NJ salutatorian has graduation speech cut off

[Ghost in the Machine]

NJ salutatorian has graduation speech cut off
Published: 6/20/08, 3:26 PM EDT

LINWOOD, N.J. (AP) - A student intending to make a speech criticizing school administrators at her high school graduation was cut off in mid-sentence and told to leave the ceremony.

Jennifer Chau, the salutatorian at Mainland Regional High School, started to criticize school administration Thursday night for allegedly playing favorites among students. She scrapped a text that was approved in advance by the school.

"I know this is a community that values education," she said. "That is why you need to know what is really going on behind the walls of Mainland's administrat-"

At that point, Chau's microphone was cut off and school principal Robert Blake told her she would have to leave.

Chau left to chants of "Let her speak!" and "Finish!"

http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=2728&eeid=5942229&_sitecat=1522&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=1&ck=&ch=ne

[villager]

1. "welcome to America, Jennifer"

n/t

[TheWatcher]

12. Land Of the Cowards, Home Of the Silenced.

[tom_paine]

17. Land of TV. Home of the Slave.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Maybe a local paper can publish her speech

and let the court of public opinon chime in.

[Wednesdays]

24. And what if all the local papers are in bed with the administration?

It could be they have all the bases covered. :scared:

[niyad]

3. the speech had to be approved in advance???? had the admin told me mine would have to be approved

in advance, all those eons ago, I would have told them exactly what they could do with their honour. unfortunately, the lock-step mentality of authoritarians is everywhere. never speak ill of the ones in charge, a mindset our msm both practices and fosters.

[Renew Deal]

4. This has been SOP for a long time.

It was like that when I was in school.

[niyad]

5. I went to school in the dark ages, then. the admin despaired of me, but they never shut me up,

and, believe me, I did nothing BUT criticize them.

[Cassandra]

9. Hillary dropped her prepared speech for something...

more fiery. And the senior student speaker at graduation when I was in 7th grade really went to town on the school ("Now that I'm about to graduate, I feel I can say what I want...."). There was much eye-rolling but no one stopped her.

[JVS]

6. She's lucky she didn't get tazed.

[monmouth]

7. Be sure to check www.pressofatlanticcity.com tomorrow. ...n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. That's funny.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. H.L. Mencken had a few words about our "educational" system.

"And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps."

H.L. Mencken

[Selatius]

16. They want obedience. The US as it currently stands would be overthrown if people were capable of ...

critical thinking. They want people dumb enough to accept shittier jobs with shittier wages and pensions that disappear when you go to collect them and the elimination of labor standards and so forth but just smart enough to operate the machinery that the real owners of this country own.

The two general ways you can shackle workers is to saddle them with debt and to put fear into them. A newly graduated college student with 30,000 in student loans is less willing to challenge his employer over certain actions than a student who can walk away without any bills. If you want to keep workers in line, tell them they are under threat of attack or are being attacked, and they will be more likely to elect Adolf Hitlers. Then, denounce the pacifists for exposing the country to danger and of lacking patriotism. Works the same in any country.

[tom_paine]

18. Well said and true. n/t

[DCSteve]

11. I graduated from that high school

25 years ago. It looks like nothing has changed at all. Unfortunately.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. She's absolutely right.

Some of the awards that were presented this year was such a farce, that most people left feeling a little less connected to the school, because they knew it wasn't about the kid earning the honor, but about the administration trying to beef up the kids resume so they would look good for whatever organization or school that he or she was going to next.

[burythehatchet]

14. No personal offense, but your sigline GIF is really annoying

[pt22]

19. At least it doesn't say

NI**ERS FOR MCCAIN






:shrug:

[burythehatchet]

20. Its not the words its the flashing

[havocmom]

15. She did well. They proved her point and she made them show their heavy hand

Brilliantly played, Ms Chau! Bravo!

:applause:

[Canuckistanian]

21. What the heck is a 'salutorian'?

Is that like a valedictorian?

[dems_rightnow]

22. It's second place in GPA

It's been mostly abandoned in larger schools, but thrives in smaller ones.

[Canuckistanian]

25. Thanks - never heard of it before

[ljm2002]

23. 2nd place academically...

...valedictorian is 1st place academically.

It's not new, my uncle was salutatorian at his HS something like 60 years ago.