John Matthews
WMAL.com
SOUTH RIDING, VA — (WMAL) Shannon Menezes has something to say, but her intended audience is not in line to hear it–at least, for now.
Menezes believes she will be the valedictorian at Freedom High School in Loudoun County, and as such, she has spent months working on what she assumed would be her speech to her fellow graduates. But all that work could turn out to be for naught.
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The school’s graduation committee decided a year ago to end the practice of having the class valedictorian deliver an address, and instead opted to open the class speaker position for audition. Menezes claims she found this news out only this week, though the school insists the news was shared with the senior class both last fall and last month.
Menezes has launched an online petition asking to be allowed to deliver her speech. “I really do not mind a student speaker, as long as I also get a farewell speech,” Menezes wrote on the petition Web page. “I feel that my school was too unjust to suddenly break tradition after 10 years. I have worked extremely hard and was never selfish enough to want something so bad, as I want it now. Please, help me to regain this right!”
So far, more than 750 signatures have been collected.
In an email distributed on Facebook, Freedom High School Principal Doug Fulton explained the change was made to do away with the Valedictory speech because the winner cannot be finalized until grades are completed on June 10th, and that would give the winner less than a week before the June 16th ceremony to prepare a speech. “This also moves away from what we call a community celebration to recognize an individual who may be separated by a .001 from a classmate,” he added.
Fulton says the Valedictorian will still be allowed to address the class, and make a ‘valedictory charge’ to his or her classmates.
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