Graduation season has ended nationwide. It was full of controversy.
We see graduates booing commencement speakers over AI comments.
The CEO who was booed at Middle Tennessee State University’s graduation ceremony has doubled down on his comments about artificial intelligence.
In the United States, high school and college graduation seasons are coming to an end, and school is permanently absent. But for some recent graduates, the final moments of their school careers were marred by controversy.
In recent weeks, graduation ceremonies across the country have been the subject of headlines, with the valedictorian being cut off mid-sentence, guest speakers booed by the audience, and even reports of allegations of racist speeches. Incidents occurred in states such as Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
On June 14, the BBC reported that some Stanford University alumni walked out during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote speech to protest Google’s relationship with Israel.
In North Carolina, a high school graduation video went viral after the valedictorian went off script to send a message to his classmates about using their voices to speak out on issues including immigration enforcement. She was interrupted and pulled away from the microphone.
“We have not been given a voice to remain silent,” Creighton High School valedictorian Leanne Hijaz said shortly before her speech was cut short.
Time and time again, school officials interrupt or cut off speakers’ microphones for delivering unauthorized messages, ultimately amplifying those messages. Video of this graduation season incident was widely shared on social media, and the graduation controversy became national news.
Lisa Abramson, a higher education consultant who deals with school public relations crises, previously told USA TODAY, “This anger is usually the result of a response, not necessarily a request for (schools) to respond in the first place.”
Graduates boo when mentioning AI
Graduation ceremonies at multiple universities around the country were seen giving speeches that drew boos and jeers from graduates and the audience. The scene played out this year in Florida, Tennessee and Arizona. This year, a theme that often struck a chord with students was artificial intelligence.
Gloria Caulfield, a real estate development executive, was booed at the University of Central Florida after she called the rise of AI the “next industrial revolution,” the USA TODAY Network in Florida reported.
“AI is the worst!” A video of the ceremony elicited boos from the audience and shouts from the audience.
At Middle Tennessee State University, Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta was booed while speaking about AI at the graduation ceremony for the college of media and entertainment that bears his name, the USA TODAY Network’s Nashville Tennessean reported.
“Streaming is rewriting the economy, social media is rewriting the discovery model, and AI is rewriting production even as we sit here,” he said. When the crowd started booing, he pushed back, saying, “I understand that. Deal with it. Like I said, it’s a tool.”
Cut after valedictorian’s speech, unscripted message on immigration
The Creighton High School valedictorian was fired during his graduation ceremony for making unscripted comments about Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan and ICE issues.
At Glendale Community College in Arizona, AI was booed for a different reason. The school used AI software to announce the names of graduates as they received their diplomas. But the software failed or skipped hundreds of names, the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY network, reported.
College students today have mixed feelings about AI, Fabrizio Cariani, a philosophy professor at the University of Maryland who teaches a course called AI and Human Experience, told USA TODAY in May. While some people accept it, others worry about the potential job market impact or face threats of discipline for using it at school.
Anti-Semitism allegations disrupt high school graduation
USA TODAY Network’s Wilmington Star-News reported that a high school graduation ceremony in North Carolina caused controversy after the valedictorian’s speech was interpreted by many as a racist dog whistle.
At Wilmington’s Hoggard High School graduation ceremony, valedictorian Kyler William Hosek concluded his speech with these words:
Some students noticed that the quote was similar to something Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, said in an interview filled with anti-Semitic comments several years ago. One of her classmates, Sarah Haley Rudesiel, grabbed the microphone to give a shout-out when it was time to receive her diploma, but she was cut off mid-sentence. Other students were also furious, Rudeshir said.
Josek later told news agency WWAY that he rejected anti-Semitism and urged people to watch the full speech.
“My speech was about hope and optimism,” Hosek told the outlet. “As my classmates and I begin a new chapter in our lives, we wanted to remind you that every person has value and that we all have the ability to make a positive difference in the lives of others. We want to make it clear that we reject anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred.”
How schools bring more attention to controversy
In many recent cases, school officials have cut microphones, interrupted speakers, and even withheld diplomas from student speakers when they touch on topics deemed political or controversial. But experts say their actions tend to draw more attention to the messages they were trying to block.
An Ohio student at Cardington-Lincoln High School said parts of his commencement speech were removed from the script before he gave the speech, and when he continued speaking after finishing his prepared speech, he was interrupted, WBNS reported. Valedictorian Brandon Hughes told the magazine that he wanted to send a message to students who feel they “don’t get a lot of attention.” School officials told the media that they followed the policy of reviewing the speech and moving on when it was finished.
“Freedom of speech does not apply to valedictorian speeches,” he said during the ceremony, according to the newspaper.
In Washington state, a student who waved a Mexican flag while receiving a diploma was removed from a school’s video of the ceremony, the Tri-City Herald reported. The school said it removed his walk from the video because the flag “does not meet the district’s guidelines for approved items of cultural significance.”
One university tried to prevent controversial speech from happening altogether in 2026. New York University has told student speakers at certain school-specific ceremonies that their speeches will be pre-recorded and played during graduation ceremonies, rather than being streamed live, the independent student newspaper Washington Square News reported. The move comes a year after a speaker delivered a pro-Palestinian message at a graduation ceremony.
Although student speakers generally do not have free speech rights when addressing commencement ceremonies, schools should be concerned with facilitating the expression of student ideas, Sanford Unger, director of Georgetown University’s Free Speech Project, previously told USA TODAY.
“No one has the right to speak at a graduation ceremony, but it would be sad if it turned out that the only topic you’re allowed to talk about at a graduation ceremony is the beautiful weather,” Unger said in a 2024 interview.
