School cut off Valedictorian's microphone during speech
Posted: Jun 07, 2013 11:05 PM EDT <em class="wnDate">Friday, June 7, 2013 11:05 PM EST</em>Updated: Jun 07, 2013 11:05 PM EDT <em class="wnDate">Friday, June 7, 2013 11:05 PM EST</em>
By: Brandon Todd - bio | email
Adapted for Web by: Danielle Cocanougher - email
A North Texas high school silenced its Valedictorian's microphone during his speech, prompting questions over his free
speech rights.
Students attending the Joshua High School graduation say Remington Reimer's microphone was cut off, right when he began to talk about the Constitution.
"He just said, he was talking about getting constitutional rights getting taken away from him," Colin Radford, a Joshua H.S. graduate, said. "And then he said, just yesterday they threatened to turn my microphone off, and then his microphone went off."
Reimer, who was accepted into the Naval Academy, had his speech pre-approved by the school district.
Joshua Independent School District issued a statement:
"Student speakers were told that if their speeches deviated from the prior-reviewed material, the microphone would be turned off, regardless of content. When one student's speech deviated from the prior-reviewed speech, the microphone was turned off, pursuant to District policy and procedure."
Many attendees initially asked if the microphone was turned off because Reimer mentioned religion.
But since the ceremony opened and closed with a prayer, and Reimer's speech mentioned God and Jesus throughout, graduate Zachery Hull believes it had nothing to do with religion.
"Freedom of speech," Hull said. "He said what he was going to say, they did what they had to do. Everyone was right."
Reimer's mother told FOX 4 off camera that she, her family and her son had no comment.
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