or laws for that matter, ought not to be followed. Just because these school administrators made up some rule where you can't mention God doesn't mean that it is a proper attitude or behavior.

I'm proud of this girl for taking a stand here and doing something that merely 20-30 years ago would not have even been questioned. We are in the middle of a war for the soul of this country. What kind of fools would we be if we surrendered the fight right off the bat simply because some rules were put into place by the likes of high school administration? The Left has become so successful in its dismantling of this country's structure and values precisely because they did not let rules, laws, morality or anything stop them. We, on the right, can't be entirely as ruthless because we do generally follow a moral code, but as far as laws and rules are concerned, I let Christian morality be my guide and feel no particular obligation to follow rules and laws which either are indifferent to morality or are hostile to it altogether. In the case of this school administration, I say their rules are hostile to it, and therefore should not be obeyed.

[fr_freak]

If I have not agreed I do not have to follow them. She agreed and broke them. We don't even know if this girl is even a good Christian. By the looks of it she isn't. She lies at the very least,

Show me the part of the article that says she agreed to the rule against her thanking God. The way I read the article, she and her father were fighting that decision the whole way, and when they got no clear unambiguous justification for the censoring, she decided to go ahead and do what she originally planned to do.

I find it amazing that you are not only condemning a girl you never met as a liar, but you are questioning her Christian faith, all based on a single article written on a TV news station web page. It must be a wonderful feeling to be so all-knowing that you are comfortable passing such judgement on people so easily.

[fr_freak]

Wait a minute. So you are saying that the right to free speech should only exist if there are others in the community -- a majority even -- that agree with you ? That is NOT the intent of the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights - heck, the whole Constitution - is a specific limitation on the FEDERAL government not to interfere with state and local governments. The authority of the FEDERAL government is specifically enumerated in this document, and is specifically prohibited from assuming any authority not specified in this document. If you do not agree with that statement, then you need to re-read the Constitution.

With that in mind, no pissant school administrator has the right to violate the will of the people of the local community, especially by claiming that the federal government authorizes that violation. If the community wants to set standards for itself, they have the right to do so free of federal government interference.

[Politicalmom]

She DID complain, and the school refused to explain how they were within the law.

Maybe you should read the article a third time.

[Victoria Delsoul]

These type of speeches should just be about 5 minutes long - a joke, a quote by JFK or MLK, apply the quote tenuously to the high school years, thank the parents and teachers, wish everybody luck.

But in 5 minutes you can mention God a lot of times, which by the way I agree with this girl and applaud her courage. Good grief, schools are turning into fascist camps.

[Victoria Delsoul]

I went to law school (which had anonymous grading) and I became an A student. Hmmm....

Well, you are smart, what can I say.

[I still care]

Being covered on Hannity in a few minutes.

[Flightdeck]

"So if she wanted to make a sppech about how Ann Coulter is a harridan and Bush lied you'd be okay with it? She doesn't know how to follow rules."

Yes, of course I would. I wouldn't agree with her opinion, but she earned the right.

"She should not have been valedictorian."

Wow. you're an idiot.

[HitmanLV]

Yes that's true.

[HitmanLV]

I think I was downgraded in college because of personal dislike, which had something to do with politics, but also to do with the fact that I'm just not a very nice little fella.

In law school, grading was anonymous. They couldn't downgrade me because they didn't know which exam was mine. with that filter taken off, I got tippy top grades.

Just a theory. :-)

[Victoria Delsoul]

Well, you should work on your nice personality sometimes, lol. I mean, make it nicer.

[HitmanLV]

Nah, I'm a meanie! :-)

[Victoria Delsoul]

See, so what do you expect?

[HitmanLV]

Yep, that's true! :-)

[Neoliberalnot]

Invoking who she believed assisted her hardly constitutes preaching just as possessing a gun doesn't make one a murderer.

[Neoliberalnot]

I don't recall a statement by the student stating she agreed to the rules. You are merely invoking what the teachers said she agreed to. There might be another side to the story. Perhaps the student realized the intolerance the teachers had for free and harmless speech and so she chose to speak her own mind instead of the teachers'.

[Neoliberalnot]

You have restated the points I conveyed early on. Some do not choose to listen, so thanks for saying it again.