JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The valedictorian of Wolfson High School's class of 2007 spoke out in an address at graduation that lasted nearly 20 minutes and urged fellow students to find Jesus Christ, and warned them of consequences if they do not. Shannon Spaulding's speech centered on God and Jesus Christ -- a topic that prompted a commencement controversy."I want to tell you that Jesus Christ can you give you eternal life in Heaven," Spaulding said in her speech. David Sundstrom, a member of the superintendent's executive staff, on Tuesday called the speech "wholly inappropriate," and accused Spaulding of behaving dishonorably. He stated, "Protocols were in place for the school's principal … to review the text of the speech." Sundstrom's letter went on to state "… she played the adults who had trusted her to behave responsibly and she betrayed that trust." Spaulding said school administrators never gave her any guidelines about the length nor the content of her speech, and she said they didn't make a big deal about proofreading the speech before graduation.
"They knew I was busy trying to get everything else ready, so they just said, 'Don't worry about it.' They knew I would get it done," Spaulding said. Of course the outstanding student finished her speech in time. However, Spaulding said she did not think the religious comments she made would cause such a controversy.
She said the attention has not taken anything away from her accomplishments as the school's valedictorian, and if she could do it over again, she would say the same things. "I can't say I'm sorry for the message I shared. I'm sorry if people were offended, but I still believe what I said," Spaulding said.
4 comments:
What Does Secularism Have in Common with Islam? Dhimmitude!
The Christian – very similar to Sharia Law – is considered a “second class citizen” to the secularist. Our speech should only be allowed in the privacy of the church or home. A fellow blogger recently commented on this in regards to a graduation speech. This person is a believer in freedom of speech, but as most on the Left, this person doesn’t realize how his egalitarianism has created a climate of censorship. I guess speech should be approved now by censors who give a thumb up and a thumb down as to what someone can say and not say.
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Can Valedictorians, Salutatorians, or Honorary Speakers Give Speeches on Religious Subjects, Including Reading From the Bible?
YES! As stated previously, it is well-settled that religious speech is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Remember that school administrators can only prohibit protected speech by students when it "materially and substantially interfere[s] with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school."
If students have been granted freedom to compose their own speeches (e.g., valedictorian or salutatorian addresses), protected student expression should not be subjected to censorship because of its religious viewpoint. It is a fundamental proposition of constitutional law that a government official may not suppress or exclude speech for the sole reason that the speech expresses a religious perspective. Denial of this bedrock principle would undermine the essential guarantees of free speech and religious freedom under the First Amendment.
There is quite a difference between refusing to direct prayer or invite clergy to give prayer at graduation, and choosing to prohibit individual student expression based on its content. The First Amendment precludes any governmental effort to single out and censor - or otherwise burden - the speech of private parties solely because that speech is religious. A decision by a school board to respect the free speech rights of students and to refrain from censoring student speech based solely on its content is not a deliberate violation of the law. Students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Nor do students shed those rights as they pass through the auditorium doors to attend graduation or promotional exercises.
http://www.aclj.org/Issues/Resources/Document.aspx?ID=857
Young Ms. Spaulding made the mistake of not knowing her audience, and could have picked a more appropriate venue to espose her religious bent. And, should anyone disagree, would you extend similar opinions should next years valevictorian be Kareem Al-Hassan?
Let's face it, the school board obviously knew of the potential, and turned a blind eye. Or am I to believe she successfully hid her deep religious convictions to the entire facilty and student body for years?
Greetings from the left, Kimba
The Wolfson high school graduating class of 2007 are now free to meet with the military recruiters on their way out to their cars.
George Washington didn't ask the Indians to convert to Islam, he asked them to consider the Gospel of Jesus. Jefferson didn’t pray to Allah. The U. S. Supreme Court said we were a Christian Nation, not an Islamic one. The British and U.S. ships sunk Muslim slave ships to try and completely stop the slave trade (after Christians – for the first time in the history of the world) which was practiced throughout all cultures and history. Muslim countries still practice slavery… not a form of… the real thing.
Jesus espoused peace. Muhammad and Allah espouse murder. I do not picture Muhammad with children lovingly holding on to his legs. Jesus invited children into his inner circle (which was against custom then). Jesus and the Gospel are totally different than Islam. Buddha likewise is not pictured with children, he was too busy starving himself to near death to tech others about what they can learn from children, like Jesus.
Jesus said his yoke is light, how light is Muhammad’s yoke?
If she had turned in a speech about what Christ had done for her and what He could do for others, they wouldn't have let her speak.
What would a Muslim girl speak of? Would she preach on how Sharia law would have her given many lashes for being raped by 7 Muslim men? How a bout being forced to wear clothing that covers her entire body? Women’s rights? What?
What would a muslim speak of in their commencement speech? Anything they want by way of freedom of speech.
That is the point I was making, not to get into a debate over the more acceptable religion to us.
Who was the great author who penned "Protected student expression should not be subjected to censorship because of it's religious viewpoints." I wonder if the author's objections would be as strong in protection of a Muslims speech, or Mormon, or Bahai, etc?
What say you, oh sage of wisdom?
Thus ist the thing. The thing that tryeth the ACLU's souls.
Grettings from the far left.
Kimba, Southern Baptist
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