“First Amendment law in this area reflects common sense. As the Supreme Court has noted . . . It is not a time for a student to use his commencement speech to push his personal agenda on a captive audience, and school officials are well within their rights to prevent that from happening.”For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
-- Barry Arrington, school attorney
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Also read Mrs. Obama Thanks Hollywood for Gay Indoctrination
-- From "School blocks 'coming out' speech from valedictorian" by The Associated Press 5/29/15
Eighteen-year-old Evan Young told the Daily Camera that he agreed to make some suggested changes to his speech but wouldn't remove the disclosure about his sexuality. Young says he wasn't notified until just a few minutes before the May 16 ceremony that he wouldn't be allowed to speak or be recognized as valedictorian.
A gay rights group, Out Boulder, has asked Young to deliver his speech during an event Sunday.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "High School valedictorian denied speech rights after planning to come out as gay" Kevin Torres, KWGN-TV2 (Denver, CO) 5/29/15
The principal, BJ Bachmann, decided to call Evan’s dad and tell him about the speech. In doing so, Bachmann also told [him] his son was gay. Problem is, Rob and his wife Alise Curry had no clue.
Five minutes before he was supposed to give his valedictorian speech, Mr. Bachmann told Evan’s parents their son wouldn’t be talking. To make matters worse, Alise says the school never even acknowledged Evan as valedictorian.
The student with a 4.5 GPA who has a scholarship to Rutgers University had been silenced by a school board who didn’t feel his message was appropriate.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "The Controversial Reason a High School Canceled Its Valedictorian’s Speech" by Samantha Cowan, Takepart.com posted at Yahoo News 5/30/15
The talking point principal BJ Buchmann had a problem with was Young’s revelation that he is gay. Young planned to disclose his sexual orientation publicly for the first time during his speech.
Young sent a copy of his speech to the school administrators, who returned it to him with requested changes, most of which Young said he made. But when it came to omitting his sexual orientation, Young drew the line.
“I’d told him I’m not going to remove the part where I say I’m gay, because I am. It’s important to me,” said Young.
“My parents are very liberal. I think they were totally OK with it,” said Young.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Valedictorian Claims He Couldn’t Deliver Graduation Speech Because He’s Gay" posted at CBS4 - Denver 5/29/15
The principal cancelled Young’s speech minutes before graduation. The school released a statement which read, in part, “The initial draft of the student’s speech… was condescending toward the school and the student’s peers and included, among other things, ridiculing comments about faculty and students. The draft speech also included references to personal matters of a sexual nature.”
“We initially said to ourselves, ‘Well maybe this is not the forum’ but when we read the speech and the context of ‘I’m gay, I’m different, we’re all different, we should all accept each other’ that was the context,” said Evan’s mother Alise Corry.
The story has generated a controversy that has reached far beyond Colorado. Out Boulder, a gay advocacy organization, said it has received emails of support for Evan from around the country.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Longmont valedictorian silenced over speech disclosing he was gay" by Charlie Brennan, Staff Writer, Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) 5/28/15
"Mr. Buchmann called me and said, 'I've got Evan's speech here. There's two things in it that I don't think are appropriate,'" Don Young, [Evan's father,] an accountant, recalled. "One was he had mentioned another student's name. And then there was his coming out that he was gay."
That was the first time in Evan Young's life that his parents had been given a clue about his sexual identity.
"He's Evan, you know?" his father said. "He's never really expressed interest in either (boys or girls). He's just a teenager. ... But we had no indication beforehand."
Initially, Evan's parents were somewhat sympathetic to Buchmann's decision concerning the speech.
"His mother and I were not sure that his coming out in a valedictorian speech was the appropriate place to say it, with grandchildren and 3-year-olds in the audience, and that's kind of what we said to BJ," Don Young said.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Click headlines below to read how schools censor Christians:
California School Lawyers Strip Student's Jesus Speech
Texas School Cuts Mic on Christian Valedictorian Speech
Jesus, God Almighty Censored at Vermont Graduation
However . . .
Lord's Prayer at South Carolina Graduation, Atheists Fume
Democrat Missouri Gov. Signs Law Allowing Christian Speeches
Atheists Can't Stop Prayer at Graduations, Judge Rules
