Member Joe Attamante had this article published in Long Island’s The Island Now newspaper in response to media coverage of heckling and abuse of a high-school honor student whose graduation speech referred to “international dilemmas, including ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and Uighurs”.
Events reported in the recent news story, “Wheatley grad’s speech met with backlash from administrators, parents” (June 24, 2021), raise important questions about freedom of expression in our schools and society.
Once again some school administrators and parents have decided that a student can speak freely, but only if some vocal members of her audience aren’t offended!