Just to be clear here, the stupid MFer in this case is the student. Everyone knows that valedictory speeches need to be pre-approved, and everyone knows that there are good reasons for that, and it’s the sort of thing that if you start making exceptions, you’re just opening yourself up to a world of hurt when the next one comes along. The student knew darned well that the speech needed to be pre-approved, especially since he’d already had one speech not be approved. And the punishment exactly fits the offense: The valedictorian’s one job is to deliver a school-approved speech, and he failed to do that. What did he expect to happen?
That fjord is some 5 km wide, +100/-50%. If you can’t stay enough on course to keep within a 5 km wide corridor without running ashore, you probably should consider handing in your license.
And yes, it’s just outside Trondheim. The ship’s destination was Orkanger. They should’ve turned right 2-3 nautical miles back.
It is all Slartibartfast’s fault.
The pilot isn’t asleep, he’s pinin’!
He’s not pining, the fjords are right here.
The only reason anyone knows it was “an exception” is because the school reacted.
There was nothing offensive in the speech - even the joke about the Bishop falling asleep was about how boring speeches could be. There was no harm done. The kid is gone, as is most of the audience, and no one’s going to cause mayhem for decades to come at that school because a valedictorian that they’ve never met altered their harmless and inoffensive speech once.
It’s petty and childish of the school.
Rules may be made to be followed, but some absolutely should be bent or even broken.
Mine wasn’t.
Because nobody knew aside from the school and nobody who knew would ever possibly tell anyone? It doesn’t work that way.
What if, five years from now, the valedictorian gives a speech that really is offensive, Nazi hate speech or the like. And the school then tries to take away their valedictorian status on the basis of the speech not being approved, and the student, backed by the American Nazi Party, sues? In a situation like that, the precedent would come up, and the school would probably lose the ensuing court case.
“following the speech of 2025 we reiterated our rules, worked with our valedictorians to ensure they had the freedom to express themselves and offered same-day review and approval (or disapproval) for any changes or new content they felt was important”.
It’s not rocket science. Being paranoid about a hypothetical future Nazi in an unremarkable high school (instead of the actual fucking Nazis in the US government) doesn’t justify the reaction from the school today. The student didn’t say anything offensive. The student isn’t a Nazi. The rule was bent but not broken because I’m certain the speech that was given would have been approved.
It’s just petty people needing to feel control over their little kingdoms and not any common sense.
Two of my children gave valedictory speeches at their public high school graduation ceremonies. All they were told is that the speech should last 5 to 7 minutes. Nobody saw the text beforehand, except for my wife and me, and possibly a few of their friends.
Now in this case, pre-approval was part of the deal. But as @mnemosyne said, had the school not reacted publicly, nothing else would have happened.
So one of Austin’s friends told somebody else that Austin deviated from his pre-approved speech. Then what? Nobody outside of the school community would ever care, much less raise a stink about it.
Instead, the stellar reputation of a well-respected Catholic high school is being questioned because of an overreaction by school officials. And they are being pilloried as the stupid ones, not the student.
So you dan take away someone’s valedictorian status because of a meaningless technicality, but you can’t take it away for being a Nazi? There’s you problem right there.
Nazis are an oppressed class, like gays used to be. The difference seems to be that gays come out of the closet while nazis come out of the woodwork.
Or out from under rocks.
Just mandate a valedictorian shock collar. And every grad gets a nibble treat with their diploma
You can take it away for being a Nazi, if you have a policy in place that the speech needs prior approval, and they don’t get approval for the bigoted speech they give. But if you don’t have a policy in place, then you get a lawsuit.
For a forum of pedants, I’m surprised that no one has mentioned that the person who gives the valedictory speech at the graduation ceremony is the valedictorian. Once that speech is delivered, it’s not possible to change who gave it.
As an anecdote, I gave the salutatory speech at my graduation and it was not pre-approved by anyone. Of course, the graduation also had an opening prayer and a benediction, which are much greater legal liabilities for a public school.
Given what I know about Norwegian alcohol prices, it seems very, very hard to get drunk in Norway!
But maybe they were coming from Sweden…
Priorities, priorities, priorities. When I was younger, it wasn’t uncommon that the occasional ferry crashed into the quai, usually when the conditions were good. We always assumed that the skipper was drunk. But in this case, the police have confirmed that the helmsman was sober. He just fell asleep.
The rescue operation has become a mite more complicated, since the grounding has caused an ongoing mudslide, both above and below water
Haven’t you heard yet? These days people in authority can change facts to fit their desires, you just need power over other people.
While @Pleonast is technically right (the reechest kind of “right”), the thing that matters to the student is that the honor be included on his transcript. And that’s certainly something the school can retroactively withhold. Maybe they shouldn’t, maybe it’s unprecedented, but as a practical matter it’s certainly doable.
On the other hand, we all know he was valedictorian and the school “took it away” because it’s all over the news. The kind of college or future employer that would read this story and choose to not hire this kid is probably not one I’d respect very much.