Has this been confirmed as actually happening? The audio and camera angle are odd…you never see the words spoken and just have the students reaction at the end. But that could have been dubbed to a different valedictory speech.
@cavitee - good observation, not sure if people that were there have confirmed the speech occurred as heard on the video.
The day was supposed to be a celebration for all the students and their families, not one kid’s personal vendetta against the school. I guess she wanted the spotlight and got it.
Obnoxious.
Not the right time or place. IMO, it was an unnecessary distraction at a time where students should have been celebrating a milestone.
There are more productive ways to address these concerns.
Classless. Entitled. Her delivery wasn’t very good either.
My kid read a speech at graduation (I forget if she was val or sal) and gave a humorous history of the class, including their 5th grade playground strike. It is a sentimental time and a time to pull together to remember before moving on.
That said, this school could have been ours. When the same daughter walked across the stage, and was supposed to shake the hand of an abusive assistant principal, she didn’t, and it was pretty obvious from the seats.
We did online courses to avoid teachers who were too lazy to teach. We had a drug addict, a science teacher who came into school in a tux when he hadn’t done laundry (would have been funny if he could actually teach), a history teacher who talked about himself in every class and graded all work with an A so no one every complained (psychopath), a physics teacher who slept in another room (the kids taught themselves) and I could go on and on.
At least our kids learned to fend for themselves, as this young woman said, and that meant being resourceful in college and life. Perhaps her comments weren’t as sarcastic as they seemed (doubtful) because it really is true that schools with incompetent or negligent staff do teach the kids some valuable lessons.
Not that it would be my choice for a high school experience.
I really don’t know how I feel about this speech. I have to think about it. As a parent, I will say that my kids and I complained and had some effect. In fact I believe we got one teacher fired and one teacher put on mental health leave. I think it would be better to address these personnel issues in another setting. But it would be perfectly possible that they tried and this is the only way.
Perhaps this could have been a speech about education reform. Public school teachers should not have tenure!!!
I can see the next step, no more valedictory speeches. As more people want to go viral, I can see schools taking the safer route.
The A/V guy shoul have been told to cut the mic.
My daughter gives her speech tomorrow. I bet all the student speakers will be closely watched…
I’m mixed about Nataly Buhr’s speech partly because I didn’t experience what she went through and partly because I’m a former teacher. When I spoke at HS graduation, my AP English teacher submitted my first draft to administration, but then he aided and abetted me in making it more humorous and adding a well-deserved barb about our district’s much-publicized book banning.
Just out of curiosity, I looked up the school, San Ysidro High. It’s in a border town near San Diego. There are 313 students to every counselor. About 80% socio-economically disadvantaged student body. Presumably many undocumented students who have serious issues. Teachers are paid less than the state average. Yet they have an extensive (and bilingual) area of their website that has a more robust set of documents about colleges, scholarships, etc, than that of many more affluent public high schools. It sure looks to me like they are doing a pretty good job with the resources they have. They even have a google doc site which lists many scholarships–this is far more than our high school does.
I agree that schools will just stop with the student speeches.
Should students get to come out at their religious high school graduations? Is it about the student or the class? Are the students not guests at the ceremony?
I’m of two minds here. She was being honest about her experience in high school, and the memories that were formed - both for herself and for her classmates. While some of her comments were jarring, they were clearly things that needed to be said by someone. Perhaps whoever was in charge of the A/V recognized that they needed to be said, and perhaps this graduate was the person in the best position to do so. Perhaps the administration had their hands tied regarding many of these people, and a very public shaming is the only thing that will move the school board. And in fairness, she named several teachers who had a positive influence earlier in her speech.
Many of us have suffered through teachers and staff like this, or watched as our children did. Many of us watched as those same teachers seemed to never face consequences. These speeches are often a result of someone not doing their job, holding students accountable, but not the adults around them. I imagine in a district where salaries are low, and resources are tight, it is difficult to recruit good teachers, and maybe this is what’s needed to highlight just how inadequate some of them are.
Case in point - my daughter attends a STEM magnet school, which one would hope attracts some of the best STEM teachers around. But between administration attitudes and Board of Ed policies, there are some serious deficiencies. Two years ago, the main chemistry teacher left, and his position was filled by a new teacher who on paper looked fantastic. She has a doctorate, and had taught at RPI, though never before at the HS level. She didn’t “teach” and was the subject of countless parent complaints, then in January was absent more often than not due to a family situation. By May her contract was not renewed. A few months later, she was hired to teach at another HS in the district, because nobody else was available. Meanwhile phenomenal guidance counselors were let go because they didn’t have tenure, and kids who had already been through 3 counselors in 2 years had yet another new counselor who landed at their school not because she wanted to be there, but because her position was eliminated, and this was the job that was still available.
What stood out to me was the statement “the counselor did not help my family or I”. You would think the Val would have proof read her speech for proper grammar before giving the most important speech of her young life.
In addition, IMO not the forum to denigrate the high school and faculty. The speech seemed to be all about her and the high school and not inspiring the student body for their life beyond HS. I would expect better leadership and inspiration from the key note speaker for my senior class.
@socaldad2002, I caught the grammatical error, too. And I agree that the val speech could be connected to our universal experiences and not entirely focused on the one student’s experiences.
What DID she do? as re teaching?
So I read the reactions here before watching the video. I expected something earth shattering. Didn’t happen.
I’m mixed. I’m not sure the purpose of a valedictorian speech anyway. They’re always lame.
Obviously when a student (or anyone) gives a speech they don’t plan on being viral on YouTube.
I wouldn’t have pulled the plug on this speech btw.
It was a personal speech. How “inspiring “ can a kid be to their class without really sounding fake and full of cliches? So she went personal. She’s pretty young to have “universal” experiences. Like any good writer—write what you know.
She thanked a lot of teachers and her parents by name.
Then took the “what I learned” tack. Again said nice things.
Some lessons are learned in a negative manner as often happens. Pretty short and sweet. No names named. Obviously everyone knew the alcoholic teacher because that was obviously a big deal—the police showed up for goodness sake. Probably in local newspapers too. Not a secret in the least by audience reaction.
I knew some grammar police would show up. Guess that invalidates the message.
A serious question-why would anyone care about this woman’s personal experience in high school?. Surely of the thousands in the crowd that day, only a fraction knew her, and only a fraction of those care. Seems like these speeches serve no purpose for the vast majority of those subjected to them.
She may have valid grievances, but those waiting to pick up their diplomas shouldn’t be forced to hear them. The rest of the attendees are there for themselves, not for her. She can pursue her vendetta on her own time.