[BunnySlippers]

If I have agreed to the rules, I abide by them. 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,

Seems like some here think if you are preaching religion it's okay no matter what.

[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]

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.

[Neoliberalnot]

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

[Surtur]

It seems like some people here think if you are standing up for the principles of your religion against a heavy handed Fascistic power-monger it's wrong, no matter what. The school's administration has no business editing her speech except for obscenities, not content. Now normally, I am a by the rules kind of person, but this whole situation stinks to high heaven. She worked diligently for 12 years to earn the position of class valedictorian. For the school to teach her that we here in the U.S.A. have freedom of speech only to censor her at the last minute is hypocritical to say the least. In effect, the school was extorting her obedience. She was told that if she didn't alter her speech, she would have her mic shut off. If you have to coerce compliance of rules with threats of punishment then there is something ostensibly wrong with the rules as they are written, and a stand against them must be taken. I am surprised that so many here are quick to condemn this girl as a trouble maker and liar. As for me, I will stand beside the girl in her struggle against the totalitarian acts of the ACLU and the school board.