The unscripted message referenced “those suffering in Palestine” and “families torn apart by ICE.” A school staff member interrupted the student.
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A high school valedictorian’s mouth was severed during his commencement speech, and video of the incident was widely shared online as a familiar scene unfolded. The school’s attempt to silence the speaker’s unplanned message actually spread across the United States.
A video of Leanne Hijaz, valedictorian at Clayton High School in Johnston County, North Carolina, outside Raleigh, shows her ending her speech with a message about peers and bystanders who use their voices.
“Before I leave the stage, I want to say one last thing: Every single person here has a voice, and we have the privilege of freely exercising that voice at a time when so many people around the world are struggling and suffering to be heard,” Hijaz said.
“Whether it’s the millions of people suffering in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan and many other countries around the world, or the families torn apart by[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]these are not distant issues. They are happening right now as I speak,” she said, to cheers and applause from the audience. “What I am saying is that we are not given a voice to be silenced.”
At that point, a school official approached the podium and appeared to say something while pushing Hijaz away from the microphone. According to local station WNCN, the person involved was Creighton High School Principal Melissa Moore Hubbard.
In social media posts and comments to local news outlets, Hijaz said she was “threatened” to withhold her diploma. Johnston County Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.
The school district issued a statement to WNCN saying Hijaz’s welcome speech at the ceremony deviated from her pre-prepared and approved remarks.
“School administrators intervened to maintain the integrity and focus of the program in real time. This action was not intended to limit student speech, but rather to ensure that school-sponsored events remained consistent with their intended purpose,” the statement said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations praised Hijaz’s speech, saying schools should “encourage thoughtful civic engagement, not stifle it.”
“We commend Leen Hijaz for showing the moral courage to speak up on behalf of those whose voices are too often ignored,” CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement. “We urge school officials to respect the constitutional rights of students and refrain from taking any punitive action against her for her peaceful expression.”
High schools and universities have a history of blocking speakers.
The incident at Creighton High School’s graduation ceremony is just the latest example of a school attempting to block a speaker’s message or preemptively prevent it from being shared. There have been several cases of high schools and universities across the United States that have gained notoriety on social media and garnered national attention.
One university tried to prevent that from happening entirely in 2026. New York University told student speakers at school-based ceremonies that their speeches would be pre-recorded and played during graduation ceremonies, rather than being streamed live, the independent student newspaper Washington Square News reported.
The move comes after Logan Rozos, a lecturer at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Studies, commented on the “atrocities currently occurring in Palestine” and condemned Israeli military action during a speech last year, according to Georgetown University’s Free Speech Project Tracker. Rozos’ comments went viral, and the school announced that it would suspend Rozos’ diploma while pursuing disciplinary action.
Other incidents that have gained national attention in the past few years include a New Jersey high school valedictorian whose microphone was muted during a speech about mental illness and surviving high school as an LGBTQ student. A Florida high school valedictorian gave a speech about the challenges of “having curly hair,” a euphemism for being gay, after saying he was warned by his principal that his microphone would be cut off if he spoke about his activism. The University of Southern California’s valedictorian, whose speech was canceled after critics complained about social media containing pro-Palestinian content, said he hasn’t even written a speech yet.
At his 2026 junior high school graduation ceremony in Louisville, Kentucky, eighth-grader Daniel Mattingly gave an impassioned speech, criticizing the school for being “too negative” for his originally planned talk about the death of his parents and his experiences with bullying, USA TODAY Network’s Louisville Courier-Journal reported. A video of his speech was viewed more than 1 million times on Facebook in five days, the Courier-Journal reported. The school district did not respond to requests for comment from media outlets.
“My name is Daniel Mattingly, and apparently this school knows no better than to give an angry gay kid a microphone,” he said at the beginning of his speech.
Contributor: Lillian Metzmeyer, Louisville Courier-Journal
