USC cancels ALL speakers at commencement ceremony - including Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker John M. Chu - amid controversy over decision to ban valedictorian because of her anti-Semitic social media posts
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UK Daily Mail ^
| April 20, 2024 | Martha Williams
The University of Southern California has cancelled all of the speakers scheduled to speak at the commencement ceremony amid controversy. On
April 15, the prestigious private university announced its decision to ban the valedictorian from speaking at this year's graduation on May 10. Asna Tabassum, 21, was banned for being outspoken in her pro-Palestinian support, which has led her to be labeled anti-Semitic.
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USC cancels valedictorian's graduation speech after anti-Israel social media posts, security concerns emerge
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Fox News ^
| 4/16/24 | Nikolas Lanum
A Muslim University of Southern California (USC) valedictorian has been barred from giving a speech at the school's graduation ceremony following a series of social media posts she allegedly made about Israel. A spokesperson for the college directed Fox News Digital to information posted on the provost office website, which announced that
Asna Tabassum will not deliver her speech at the ceremony that draws 65,000 people to the University Park Campus. "While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety. This decision is not only necessary to maintain the safety of our campus and students but is consistent with...
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Valedictorian With 1590 SAT Score Rejected From Every Ivy League School
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Your Tango ^
| Apr 11, 2023 | Ethan Cotler
Getting accepted into a university is arguably the most challenging part of getting a college degree. It’s
not as easy as it was even just ten years ago. For the Ivy League schools, it’s a whole other ballpark for those trying to get accepted purely off merit. One high school student had a nearly perfect track record and still faced numerous rejections. Every Ivy League school rejected a valedictorian with a 1590 SAT score. With over 154,000 followers on TikTok, a user named Limmy has amassed quite a lot of support thanks to his videos about college applications. From reviews...
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Some Colorado high schools are doing away with 'valedictorian'
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Fox News ^
| 3/20/2022 | Cortney Moore
Cherry Creek School District will no longer highlight valedictorians at graduation because ‘learning is not a competition’
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When this high school valedictorian started giving a speech about being queer, the principal took the mic
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CBS News ^
| June 25, 2021 | BY CAITLIN O'KANE
A valedictorian from New Jersey says his high school tried to censor his graduation speech, first making him remove parts about sexuality and mental health, then cutting him off as he spoke at graduation. Eighteen-year-old
Bryce Dershem, who graduated from Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees, told CBS News he originally wrote a speech about being queer and dealing with mental health issues, but Principal Robert Tull told him to change it. Dershem said he spent months in treatment for anorexia and didn't even know if he'd be able to graduate, let alone become valedictorian. "As soon as I heard...
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Hillary Clinton Praises Teen Who Secretly Switched Valedictorian Speech To Bash Texas Abortion Law
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Tampa Free Press ^
| 6/3/2021 | Mary Margaret Olohan
Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton praised a teenager Wednesday for secretly switching her valedictorian speech in order to criticize a new Texas law banning abortions after an unborn baby has a heartbeat. he former First Lady tweeted her support for Lake Highlands High School valedictorian Paxton Smith, who pulled an unapproved valedictorian
speech from her bra at the lectern on graduation day and delivered a speech about Texas’s Heartbeat Act. “This took guts,” Clinton tweeted. “Thank you for not staying silent, Paxton.” The new Texas law bans abortions after the unborn baby has a heartbeat. By the end of the...
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Teen Valedictorian Ordered to Remove God from Graduation Address
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Townhall.com ^
| 27 May A.D. 2021 | Todd Starnes
A Michigan high school student was directed by her principal to remove religious references she included in a valedictory address she was expected to deliver on June 6. “For
me, my future hope is found in my relationship with Christ,” Hillsdale High School senior Elizabeth Turner wrote in her prepared remarks. “By trusting in Him and choosing to live a life dedicated to bringing His kingdom glory, I can be confident that I am living a life with purpose and meaning. My identity is found by what God says and who I want to become is laid out in scripture,”...
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Valedictorian blasts school's staff in commencement speech, claims they failed to help her
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Fox News ^
| June 12, 2019 | Danielle Wallace
A California valedictorian used her high school commencement speech last week to accuse office staff of nearly making her lose out on scholarship money, a counselor of never having time for her and another teacher of being consistently drunk in class. The
address has since gone viral. Nataly Buhr, a senior at San Ysidro High School in San Diego, began her address by thanking her parents, friends and a few select teachers for inspiring her to achieve success. She then continued to “thank” other school employees whom she said taught her valuable lessons by failing to do their own jobs...
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Port Clinton High School no longer naming a valedictorian ['competition is unhealthy']
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WTOL11 ^
| 5/20/2019 | Jonathan monk
PORT CLINTON, Ohio — One local school district is doing away with an old tradition: Port Clinton High School is no longer awarding a class Valedictorian. Principal Gary Steyer said they have seen this trend begin to spread in other school districts, as the old way seemed to undermine the education process
by creating a competition among top tier students. "Three or four or five, maybe a year are really vying for one spot. And it became kind of this competition between them almost, and it just wasn't healthy for them," Steyer said. Nick Perry, who transferred to Port Clinton...
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Mason does away with valedictorian, salutatorian distinctions to 'reduce competitive culture'
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wlwt ^
| May, 9, 2019 | WLWT
MASON, Ohio — Mason High School students will no longer vie for valedictorian and salutatorian distinctions in an effort to "reduce the overall competitive culture" between students, school officials said. Beginning
with the Class of 2020, the high school will do away with both honors. School officials said it follows a yearlong study and focus group with students, staffers and families. "It's about what it means to be happy and what it means to be successful and it's not just about the grade but it's about the whole child," Associate Principal Shanna Bumiller said. Mason school officials made the announcement...
