Free Republic

A Texas high school silenced its Valedictorian’s microphone during his speech when he diverted from his pre-approved remarks and instead spoke about the Constitution.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation blasted what it called the “open defiance” of a valedictorian who delivered The Lord’s Prayer during a high school graduation ceremony last Saturday in South Carolina. Roy Costner, a senior at Liberty High School in Pickens, created national attention when he ripped up his pre-approved graduation speech and instead led the crowd in a recitation of The Lord’s Prayer. A video of the speech was posted on YouTube and has since gone viral. It shows the 18-year-old setting aside his speech. “I think most of you will understand when I say, ‘Our Father, who art...

PICKENS COUNTY, S.C. – A high school valedictorian from South Carolina ripped up his approved speech on stage this past weekend, and minutes later, delivered the Lord’s Prayer in defiance of the school district’s decision to no longer include prayer at graduation ceremonies. Roy Costner IV drew loud applause and cheers when he surprised attendees of the Liberty High School graduation at Clemson’s Littlejohn Colliseum on Saturday. “From the ACLU sending FOIA requests to every district in the state this year after the Chesterfield County case, then the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent us a complaint about religion at...

An Alabama teenager was denied her high school diploma and fined $1,000 for wearing a feather on her graduation cap to celebrate her Native American heritage. Escambia Academy High School in Atmore, Ala., makes its students and staff sign a pre-graduation contract agreeing not to wear "extraneous items during graduation exercises unless approved by the administration." Chelsey Ramer, 17, tried in vain to get approval to attach an eagle's feather to her graduation cap as a symbol of her Native culture. "They told me that if I wore it that they would pull me off the field," Ramer, a member...

(snip) "The Founders left us the keys to a system of self-government," he went on, "the tool to do big and important things together that we could not possibly do alone." And what "big and important things" cannot be done except through government? On the president's list are railroads, the electrical grid, highways, education, health care, charity and more. One imagines a historical vision reaching as far back as the New Deal. Americans "chose to do these things together," he added, "because we know this country cannot accomplish great things if we pursue nothing greater than our own individual ambition."Notice...

ATLANTA (AP/WAOK) – The University of Georgia will ban backpacks in the school’s football stadium during its commencement ceremony on May 10.

Carson Willing to Step Down as Commencement Speaker After Protests 29 Mar 2013 Greg Richter. A pediatric neurosurgeon who has become the darling of conservatives since speaking against nationalized healthcare is now under fire for comments he made about same-sex marriage. Dr. Benjamin Carson told “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Friday that he would be willing to step down as commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine after faculty and students signed petitions asking that he not speak. “I would say this is their day, and the last thing I would want to do is rain on their...

<p>A student who objected to prayer being part of Bastrop High School's 2011 graduation ceremonies enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. However, another student whose role was to call for a moment of silence during Friday's ceremony led the audience in prayer despite the ACLU objections.</p>

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is delivering his final commencement address of the season at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

CampusReform.org released a list this month revealing a strong liberal bias among undergraduate universities’ commencement speakers. The data shows that for every four liberal commencement speakers this spring, there is one conservative speaker. The study looked at 160 universities. Liberal names on the speaking list include Vice President Al Gore, President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, Alec Baldwin, Nancy Pelosi, Sonia Sotomayor, Rachel Maddow, David Brooks and First Lady Michelle Obama. “With the Obama administration being in power, obviously more high government officials are liberal,” CampusReform.org Communications Director Bonnie Kristian said. “Yet there are an abundance of conservative and libertarian...

A central Indiana district isn't calling off a planned high school graduation prayer unless a federal judge orders it. GREENWOOD, Ind. -- A central Indiana district isn't calling off a planned high school graduation prayer unless a federal judge orders it. Greenwood School Board president Joe Farley says the district wants the judge to decide the merits of a lawsuit filed by the school's top-ranked senior. Greenwood High School student Eric Workman is asking a federal judge to stop a student-led prayer that the senior class voted to approve. The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana...

"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. Such as it is, however, the press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislative power, the executive, and the judiciary." "If humanism were right in declaring that man is born only to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot be unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It...

Enfield (WTNH) - The ACLU of Connecticut is warning the Enfield school board to stop holding graduation ceremonies at a Bloomfield megachurch, claiming the graduates and their families are unconstitutionally being subjected to religious messages.

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — There was far less pomp in these circumstances, but Bill Clinton did give a Southern California commencement speech this week. A lingering labor dispute at UCLA kept the former president from giving a planned talk to thousands of graduates there Friday, but he spoke to all 26 eighth-grade graduates of Riviera Hall Lutheran School in Torrance on Thursday. Clinton's nephew Tyler, son of his brother Roger, is a student at the school. Clinton spoke for about 10 minutes in the school's chapel about the value of education and public service, making no mention of politics at...

Bill Clinton on Tuesday canceled a commencement speech at the University of California, Los Angeles, because of a lingering labor dispute. The former president was scheduled to address 4,000 graduating seniors on Friday, but his office said he would not appear because of the long-running rift between the university and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Some stand in protest during President Bush's commencement speech at Furman University.

The White House says President Bush will liken the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to conditions in Germany and Japan after World War II when he speaks at the Air Force Academy graduation on Wednesday. In excerpts from his prepared remarks released today, Bush said it took time and patience to rebuild those nations, but it paid off when they became prosperous U.S. allies. "And we have reaped the benefits in generations of security and peace," Bush said in the prepared remarks. "Today we must do the same in Afghanistan and Iraq, and by helping these young democracies grow in...

YONKERS - During a Sarah Lawrence College graduation speech she apologetically admitted was filled with "random" thoughts in lieu of a theme, Oscar-winning actress Jessica Lange received thunderous applause from students after comparing America's troubled role in Iraq with its troubled role in Vietnam when she was their age. "History repeats itself," she told them today, repeatedly tucking her messy blonde hair behind her ears. "It is a heavy burden to inherit." Lange, whose daughter Hannah Jane Shepard was among the 435 seniors and graduate students in black caps and gowns at the liberal arts college's 79th commencement, urged the...

Middletown (WTNH) _ Wesleyan University will be breaking from tradition this year by closing their commencement ceremony to the public. The decision came after it was announced that Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address. Wesleyan will issue a limited number of tickets to each graduate. In the past, the ceremony had been open to the public and seating was first-come, first-served. Security will be increased for Sunday's graduation. Secret Service agents will be on hand for the ceremony, as will Middletown police officers and state troopers. Graduates will also have to pass through a metal detector before taking their...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – America needs dedicated public servants now more than ever, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told graduates at the Virginia Military Institute, in Lexington, Va., today. Gates congratulated the 246 graduates of the state military college on their accomplishments and said the institute has taught them lessons on the importance of public service and duty to their fellow citizens. “For generations, VMI has graduated young people ready to raise their right hands and defend their homeland,” the secretary said. “This is something to be grateful for in any time period, but never more so than in...