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Victory: Federal Court Again Rules that High School Valedictorian Silenced for Referencing Christ Should Have Day in Court
From The Rutherford Institute
Press Contact: Nisha N. Mohammed
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - A federal district court has once again rebuffed an attempt by Clark County School District officials to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit brought by a high school senior whose microphone was turned off after she began speaking about the importance of religion in her life during her valedictory address. Brittany McComb, the 2006 valedictorian at Foothill High School, was silenced when she began reading parts of her speech that contained references to the Bible, God and her faith in Jesus Christ during her commencement speech.
With the assistance of The Rutherford Institute, McComb filed a First Amendment lawsuit against school officials in July 2006. On June 18, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada rejected the Clark County School District's second attempt to have the case dismissed, affirming the court's December 2006 ruling that the lawsuit raises substantial claims of infringement of McComb's right of free speech. Video footage of McComb's interrupted speech at the Foothill High School graduation can be viewed here.
"We're pleased that the court has recognized the validity of Brittany McComb's claims," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "This is a very important free speech case that will affect the rights of religious persons across America."
In the spring of 2006, Brittany McComb was chosen to give the valedictory speech at Foothill High School by virtue of achieving the highest GPA in the school. She submitted her written speech to school administrators, according to standard district policy. School administrators, with the advice of their district legal counsel, censored her speech, deleting all three Bible references, several references to "the Lord" and the only mention of the word "Christ." However, believing that the district's censorship of her speech amounted to a violation of her right to free speech, Brittany attempted to deliver the original version of her remarks in which she shares the role that her Christian beliefs played in her success. When school officials found her to be straying from the approved text, they cut off Brittany's microphone, thus ending the address. Despite extensive jeers from the audience over the school officials' actions, McComb was not permitted to finish her valedictory speech.
In filing suit against Clark County School District officials, Rutherford Institute attorneys stated, "Brittany's stellar academic performance qualified and entitled her to address her classmates at graduation in her own words, yet the Defendants, and each of them, sought to censor her speech, coerce her into giving a different speech in violation of her conscience, and interfere with and censor the delivery of her speech, all based upon her religious belief and viewpoint." Institute attorneys have asked the court to declare that school officials deprived McComb of her rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
--- Founded in 1982 by constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead, The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
