Wish they would cut the mike on tRump and his administration when they are on talk shows. That would make more sense.

How'd you like your kid's birthday party to be the platform for somebody getting up and saying how horrible and downright shameful it is that we can afford presents and things like cake and ice cream while people are starving in Yemen? Yeah, probably not. Esp. if there's entertainment and people were planning on having fun. You know, a celebration with congratulations other than, "While you're here celebrating, people are dying, being raped and sodomized, starving in misery...."

Or maybe it's appropriate for an older kid to announce at his sister's party that he'd been molested in the bathroom for years by Uncle Mike, but decided to take that opportunity to condemn Mike publicly. After all, it's all about him, and the brazen effrontery to think that maybe other people set up the platform for their own use and not his.

It's nice to grab the stage and make everybody else's celebration a change to enforce by vigilante justice over what some administrator did or didn't do. After all, if the kid who did the assaulting was actually charged, that would violate procedural norms for dealing with minors; if not charged, then the courts have limited what schools can do. And in the spirit of restorative justice, we don't come down with a heavy hand on misconduct. Unless, of course, we have the moral authority of the arc of history bearing down on us and we are but its servants. And when it's public like that and all one-sided, it makes all that formality about what happened where so, um, non-indigenous.

Basically, she hijacked the thread because hers went nowhere. And because she didn't want to actually file charges, always an option, right?

There are ways of dealing with problems that do not involve defamation and assuming that everybody wants to have their celebrations and happy places made into the public square for a vigilante-style hanging.

NFL players shouldn't kneel during the antham?

to talk about goals, ideas, and ideals, implementation of those things, barriers to their realization, and challenges to those who would accomplish them.

This was an inappropriate setting to talk about the setbacks she and others had suffered, and the crimes others were allowed to commit with impunity?

It sounds like 'Never' is the answer to: "When would be the right time?"

It sounds like you really need one. Bless your heart.

That's the same logic. It's the logic that sweeps everything under the rug and lets it continue to happen.

and certain of its students. She broke the agreement.

Fair or not, when you go to someone else's house, they get to dictate what is spoken at their house. I don't eat beef or pork. If a friend invites me over for a bar-b-que but asks me not to lecture on the evils of beef, I either agree or not. If I agree, and then go and stand up and start criticizing the hosts for serving beef, they could rightly ask me to leave for disrupting their bar-b-que. That's not interference w/freedom of speech, when you are at someone else's property or function.

There are other things she could have done, and maybe did do. I think it's horrible that the school authorities didn't investigate an alleged rape, if that's what happend. I'm female and would be enraged by that, if it happened to me. But that has nothing to do with celebrating graduation with your class and giving a speech to lead them all into the future. She didn't have to speak there, considering the rule they gave her. But she chose to.

Everyone has corresponding rights. The students and school had a right to enjoy a positive experience about graduating and looking into the future, rather than rehashing old wounds.

Here it is:

nt

that was the deal she agreed to.

There are times when doing something important and moral is more important than adhering to a rule made under duress.

I’m just surprised that they weren’t vindictive enough to deny her the diploma.

they hit the switch before she got very far.
she knew they would do that.

good for her for going there.

fuck that...

i remember the end of high school well enough to get a little nervous thinking of handing a hot mike to a grad w/o a shut off switch.

The last lesson the school felt they were going to TEACH her was censorship.

Maybe they should have considered the parents of underclassmen deserved to know that the school environment is not safe for all kids. Threats exist and they could be ignored.

From the CNN artilce linked in the OP:

At least the first several rows would har her & maybe even more if it was quiet enough.

As she noted in her speech, she graduated after facing odds against it because of the hardships she and her family had endured. The other graduates were having a happy time, too, some of whom had faced similar hardships.

There's a time and place for everything. I'm on the fence about this, but I think it probably is the better policy not to allow complaints of the people giving you the diploma, and complaints about other graduates in the audience. That sort of hijacks the graduation experience of other graduates to make it about one person's complaints against the school.

Maybe she could have written an editorial for their school paper, or given a story to the press. Maybe expressed her views on her FB page, if many school members read it.

I haven't heard many graduation speeches, but those I've heard are usually positive, uplifting, maybe humorous, moving. They weren't talking about what's wrong with the school. That's not the right time or place, I think. The school had disallowed it, so she was forced to agree to that, if she wanted to give a speech. I hope this doesn't hurt her career; companies aren't big on employees who don't follow the rules. Hopefully they'll chalk it up to youth.

With respect to the issues she brought up, she said: "We didn't let that bring us down".

The message was that there were struggles and challenges but that the class was able to rise about them triumphantly.

Giving her revelations more exposure and impact.

It just feels like we're living in transformative times.
I hope we can grow up soon.

First they should investigate the Sexual Assault, and then they should investigate the School Staff for withholding the report of the sexual assault.

Where are you getting that the school withheld the report? According to the school's statement, local police were involved and "determined the course of action." To me that sounds like there was an investigation, but there was no actionable evidence to substantiate her allegation against the other student.

If there's no proof apart from her word, what are they supposed to do? Arrest and/or expel another student solely based on the allegation?

anything related to sexism, racism that could blemish the illusion that ameriKKKa is still a land of free people. Free speech takes another hit.

That's why she was cut off. However, now, her story will be told on a much larger scale, as news media picks this up. The school officials are going to be sorry about their action, I guarantee.

Her story is now national news, with the school administrators as the bad guys. They made a choice, and will now have to live with the choice they made.

Small people who are scared make poor choices.