Texas high school silences Valedictorian's microphone during speech on Constitution, report says

Fox ^ | 06/08/13

[AtlasStalled]

A Texas high school silenced its Valedictorian’s microphone during his speech when he diverted from his pre-approved remarks and instead spoke about the Constitution.

[JRandomFreeper]

That's part of the reason for the ping list. Decide early and push hard for the best.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Now? Sorta like forever. ;)

/johnny

[pollywog]

We all need information....name of school, Principal, phone numbers, emails!!!!!!!!!

[count-your-change]

I don’t have it.

[xzins]

Does the classroom teacher have the authority to take action against a student who is being profane and obscene during a class? If so, should they have that authority? If they exercise that authority, have they violated the student’s right of free speech?

First, the student being a forced citizen within a government institution is not just my perspective. It is the perspective of courts that have distinguished between the free speech rights of students and teachers. A teacher cannot lead prayer in school because they are a government employee. The student can spontaneously lead prayer because they are a citizen attendee of a required institution and have not lost their free speech rights.

Why can the student not abuse the teacher during class with profanity? Because discipline and good order has been ruled to have certain parameters that are within the domain of the institution to control. Abuse has been ruled out of bounds.

However, when the school willingly permits the student to speak publicly and one is dealing with protected political or other speech that is permitted in other areas of the school, then the opinion of that freely permitted citizen is not censorable.

Does the school have the authority to turn off the microphone? Sure they do. However, the student can still speak loudly. Can the school then cancel the ceremony right in the middle? They can.

At some point, though, one has to wonder why they want to look foolish in public to prevent a student from giving his opinion on the constitution, the government, or on religion.

The audience is full of citizens. They can decide if the student's words have merit or are foolish.

There is no harm being done. No one is being abused, no one threatened. Let the citizens decide.

[dragnet2]

Some high school kid doesn’t get his way and that means tyrants are taking over.

The tyrants have taken over. Where ya been?

You think government, as they routinely lie, threaten, intimidate, investigation, fine, audit and harass law abiding individuals and groups, is somehow honorable and legitimate?

You seem a bit slow...Or maybe just 9 cents short of a dime...

[Windflier]

If the destroyed speech was what he agreed to give then he was being just as dishonest and that dishonesty cannot be buried in rote recitation of Scripture.

You're missing the forest for the trees, friend.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Another Silent Running ping has been detected!

“Silent Runnning (On Dangerous Ground)” (1985)
by Mike and The Mechanics

According to Mike Rutherford (from Mike and The Mechanics), the song is about a guy who’s traveled light-years away, out in space somewhere, and he’s ahead in time. Therefore he knows what’s going to happen to his wife and kids back home, on Earth. And he’s trying to get the message to them to say what’s going to happen, the kind of anarchy, the breakdown of society, to tell them to be prepared

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep7W89I_V_g

Take the children and yourself
And hide out in the cellar
By now the fighting will be close at hand
Don’t believe the church and state
And everything they tell you
Believe in me, I’m with the high command

Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?

There’s a gun and ammunition
Just inside the doorway
Use it only in emergency
Better you should pray to God
The Father and the Spirit
Will guide you and protect from up here

Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?

Swear allegiance to the flag
Whatever flag they offer
Never hint at what you really feel
Teach the children quietly
For some day sons and daughters
Will rise up and fight while we stood still

Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?

Can you hear me running (can you hear me calling you?)
(Can you hear me) hear me calling you?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running babe?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running?
Calling you, calling you

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Running_%28On_Dangerous_Ground%29

“A Call To Arms”
by Mike and The Mechanics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzHHj1cBDJk

Pass the word, it’s a call to arms
Midnight man at your door
Blackened faces run in the night
Daybreak under the floor

Bring my bow
Fill my head with flame, and we must
Let them know that the torch is lit again
Crystalize the pain behind your eyes
Are you ready to fight?

(you hear the drum and) run for your life
(sweet avalon the heat is on)
In other words, I hope and pray
That time and tide wash the hate away
A simple man with simple thoughts
Who turned to force as a last resort

All around us, chaos rings
Buildings crumbling down
Silhouettes in the fiery rain
Timbers crash to the ground

Bring my spear, invested with my youth
Bring the children near, they must now be told the truth
Old and young and those of foreign tongue
Are you ready to fight?

(you hear the drum and) run for your life
(sweet avalon the heat is on)
In other words, I hope and pray
That time and tide wash the hate away
A simple man with simple thoughts
Who turned to force as a last resort

In other words, I hope and pray
That time and tide keep the day away
When simple men with simple thoughts
Will turn to force as a last recourse

[count-your-change]

And you’re making a forest from a tree.

[count-your-change]

Get a grip, man! A high school kid doesn’t get to give a speech...it’s not a constitutional crisis.

[dragnet2]

A high school kid doesn’t get to give a speech.

It's a government school...His speech had to be pre-approved by govenrment employees.

There were people with their hands on the microphone cut-off button...What were they so afraid of hearing?

BTW, I knew you'd evade the question...

[Windflier]

And you’re making a forest from a tree.

I'm glad you know what that means. I'm sure no one else here does.

[count-your-change]

Don’t like the rules, don’t play the game. Don’t confuse “evading” a question with ignoring it.

[dragnet2]

Don’t matter what I say...Corrupt public government schools and their corrupt unions have created the distrust and nasty reputation, and they now have...Just like rest of government.

[trubolotta]

Get a grip, man! A high school kid doesn't get to give a speech...it’s not a constitutional crisis.

It is unfortunate that so many here have chosen to make this a crisis when it is not. We entrust school officials to maintain discipline and decorum and they cannot do that without imposing reasonable rules. What is said at a graduation ceremony likely attended by grandparents, parents and siblings is no exception and the rule seems quite reasonable. No school official could anticipate what was going to be said and it is quite unreasonable to suggest they could and took the action they took because they are against the Constitution.

Why didn't the speaker submit his pro-constitution speech for approval? If it were not approved, then he would have a case about whether it was appropriate or not. Some here think the school is a public forum where anyone is entitled to grab the microphone and say whatever they please as an exercise of their First Amendment rights. It is not and people would be jumping all over those officials if they allowed that podium to be used for any and every cause that came along.

I didn't send my children to school to practice their First Amendment rights but to learn and behave themselves. I expected the school to make reasonable rules concerning what my children would be exposed to since they were in effect the custodians of my children. We are talking about children, not mature and reasoning adults. We are talking about a school and not the public square. Those who can't see the difference are not thinking, but reacting.

[stevie_d_64]

Who says you need a microphone...Once that mic was turned off, if the audience could cool down, I would have kept right on speaking...A little louder of course...

I agree the pre-approved speech craphas got to go...If the kids was really smart he should have delivered for “ahem” pre-approval his Constitutional remarks in that speach...Let them try to keep him off message that way, and keep the origianl speech (before they edited it) tucked away for safe keeping for proof of the districts’ shinanigans...

When certain people feel the Constitution is too contraversial, then the burn is on those people, not us who understand the show...Those people need to be outed for what they are and replaced by the people in that district...

[count-your-change]

And THAT is the whole point! Not whether the school or its officials are good or bad, not whether the speech or speaker was good or bad, but whether the school’s microphone is a public soapbox. It is not.

[stevie_d_64]

Unless the power has the switch to the microphone...

[unread]

the kid should have brought his own speaker system...like a bullhorn or such.??

[stevie_d_64]

Wow, Joshua, Texas is not too far from where the tornados hit Cleaburn, Texas before the ones in Oklahoma grabbed the headlines a few weeks ago...

hmmmmm...Just a geographic discovery I suppose...;-)