Sue the school, the principal, the school board for 1st Amendment violations. Make some big $$$$$$ and they won’t do that again...............
I don’t think this rises to lawsuit level, and if they do sue, there’s no big payday because there’s not that much damage. Foremost the kid got to read the speech. That’s the first amendment issue disposed of.
The excuses that he did not meet some deadline, and read the speech off his phone, are obviously crap. But the principal drove to the kid’s house to personally hand his diploma to him, and the superintendent called and apologized. In other words, they realized fairly soon they had screwed up and mitigated the damage. Other school districts would double down on stupid. Thankfully this one did not.
Kudos to the kid, when faced with a quick decision at the podium, he made the right one.