There was an extraordinary scene in Texas that pitted student rights against school authority at the graduation for Joshua High School. Remington Reimer (great name by the way) has been accepted to the United States Naval Academy and was the speaker at the graduation. When he began his speech he mentioned that the school officials threatened to cut off his mike if he deviated from his speech. The mike then went dead.
Just before the mike was cut off, Reimer a student said that he was “talking about getting constitutional rights taken away from him.” The district insisted that it did only what it promised to do: “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.”
There is some suggestion that Reimer wanted to talk about the ban on any discussion of religion or any prayer. The ban on prayer is understandable as a legal matter. However, there is no strict rule against any mention of religion in a discussion of constitutional rights. Likewise, while it is understandable that the school wants to approve speeches at such an important event, I wonder whether such a draconian approach is necessary. It was far more upsetting to see the speech censored than to hear the remarks. Certainly the school is not responsible for such an off-script departure. I would have thought it would have been better for an official to quietly whisper to Reimer that he needed to return to his speech. I do not condone the breaking of an agreement to stick with a prepared speech at the graduation. Such issues should be raised before the graduation. Yet, the scene of cutting off the speech left a terrible impression about the school environment.
What do you think?
Source: Burleson Star
I’m going to guess that the school administration, if they have any pride at all, might have been somewhat proud of the young man who turned out at the head of his class. Unfortunately they did such a poor job of educating him, and the state has done such a poor job of educating it’s citizens, that there was a risk that this superior student might speak an uncomfortable truth to power and the poor delusional Texans might hear it. Screw them all, and the talking snake they rode in on.
Good luck in the Navy, and especially at the Baltimore Gig and Barge Company, kid.
The simple solution for school officials is to not allow students to speak at these ceremonies. We have seen enough jackass behavior to believe the schools trepidation might be warranted and it was applied evenhandedly had he wanted to go of script and discuss drug laws, Christ, sex with his girl friend or man in the moon marigolds they would have shut off his mike. If there was something he felt he needed to say than he could have included it in his prepared remarks.