BUT IT IS A PRISON
A commencement speaker literally had the plug pulled on his graduation speech. He had the gall to refer to the school as a prison.
It was not the speech that school officials approved.
So they pulled the plug on Nicholas Noel’s commencement speech to fellow graduates Wednesday night when in the fourth sentence the senior class president referred to Grand Rapids Union High School as a “prison.”
As more than 1,000 people watched, power to the microphone was cut and Noel returned to his seat at Ford Fieldhouse. Officials later refused to give him his diploma, although a school spokeswoman said he would receive it soon.
…He said the rest of his speech would have been positive if he had been allowed to finish it. A copy of his written speech goes on to call Union a “foul institution” and a “horribly irresponsible and depraved place to learn these life lessons….”
But it also said Union’s mix of cultures provides “bizarre training” for the real world. He wraps up by quoting Hunter S. Thompson: “Who is the happier man, He who has braved the storm of life and lived. Or he who has stayed securely on the shore and merely existed.”
I can empathize. My own graduation speech (many moons ago) used a similar quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Whoso would be a man must first be a nonconformist.” The big difference was I didn’t try to pull a fast one. At least the kid has a sense of humor about the whole thing:
Noel was allowed to stay on the stage, however, and even introduced other speakers, including Principal Janice Johnson. There was scattered laughter when he described her as a “strong supporter of the First Amendment and freedom of speech.”
Hat tip towards Skip Oliva.
One Response to “BUT IT IS A PRISON”
 Comment by Tim Haas May 21st, 2004 at 8:52 pm |
My school was worried that I might do something similar, but I screwed off so much my last semester that I didn’t finish high enough to speak. |