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Florida valedictorian kicked out of his house for being gay. Donors gave him $114k for college.
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Tampa Bay Times ^
| 8/2/18 | Eli Rosenberg
On paper, everything was going well for Seth Owen. A valedictorian of a high school in Jacksonville, Florida, with a 4.16 grade-point average, the 18-year-old had been accepted to Georgetown University as part of its Class of 2022. But
he had left his parents’ house in February after they had given him an ultimatum to attend their church, after years of disagreements related to his sexuality - Owen is gay - or move out, he told NBC News. And Georgetown’s financial aid package for him had been calculated based on what his family was expected to contribute, leaving him with...
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NY mayor gives school's first black valedictorian a platform after principal refuses [t]
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Hill ^
| July 4, 2018 | Aris Folley
Lovett, who graduated from Rochester's University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men last month, had initially planned to give a speech at the ceremony, as other student valedictorians had done in the past, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper reported. But
Lovett, who said he had a few encounters with his principal over student protests, told the outlet that the principal, Joseph Munno, refused to let him deliver the speech. "Unfortunately, Jaisaan's school did not allow him to give his valedictorian speech," Warren says in the clip on her public Facebook page. "For some reason, his school — in a...
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Dad buys billboard for son after school won't recognize him as valedictorian
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kctv5 ^
| June 18, 2018 | Emily Van de Riet
A dad from North Carolina bought his son a billboard to recognize him as class valedictorian since the school refused to do so. East
Wake High in Wendell, North Carolina recently got rid of naming valedictorians and salutatorians. Instead, they give all high-achieving students Latin honors for a “better way to recognize students who may have barely missed being named valedictorian or salutatorian by several decimal places," according to the News & Observer.
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crowd cheers when valedictorian quotes Trump. Then he reveals it was really Obama
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CBS news ^
| June 4, 2018
. As valedictorian of his high school class, Ben Bowling thought a lot about what he would say in his speech at graduation. The
high school senior from Bell County, Kentucky, stepped up to the podium and offered some words of wisdom for his classmates and their families. "This is the part of my speech where I share some inspirational quotes I found on Google," Bowling said. "'Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.' - Donald J. Trump." The crowd erupted with applause. Then...
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Valedictorian Claims High School Censored Graduation Speech
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CBS Chicago ^
| 5/23/18
SCIOTA, IL (CBS Local) – An Illinois high school valedictorian has hired a lawyer after claiming that school officials demanded he remove all religious references from his graduation speech. Sam
Blackledge was set to deliver the speech at West Prairie High School on May 19. According to the 18-year-old, school administrators informed him that he needed to take out anything that mentioned God and Jesus minutes before Blackledge was scheduled to go on stage. “It was terrible. I felt like I wanted to cry,” the valedictorian said, via The Kansas City Star. “Christ is the only reason I was a...
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Schools Say Valedictorian Award Leads to Unhealthy Competition, Students Disagree
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Townhall ^
| October 6, 2017 | Timothy Meads
High schools are increasingly ditching giving the graduating senior with the top grades in his or her respective class the traditional valedictorian award, (Wall Street Journal)“I think it’s pretty stupid, and I don’t think it’s fair” said Ryan Walters, a promising student who most likely could have been a top contender for
the award before his high school decided against giving it out. “Wake County is instilling in us that we shouldn’t try to be the best,” added Walters, commenting on his school district in Wake Forest, North Carolina.Heritage High School, Walters’ school, is not alone in getting rid of...
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The end of the valedictorian? Schools rethink class rankings
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AP ^
| June 15, 2017
At many American high schools, the graduation-day tradition of crowning a valedictorian is becoming a thing of the past. The
ranking of students from No. 1 on down, based on grade-point averages, has been fading steadily for about the past decade. In its place are honors that recognize everyone who scores at a certain threshold — using Latin honors, for example. This year, one school in Tennessee had 48 valedictorians. About half of schools no longer report class rank, according to the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Administrators worry about the college prospects of students separated by large differences...
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High Schools Drop “Valedictorian” Distinction Fearing Lower-Ranked Kids May Feel ‘Triggered’
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SHTF Plan ^
| 6-17-2017 | Tyler Durden
We’ve spent a fair amount of time over the past several years writing about the ‘participation trophy generation’ (a.k.a. “millennials) and, more specifically, how their inflated sense of entitlement and self-worth, irrespective of work effort and/or innate talent, would not serve them well in the real world. You
see millennials, despite what your enabling handlers (a.k.a. “educators”) have told you your whole life, people here in the real world couldn’t care any less about your feelings, think your ‘Gender Studies’ degree was a complete waste of your parents’ money, will not promote you just because anything less would be a...
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The end of the valedictorian? Schools rethink class rankings
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WTNH Television ^
| 06/16/2017 | Puppage
At many American high schools, the graduation-day tradition of crowning a valedictorian is becoming a thing of the past.
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Noblesville(IN.) High School ending tradition of valedictorian and salutatorian
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WRTV ^
| 6 Jun 2017 | Matt McKinney
Seniors at Noblesville High School will graduate on this year with a valedictorian and salutatorian. But
soon, that tradition of honoring the school's top two students by GPA will disappear. Officials from Noblesville Schools say the class of 2019 will be the last class at Noblesville to honor both. Starting in 2020, instead of the valedictorian giving a speech, a distinguished class representative will give the speech after an audition process. Students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher will be honored with a special cord during the commencement ceremony
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