Growing Censorship; HS Valedictorians Can Mention Importance Of Voting, But Not Climate Collapse

[hatrack]

EDIT

Emily Shal, an 18-year-old senior, was told by her school that the climate message was “too controversial” for her graduation speech as class president. Shal read the speech at a talent show before the graduation ceremony and said she still received backlash from school authorities. “The administration were very mad, they were pissed,” said Shal, who attends Whittier Tech high school in Haverhill, Massachusetts. “Everyone was telling me I was in trouble. They now consider me rogue and rebellious. I was really worried about repercussions.”

EDIT

Jessica Lopez, another 18-year-old senior, was told by the principal of Health Sciences high and middle college in San Diego that she shouldn’t mention climate change as it’s political and instead “should be celebrating our achievements” in a more traditional graduation speech. Lopez said she was surprised as her school is “friendly and innovative” and previously allowed students to take part in a walkout to protest school shootings.

“It’s shocking to me that we could voice our opinions then, but are silenced when we want to talk about climate change,” she said. “I was very upset and felt like I didn’t want to go up there and be a hypocrite. It’s created a lot of tension between the class and the administration.” In lieu of her planned speech, Lopez and most of her class plan to don badges that say “No Planet B” for the ceremony. “A lot of adults blame our generation for being sensitive but we have to deal with the problems they have caused,” Lopez said. “It’s really frustrating. We are vocal about climate change because no one else is going to do anything about it. On this issue, it feels like the adults are the children.”

In other incidents, two students at Albany high school in California were told to drop mentions of climate change with one, Tamara Valenzuela, using social media to attack the decision. A separate student, Saisantosh Tiruchinapalli from Arizona, was told he could mention the importance of voting but not climate change.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jun/07/climate-crisis-emergency-graduation-message-censoring-class-of-0000

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. Ignoring the obvious will end life as we know it.....

The younger generation is waking up to the realization that it is their futures at stake here and they will be powerless to do anything about it. Preventing them from even mentioning Climate Change and how it will affect them, is dangerous. There is no law on the books preventing anyone from talking about the dangers of ignoring Climate Change.

[Mickju]

2. This is horrifying!

[progree]

3. K&R for visibility. Unbelievable.

[mountain grammy]

4. Very depressing.