Not sure if I can link this, but this was quite the unique speech.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YWcY5WxDecI&feature=youtu.be&t=81
I guess the administration didn’t review this speech beforehand.
Bwahahahaha
Well…the way the other students reacted to the comment about the intoxicated teacher, it seemed they knew whom she meant.
Personally, it’s really immature. Better to save your list of grievances for Festivus.
@tpike12 According to one of the news reports I read, they did review her speech but she did not give the speech she submitted. I’m actually more surprised that they did not cut her off, she was able to attack multiple members of the adult staff without any interference. Other schools would have cut her off the moment she did not read the speech she submitted.
Hahaha! Good for her!
Agree, good for her! This school is clearly a mess. Hopefully the district can do something about it now.
Someone had to say what she did. I hope the district addresses its serious dysfunction. Her claims were appalling and other kids may not have the ability and the family support to overcome these issues.
Not surprising. They are a genuinely incompetent school, and this no doubt starts at the top and works its way down. They are too incompetent to either set-up a “kill switch”, or else to find it when a student is up there on the podium blasting the hell out of them.
My freshman year math teacher was an alcoholic although I didn’t realize that until many years afterward - my parents didn’t drink and I just really had had no exposure to the behaviors of someone under the influence or hungover. Frequently he would give the class an assignment and then just put his head down on his desk. I also happened to get placed in a class with many sophomores who didn’t seem to be on the college track. So there wasn’t a whole lot of real learning going on in this class.
I was definitely on the college track and went to my guidance counselor to complain that I wasn’t learning anything. The teacher was tenured and there really wasn’t a whole lot the school seemed to feel they could do about his lack of teaching. So they allowed me to spend that period in the library every day and teach myself math. I can’t remember how tests were handled. But the rest of the kids in that class, even if they weren’t so interested in learning, were really done a disservice.
And a few years ago one of our high school teachers was found passed out in her classroom - apparently her water bottle was filled with vodka. It seems like schools struggle with how to handle teachers with this type of addiction - I’m quite sure in all of these instances - my two examples and this valedictorian’s - that school administration was aware of the problem.
I think when she grows up a bit and understands more about addiction, she’ll regret calling out the alcoholic teacher. I don’t mind anything else she did but I feel badly for that teacher.
Being drunk and being an alcoholic are not the same thing. An alcoholic may come to work hung-over, but her claim was that the teacher would be intoxicated.
It’s not like she “outed” the teacher for being an alcoholic, she said the teacher was “escorted from school by the police” so the entire school was likely already aware of the issue.
When I was in college we had an alcoholic professor. The professor would be late for classes or not show up at all. As students we would show up and wait. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the way into the semester, the professor stopped showing up at all. This had been reported throughout the semester.
The school was now really in a bind!!
It was spring semester and we were all graduating. They had no one who could pick up the rest of the semester.
In the end, they ended up giving us all a passing grade and the credits. They didn’t feel they could hold us all from graduation over a situation that was all on the school and the professor. The students did nothing wrong.
Wow. I’m not sure if this was the time or place. OTOH, the message did need to get out there if there is any hope for correction down the road. I can certainly identify with everything mentioned in the speech! One of S19’s teachers was on drugs. He was obviously high at back to school night. He was taken away in the middle of S’s class after a few weeks. However, he was replaced by a series of subs, none of whom lasted longer than 2 weeks and they did nothing for the rest of the year. If had been something more important to me than Spanish 2 (and my S was already pretty fluent in Spanish), I would have raised a fuss. Guidance? Ours has been a joke, though my younger S’s was pretty decent and I sent the admin a big thank you on her behalf. But, one of my S’s friends actually registered at a different HS because the counselor kept missing their appointments and would respond rudely to phone calls. My elder S’s seemed to thrive on screwing up his schedule. They would have him taking two classes at the same time at different schools and not it as an issue. Some kids almost didn’t get to play spring sports because the counselor wouldn’t put them in any classes. Some honors kids they wouldn’t enroll in any math classes because they “were already ahead.” Yeah, they may have taken Calculus as a junior, but there was still AP Stats. Nope, sorry. Blank period for you. If you have enough credits for a basic diploma, that’s all that counts. Others wouldn’t turn in paperwork and several kids almost missed going to college. Scholarships? oh my. You better do your own research. If you want to go to college, you are on your own and be prepared to stay on top of your counselor to make sure s/he does what is required on time. Otherwise, it likely may not happen! But, as she said, even less than ideal experiences can be teaching moments and have positive results.
And that doesn’t even address classroom behavior/teacher control. One student actually wrote a scathing letter to the editor revealing everything that went on in non-regular classes. According to my kids and others, it was not an exaggeration. I’m not sure how much improvement became of it, but it sure did get the community talking about it at least.
I’m clearly of the dissenting opinion, but I think she comes across as an entitled little brat. I’m not defending the poor behavior of the school staff, but I doubt she knows what the counselor load is for a school that huge. And is it really the front office’s job to keep her abreast of every scholarship? And we all want sympathy for people with mental and physical health issues, but when it’s a teacher with a problem, well, isn’t that hilarious? Every teacher that I know stands up at the end of the year and sees the good in their students. They give a little speech about how far their students have come, they mention their strengths. They don’t stand up and comment on all the terrible things their students have done all year, or all the crap they’ve had to deal with because of the students–things that, frankly, some people would truly never believe. No. They show some class, and remain positive. Too bad this val didn’t have parents to teach her that!
Not thinking changing the speech she submitted was appropriate, but surprised they let her continue without interruption.
They are showing it and talking about it on “The View” right now.
Kind of strange that they did not have the ability to cut her off when she went off script. My S19 gave his Val address this past weekend and he was warned that they could cut him off if he went off script. His school was very strict on speech content to not offend. His opening statement, which was welcoming everyone, originally ended with “…and to no surprise, the class of 2019.” was deemed possibly offensive and he was told to remove the “to no surprise”. He butted heads with the teacher in charge of speeches on that one as he could not understand how that would be offensive and either could we. Yet, another Val in the same school district was allowed to give a speech on the hot topics of school shootings, gun control, and even touching on police brutality.