© Kerri Little Kerri Little wanted to address bullying and other issues during her valedictorian speech at the Bellwood-Antis High School graduation. But, feeling censorship pressure from school officials, she skipped the ceremony and took her concerns to social media.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Little said she could not give a formulaic graduation speech that provided positive messages, fond memories and life lessons. That's because, based on what her and her friends had experienced, there were a lot of unaddressed problems at Bellwood-Antis High School in Blair County.
The biggest problem was bullying.
"We don't have a lot of resources in terms of bullying," said the 18-year-old. "Which is awful, but with budget cuts and the amount of funding our school has, it's more important to have an English teacher than it is to have a bullying specialist on hand."
© Kerri Lttle/FacebookScreenshot of Kerri Little's Facebook post addressing her concerns.
"It was 180 days of having to see other people being bullied," Little said. "Even when people did go to the office -- and they went a lot -- they never did anything."
Then there were the other problems, like the racists, sexists and insensitive comments being made by students. Little said students complained but their concerns were often ignored or the kids got a slap on the wrist. So, Little said she wanted to address those issues in her valedictorian speech at graduation. She did not tell the administration what she wanted to talk about.
Principal Richard W. Schreier said he heard that Little planned to veer off the normal speech formula. And Little was called down to the office. "I talked to her about graduation and her duties as valedictorian to offer a speech to her class," Schreier said. "I did mention to her that I had heard rumors that she may to go off script. And I asked that she not do that."
Little claims that her senior advisor had told her that her microphone would be turned off and she would be escorted by police from graduation if she went through with her plan. Little also said Schreier insinuated there would be consequences. Schreier said he did not say that her microphone would be shut off or police would be involved.
While he said he doesn't know of all the incidents Little addressed in her Facebook post, Schreier said the school does take reports of bullying and threats very seriously. "Anything that we hear of from teachers or students with concerns, we address the situation as appropriately as we deem necessary after doing a thorough investigation" he said
When asked why she didn't specially tell the principal her plans to talk about bullying, Little said, "I felt like he wasn't going to listen to what I had to say, either way." "With the atmosphere of the school, with the amount of people who were worried about what I was going to say and the amount of people who were talking about it, I, honestly, would not have been allowed to say anything negative," she said.
After the conversations with the principal, Little said she became worried about the possible consequences. Little said she also did not want to ruin everyone else's graduation day and make a scene. So, she wrote a typical valedictorian speech and gave it to school officials. Little described the speech as "complete and utter [expletive] to the highest degree." But she had no plans to actually give the speech. Little said she knew a month before graduation that she would not be attending the ceremony.
Schreier said he found out that should would not be speaking about an hour before the ceremony. School officials had to scramble to fill the void left in the ceremony. They decided to skip over the valedictorian speech altogether.
"We're disappointed in her decision to skip the graduation and not give us a little more forewarning for the reasons for her decision," Schreier said. "She kind of left us high and dry."
Little said she made the decision with the support of her family -- including her father who refused to speak at his high school graduation back in the day.
Unsure of what kind of impact she's made, Little said she hoped that students and the school would be more willing to discuss bullying in the future. If her Facebook post helped one person, she said, it's all been worth it.
"I don't know if the school is going to change," she said. "It's a public school in central Pennsylvania. In two months nobody is going to remember this happened and they can just sweep everything back under the rug again."
Tthe full text of Little's Facebook post:
About a month ago, it was made very clear to me that if I were to give a speech not fulfilling the expected role of a valedictorian speech, my microphone would be turned off. In addition, police officers would personally escort me off of the field and I would not complete graduation with the rest of my class.
So I decided to save the police officers the trouble. The role of a typical valedictorian speech is to leave a positive takeaway message for the audience while also providing the graduating class with some reminiscing about everything we had been through together over the course of our educational experience. Add a dash of "now let's all make good choices in life" and you've completed the checklist of approved content. I wrote a speech meeting this criteria, but it was complete and utter [expletive] to the highest degree.
Words carry immense power. To falsely speak and pretend high school was not the hellish experience it was is something I could not morally do. Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea, this is not a pure bash of Bellwood-Antis. Sure, I disagreed with teachers at times and may have disliked one or two, but as a staff I have predominately fond memories and eternal gratefulness for the love of learning that was instilled in me while in attendance. Many teachers went above and beyond what their job entailed, and I am appreciative of the opportunities presented to me through the school.
I can't, however, look past other events in my high school career that, while inappropriate to discuss at graduation, should be brought to light because if anything they were more impactful than the fond memories. The administration stood by as rape jokes, suicide jokes, jokes about 9/11, racist jokes, etc were made for years upon years upon years. Sure, teenagers will be teenagers and obviously these things happen in a high school setting. However, for someone to make a gun threat and receive less punishment than being caught with a phone is appalling. For there to be more concern about how wide the straps of a tank top are compared to the fact that we had students in our graduating class who were bullied out of school is revolting.
I was always taught that if you have nothing nice to say, to say nothing at all. My entire high school experience has left me with an incredible amount of upset. It's a bigger achievement that I made it out of high school alive than it is that I made it out of high school at the top of my class. I refused to go up in front of everyone, and give a speech pretending that high school was not the most awful thing I have ever been a part of.
My grades were treated as though they were the most defining characteristic of myself. To put it into perspective, there were rumors spread about my GPA. Every test seemed to turn into a competion of who did the best, and by no means was it a friendly competition. There were moments throughout high school were I, in 100% sincerity, debated throwing my GPA just so people would get off of my case about it. However, let me digress for a moment and be clear. In no way do I feel that recognition of achievement should be vilified. Being extrinsically motivated is just as valuable as being intrinsically motivated. If anything, Bellwood could spend more time recognizing Academia and the Arts just as equally as Athletics. My problem manifests when the recognizition transforms into a rat race of grades that is then used as yet another reason to make people feel insignificant. As valedictorian, I was the winner of said rat race, yet I refuse to condone such an unhealthy environment.
To the rest of the Class of 2016 that did walk across the stage tonight, congratulations. Our stay at Bellwood-Antis high school has come to a close. We will not walk through the halls again, and for people like me, this is the biggest blessing conceivable. Actions speak louder than words, and I feel that my actions tonight spoke louder than any words I could have spoken before my microphone was turned off.
Sincerely,
Bellwood-Antis Class of 2016's valedictorian.
Beautiful girl inside and out.