Posted on 06/10/2013 9:19:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The school warned Remington Reimer that they'd stop him if he went off-script and talked about his faith, a warning they fulfilled moments after Reimer included it in his valedictory address to Joshua High School graduates. Despite the fact that other speakers mentioned God in their remarks, the school cut off Reimer's microphone in the middle of his explanation of how faith saw him through the travails of adolescence and school. Now, the local CBS affiliate's report puts Joshua Independent School District in Texas on the hot seat — and they don’t want to talk about it:
Reimer thanked his parents, teachers and classmates. “Most people have never ever heard me speak much less see me smile,” said Reimer.
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He then talked about his faith and God, “Most important I want to thank God for giving us the only son who went through excruciating death on a cross…”
Then he said it was his constitutional right to talk about such topics. “I was threatened with having the mic turned off,” and right then the mic was turned off. Reimer continued with his speech, but not everyone heard it. …
JISD officials approve all speeches and some students said Reimer went with a copy of one that wasn’t approved.
“He sent in a prior speech before that and they threw it away so he wasn’t going to let them tell him what to say – what not to say,” said graduate Bryce Daniels.
The district is not commenting and wouldn’t even give CBS 11 a statement.
Later, though, the district did defend itself:
The District has reviewed the rules and policy regarding graduation speech, and it has been determined that policy was followed at the Joshua High School 2013 Graduation Ceremony. The valedictorian, salutatorian, and class historian speeches were reviewed in advance by the campus staff, prior to the graduation ceremony. Student speakers were told that if their speeches deviated from the prior-reviewed material, the microphone would be turned off, regardless of content. When one student’s speech deviated from the prior-reviewed speech, the microphone was turned off, pursuant to District policy and procedure.
I’ve made a number of speeches at a lot of private venues, and I’ve never been asked to submit my remarks for approval from the host organizations. Of course, I’m not a high-school student, either, and student discipline is a legitimate interest for schools and school districts. On the other hand, schools aren’t private organizations — they’re part of the state, and the state doesn’t have carte blanche in censoring the speech of students, especially when it comes to expressing religious beliefs, which have no real potential discipline issues other than the potential distaste for specific religious beliefs, or religious beliefs in general.
If all that happened was a reaction to deviation from a prepared speech, then Joshua ISD acted in an immature and retaliatory manner for which they should apologize. If the action took place because of the specificity of Reimer’s speech in regard to his faith — the “excruciating death on a cross” passage — then I’d argue that the school interfered with his First Amendment right to free speech. Either way, Reimer wasn’t inciting the crowd to riot or lawlessness by explaining his reliance on Christianity, and the school district exposed itself as petty and autocratic in the extreme by attempting to silence him.
Did the school make him include those remarks? If the school permits students to recount personal anecdotes in their speeches they can not exclude personal anecdotes that mention the student’s personal faith experience. The school messed up.
I hope these censors were wearing their brown shirts at graduation.
zer0 crowd!
These kids need to bring their own covert amplifier with them and just switch over when the Communists engage in the censoring. Let the Gaystapo goons come tackle the kid. They’ll get their arses kicked.
Before we did the US and Texas pledges, she stated "on our campus, we start each day with both these pledges and a moment of silence." The crowded applauded as they rose to their feet.
Cordless mics work real well for situations like this. Too bad he didn’t have one and a small amp to go with it.
I would bet if he were a muzzie they would not have done a damn thing and applauded when he concluded his remarks. (”Good for he but not for thee”)
Don't know know it. Of if he started praising the "geh."
Seems to me if the ceremony doesn’t take place on school grounds, and many do not, and the kid already has his diploma, so he is not representing the school at that point, but himself, the ACLU and the brats at the “Freedom From Religion” group should be told to go to hell.
This is not a legitimate Constitutional issue, it is religious persecution of Christians by atheists.
If someone thinks that it is, then why couldn't a valedictorian give a speech about how marijuana clears the mind, or how Republican policies are hurting his country's future?
This is shocking coming from Joshua, a very conservative town in a very conservative county south of DFW. Even small-town school districts apparently aren’t immune from an infestation of godless Leftists.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
RE: This is shocking coming from Joshua, a very conservative town in a very conservative county south of DFW.
This is a wake-up call to every conservative American. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN INFILTRATED BY LEFTISTS.
If we are not vigilant, we might just wake up to find that we have lost this country.
They wouldn’t dare silence some young punk spewing all that garbage about the Religion of “Peace”.In fact I’d wager that they wouldn’t even *want* to silence such a punk.
Easy fix, as he has as much Right as anyone else:
Move the speeches to the end. Don’t like what is being said, you can go, the graduation is over.
RE: . But it’s certainly not his “constitutional right” to say whatever he wants to in venues such as this.
If someone thinks that it is, then why couldn’t a valedictorian give a speech about how marijuana clears the mind, or how Republican policies are hurting his country’s future?
Well, let’s see what we can make of this ... What if the school bans him from thanking his parents or his mentors outside school or some Republican or Democratic politician who influenced him to do well, would that not be a violation of his constitutional right?
Now regarding this — marijuana clears the mind, or how Republican policies are hurting his country’s future — I say YES, it is His constitutional right to say ANYTHING foolish and repugnant as well. And we also have our constitutional right as listeners to BOO him and attack his speech and ideas if he espouses them.
The way to fight speech we don’t like in this country is not to silence the speech, it is to encourage MORE SPEECH, NOT LESS.
Moved to Texas four years ago. To be honest, the Texas pledge is pretty lame.
Here’s another reason to homeschool...
The stupid school administrators made this young man’s point for him.
I hope he YELLED the rest of his speech, once deprived of a microphone. I would have made them call the police to drag my ass off. The PARENTS paid for that damn school, not the fascist administrators.
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