Sam Blackledge Case

High school valedictorian forced to remove all references to his faith from graduation remarks

Sam Blackledge was co-valedictorian of the 2018 graduating class of West Prairie High School in Illinois. Sam worked for weeks on his valedictory address, but just hours before the graduation ceremony school officials forced him to either delete the comments about his religion or not give the speech at all. First Liberty Institute represents Sam and is working to insure his religious liberty and the rights of all students are respected now and in the future.

First Liberty Institute Investigates Censorship by School District

First Liberty learned of the situation surrounding Sam Blackledge’s graduation speech and immediately began investigating the details. “School officials should remember that students retain their constitutional rights to freedom of expression from the schoolhouse gates, all the way through the graduation ceremony,” says Jeremy Dys, Deputy General Counsel for First Liberty.

“These school officials ruined the only high school graduation Sam will ever know,” Dys continued. “How many more graduations have to be ruined before school officials will learn that the First Amendment protects student remarks at graduation?”

The practice of school district officials editing, controlling, and censoring student speech because of its religious viewpoint is unconstitutional. First Liberty will continue to work with Sam and the school district to implement the necessary protections for students’ religious liberty.

Case History

Sam Blackledge worked hard to become the valedictorian of his graduating class. He achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Sam attributes his accomplishments to more than just hard work. “The most important thing in my life is Christ,” he said. “Christ is the only reason I was a valedictorian. He’s the reason I got that 4.0. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be up there. I was giving Him the credit for that.”

But administrators at West Prairie High School in Illinois refused to let him mention his faith because according to them the content was not appropriate for a high school graduation ceremony. Just minutes before the graduation ceremony was scheduled to begin, school officials gave Sam an incredibly difficult choice to make.

“They said they didn’t want to make it a religious ceremony. They told me that if I took out Christ I could say everything else.”

Student offered disclaimer to personal graduation remarks

When school officials explained their concerns over the possibility that some in the audience might think Sam was speaking on behalf of the school district, Sam attempted to compromise and proposed a solution.

“I offered to begin my speech with a disclaimer but they turned that down, too – twice,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has previously issued guidance on student graduation speakers:

Where students or other private graduation speakers are selected on the basis of genuinely neutral, evenhanded criteria and retain primary control over the content of their expression, however, that expression is not attributable to the school and therefore may not be restricted because of its religious (or anti-religious) content. To avoid any mistaken perception that a school endorses student or other private speech that is not in fact attributable to the school, school officials may make appropriate, neutral disclaimers to clarify that such speech (whether religious or nonreligious) is the speaker’s and not the school’s.

Ultimately, Sam was forced to give his remarks without mentioning his faith. “I told them I would not disrespect them. I told them I would respect their wishes. And I told them the reason why is because I’m a Christian.”

In December of 2018, after working with First Liberty attorneys, the school board updated its policies to ensure that the religious liberty of students is protected.