A high school valedictorian from a North Carolina school district recently delivered an unaltered graduation speech containing religious references to his Christian faith even though the district had attempted to edit out and censor his remarks about “God” and “Jesus Christ.” Based on advice contained in letter from Liberty Counsel, and with legal precedents on his side, the valedictorian respectfully appealed to keep the speech unchanged. The school district ultimately permitted the student to keep all of his religious references intact whereby the valedictorian delivered a moving, faith-filled speech.

In the speech, the valedictorian spoke about the adversity he had faced due to several medical conditions, one of them life threatening. From a portion of the speech originally lined out at the behest of the school district, the valedictorian said, “I want to thank my Lord Jesus Christ for getting me through because if it weren’t for Him, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through life…Jesus Christ has always loved me.”

The speech also gave appropriate credit to his parents, teachers, as well as challenged his classmates to be a good influence in the lives of other people. According to the valedictorian, after the speech both the school staff were touched by his emotional remarks and one teacher expressed her approval because he stood firm in the face of pressure to change them.

School staff had noted the reason the district originally edited his speech was because of “separation of church and state.” However, as Liberty Counsel noted in its advice letter, legal precedents show that private religious expression is not a “First Amendment orphan,” and religious speech from graduating high school seniors is just as protected as their secular speech.

“Recent Supreme Court cases have conclusively held that the Establishment Clause does not permit censorship of private religious speech. Such attempts are improper and violate the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that private speech is protected; it is only government speech endorsing religion that is prohibited by the Establishment Clause,” wrote Liberty Counsel.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The valedictorian’s respectful approach to correcting the administrators’ constitutional errors resulted in an uncensored, faith-filled graduation speech. Voluntary references to God or Jesus Christ in a graduation speech are all protected by the First Amendment and may not be censored by school officials.”