Todd Starnes: Jesus Ban! Valedictorian Releases Graduation Speech Banned by School

Sam Blackledge was told just 10 minutes before graduation that he would not be permitted to deliver his valedictory address because it was too religious.

“They said they didn’t want to make it a religious ceremony,” Sam said on the “Todd Starnes Radio Show.” “They told me that if I took out Christ I could say everything else.”

Sam, who had been preparing for months to deliver his speech, was devastated.

“I never felt that feeling before,” he said. “It was terrible. I felt like I wanted to cry. I had basically — for months I knew I wanted to talk about Christ in my graduation speech. For that to be taken away…”

The school district has refused to comment on the matter. It invited Sam and his parents to a meeting this week, but when it told school leaders it would be accompanied by legal counsel, the meeting was canceled.

“School officials should remember that students retain their constitutional rights to freedom of expression from the schoolhouse gates, all the way through the graduation ceremony,” First Liberty Institute attorney Jeremy Dys told me.

The nationally renowned law firm is representing Sam and they are considering taking legal action.

“These school officials ruined the only high school graduation Sam will ever know,” Dys told me. “How many more graduations have to be ruined before school officials will learn that the First Amendment protects student remarks at graduation?”

In the meantime, we have acquired a copy of the speech the school deemed inappropriate for the graduation ceremony. I hope you take a moment to read his beautiful remarks.

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