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| Bryce Dershem, valedictorian at Eastern Regional High School in New Jersey, began speaking about his L.G.B.T.Q. identity last week, when the principal appeared to unplug the microphone and take away his notes. He then recited the speech from memory.Courtesy of Michael Dershem |
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2333 - Principal unplugs and confiscates speech of Valedictorian as he speaks of Queer Identity
This incident is pure bullshit.
The official story on why the principal confiscated the speech is that it was not the approved speech that Bryce had been authorized to give at the commencement ceremony.
This is a great story!
When a Valedictorian Spoke of His Queer Identity, the
Principal Cut Off His Speech
The
principal also took away the valedictorian’s prepared remarks, so the student
recited the speech from memory.
Less than a minute into Bryce Dershem’s valedictorian speech on June 17, the microphone cut out. He had just told the audience at his New Jersey high school’s graduation ceremony that he came out as queer in his freshman year.
When he made that revelation, the principal, Robert M. Tull, went to the back of the stage and appeared to unplug some cords, a video from the ceremony shows.
Suddenly, Mr. Dershem, 18, was silenced. Mr. Tull walked onstage and took the microphone from its stand.
When the principal took the microphone, he also took Mr. Dershem’s prepared remarks.
Mr. Tull pointed to another copy of the speech on the podium that did not have any references to sexuality or mental health.
A replacement microphone was brought to Mr. Dershem, but at that point, he said in an interview on Saturday, he was frozen. Then his classmates at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees Township, N.J., cheered for him to continue his speech.
“As it was happening, passion was surging through my veins that, yes, I need to give this speech,” he said, “because this is the exact kind of stigma that I want to fight against.”
Mr. Dershem knew every word of his own version of the speech, because he had been working on his remarks for a month.
“I tried my very best to give the speech from memory, and I was just a mess throughout the whole speech and I was just so vulnerable,” he said.
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| Hector Rodriguez |
“Beginning September of senior year, I spent six months in treatment for anorexia,” he said in the speech. “For so long, I tried to bend and break and shrink to society’s expectations.”
Mr. Dershem wanted to emphasize to students that their identities are valid, he said.
“From a formerly suicidal, formerly anorexic queer,” he said, he wanted the students to know that one person could save another person’s life.
When he arrived at the ceremony, Mr. Dershem wore a pride flag over his robe. A school administrator wanted him to take it off, but he refused. During the speech, Mr. Dershem suspected the principal was trying to pretend that there were technical difficulties.
Mr. Tull had read Mr. Dershem’s speech before the ceremony and wanted Mr. Dershem to deliver the version that the school administration had approved.
The principal and Mr. Dershem had been debating the contents of the speech for weeks, Mr. Dershem said. The student sent the principal three drafts, he said, because Mr. Tull said his speech was not broad enough for his 500 fellow seniors.
Mr. Tull and the Eastern Camden County Regional School District did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday. The high school is in Voorhees, a township of about 30,000 people, about 20 miles from Philadelphia.
Robert Cloutier, the superintendent of the Eastern Camden County Regional School District, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the district had not asked any students to remove mentions of “their personal identity” from their speeches
The New York Times reviewed the high school’s live-streamed video of the ceremony. Mr. Dershem’s father reposted a clip of his son’s speech on YouTube.
Just days before the ceremony, Mr. Dershem said the principal gave him an ultimatum: He could revise his speech, or he would not be allowed to speak at all. He changed his speech but the principal still did not like it, the student said.
“I felt like I was faced with this choice where I could either honor all the belief systems and virtues that I cultivated,” Mr. Dershem said, “or I could just follow the administration.”
Mr. Dershem talked over the decision with his family and decided that he was going to give the speech he always wanted to.
When his speech was over, the audience gave him a standing ovation. A woman thanked him afterward.
“She told me her son hadn’t survived the pandemic due to mental health struggles and she started to cry,” he said. “I thought, This was the one person I made feel less alone. And I knew I did the right thing.”
Michael Dershem, the student’s father, said he could not believe the principal would turn off his son’s microphone, but he said he could not be more proud of his son for regaining his composure and continuing.
“I probably watched the speech I don’t know how many times since then,” Michael Dershem, 56, said. “I’m a pretty tough guy, but, you know, I break down every time I watch it.”
Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey said on Twitter on Saturday that he was proud of Mr. Dershem for “speaking truth to power, and for your resilience and courage.”
Mr. Dershem is getting ready to move to Massachusetts in the fall. He will be a student at Tufts University, where he plans to promote the rights of women and L.G.B.T.Q. people.
“I’m so happy to know that people are watching this speech,” he said. “I hope they believe in themselves more and feel less alone in their fight.”
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2107.08 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2197 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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