ADF Defends Young Graduation Speaker's Right to Address His Faith
by Jim Brown
May 26, 2004
(AgapePress) - In a dramatic about-face, an Iowa high school has permitted its valedictorian to deliver a speech that expressed his Christian faith.HLV Junior-Senior High School in Victor, Iowa, had told graduating senior Matthew Reynolds his commencement speech must be secular in nature. Principal John Long told the student an address containing his religious views would violate the alleged "separation of Church and State," also known as the Establishment Clause. Reynold's attorney, however, says this is not so.
Kevin Theriot is with the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of more than 700 attorneys who defend religious liberty through litigation, education, and strategic advocacy. He says despite the principal's warnings, Reynolds stuck to his convictions and "submitted a speech anyway that thanked Jesus Christ for his success."
In the speech Reynold's proffered as his intended valedictory address, he also encouraged his classmates and other listeners to understand and realize America's Christian roots and to return to a relationship with Christ, acknowledging that it is "the only way we're going to succeed."
After Theriot threatened to sue the high school for violating his client's free-speech rights, the school officials relented and allowed Reynolds to give his speech at the graduation ceremony, in which he attributed his success to his faith in Jesus Christ.
The ADF attorney says his group is pleased that the school finally restored Reynold's constitutional rights and that Principal Long "now understands the law better." For the graduating senior, Theriot says, this was "a once-in-a-lifetime chance" to deliver a meaningful valedictory address expressing his religious views to his classmates.
The lawyer says what schools need to realize in such cases is, "if they are not endorsing the speech -- in other words, if they are providing a platform for the student to deliver any kind of personal message they want to -- they have nothing to fear. There is no separation of church and state problem if the student is speaking, because the student, who is a private individual, cannot violate the Establishment Clause." Nevertheless, because the law is so often misunderstood, such cases continue to crop up all over the U.S. around commencement time.
"ADF will always be there to defend the rights of students to express their faith in a public forum," Theriot says. The religious liberty defenders are hailing the outcome of Matthew Reynold's case as a significant victory for free speech and religious expression.
