High School Grad Faces Criminal Charge For Speaking

I had thought of providing an address to the graduates of 2006, a commencement speech which might offer something useful to grads leaving school behind and entering the working world. However, I read a story today about a valedictorian from Gallatin who experienced a volatile blend of just how silly both school and non-school worlds truly are.

The school oddly does not allow for top academic performers to speak at graduation. Applause from the audience is also banned and spectators are threatened with criminal charges.

Criminal charges have been filed against valedictorian Chris Linzy for defying the ban on speaking at the ceremony and now school officials say his diploma is on hold and school officials have confiscated his records.

Welcome to America 2006, Chris.

He did write and submit an apology to the school board for "disrupting" the ceremony. Apparently, the board wants to pursue the issue into criminal court.

TGW has a post about this, including contact info to tell school officials what you think.

And here are Chris' comments which brought out the rabid, senseless anger of the principal of the school, titled:

People who need to be heard are silenced

By Christopher David Linzy

Guest commentary

Christopher David Linzy, member of a generation not without heroes but worse with counterfeit heroes.

This is not because those persons that deserve to be role models do not exist but instead because these people that need to be heard most in our society are silenced by the roar of counterfeit personalities.

The great industrialists and philosophers of our society are drowned out by nihilistic and altruistic celebrity voices that preach a message the end result of which is in fact the destruction of our industrial world.

These people have become our generation'’s only guides and this is why we live in a moral vacuum. With no one to inspire us to pursue our desires and personal goals we turn instead to the mindless goal of the so called collective mind. Individuals are lost in a sea of disillusion and decay.

This however can be stopped. Our generation can turn back the tide of decay and build a new America upon the values of reason and individuality. We can lead not only ourselves but all who follow us out of the swamp of the mind and onto ground paved with individual morality and reason driven ambitions.

UPDATE: The principal at the school was ordered to provide the diploma Linzy earned. No word yet if the idiotic criminal charge is going to be dismissed. However the one enormous positiver from this chuckle-headed, fearful action by the principal -- it has insured that bloggers and news sites around the state and the nation are providing copies of Linzy's words to a massive audience. Can't silence that, can they? (thanks to NiT for the news update)