Texas High School Decides to Pre-Record Graduation Speeches
Honestly, just cancel them if you're going to do this.
So looks like Lake Highlands High School over in Dallas has a new graduation policy this year. All graduation speeches will be recorded before the event and then played during the ceremony. Why? Well, last year one of their speeches went viral online. Graduating senior Paxton Smith threw out her per-approved script and decided to comment on Texas Senate Bill 8, also known as the Heartbeat Act.
So the school doesn't want this happening again and I totally get that. However, because this girl does this you now ruin this experience for everyone? No one wants to listen to a taped speech. Here is what every other school does. You ask the student to submit their speech, once it's approved you inform them, if they divert from this speech their mic will be cut.
Simple as that, we have seen this go on across the country where a student once to speak out on a certain issue. You can literally type in "mic cut off at graduation" into YouTube and find SEVERAL examples of this. Here is one from Pennsylvania of a kid that used his speech to criticize the administration at the school.
He went off script, mic was cut, escorted off stage. It really is that simple. Do not punish these kids that have been looking forward to this day due to the actions of a student the previous year.
“I’m not going to try to follow in Paxton’s footsteps,” Sara Shelton explains. “If I were to go off-script at any point, I would have just expected them to cut the mic. That would have said more about what they believe than what I believe.” Her speech has been recorded and is scheduled to play tomorrow morning during the ceremony. She says it won't be the same experience she has been envisioning once she got the honor to do the speech.
Hopefully, next year the district changes the policy because this is stupid. Either have someone follow the per-approved script or don't allow speeches at all.