The unscripted message referenced people “suffering in Palestine” and “families being torn apart by ICE.” A school official cut off the student.
College grads expect an $80k salary. They may be disappointed
Newly minted college graduates may have to manage their expectations about how much they will earn at their first job.
A high school valedictorian was cut off while delivering a speech at graduation, and video of the incident has been widely shared online as a familiar scene played out: a school’s attempt to silence a speaker’s unplanned message actually amplified it across the nation.
Video of Clayton High School valedictorian Leen Hijaz in Johnston County, North Carolina, just outside Raleigh, shows her wrapping up her speech with a message about her peers and onlookers using their voices.
“Before I leave the stage, I have one last thing to say. Every single person here has a voice, and we are privileged to have the freedom to use it when so many people around the world are struggling and suffering to be heard,” Hijaz said.
“Whether it’s the millions suffering in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan and so many other countries around the world, or the families being torn apart by (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), these are not distant issues. They are happening right now as I speak,” she said as cheers and applause could be heard from the audience. “My point is, we’re not given a voice to stay silent.”
At that point, a school official approached the podium and appeared to say something to Hijaz while guiding her away from the microphone. The official was Clayton High School Principal Melissa Moore Hubbard, reported local station WNCN.
Hijaz said in a post on social media and in comments to local news outlets she was “threatened” with the withholding of her diploma. Johnston County Public Schools didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The school district told WNCN in a statement that Hijaz’s speech, which was a welcome message at the ceremony, departed from her approved remarks prepared in advance.
“School administrators intervened in order to maintain the integrity and focus of the program in real time. This action was not about limiting a student’s voice, but about ensuring that a school-sponsored event remained consistent with its intended purpose,” the statement said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations applauded Hijaz’s speech and said schools should “encourage thoughtful civic engagement, not suppress it.”
“We commend Leen Hijaz for demonstrating the moral courage to speak out on behalf of people whose voices are too often ignored,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement “We urge school officials to respect students’ constitutional rights and to ensure that no punitive action is taken against her for engaging in peaceful expression.”
High schools, colleges have history of cutting off speakers
The incident at the Clayton High School graduation is just the latest example of a school attempting to cut a speaker’s message off or preemptively prevent it from being shared. There have been several cases of high schools or colleges around the United States that ended up plastered across social media and in the national spotlight.
One college sought to prevent that from happening altogether in 2026. New York University told its student speakers at school-specific ceremonies that their speeches would be pre-recorded and played during the graduations instead of being delivered live, reported independent student newspaper Washington Square News.
The move came after last year’s speaker at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Logan Rozos, commented on “the atrocities currently happening in Palestine” and condemned Israel’s military actions during his speech, according to Georgetown University’s Free Speech Project tracker. Rozos’ remarks went viral and the school said it was withholding his diploma while it pursued disciplinary action.
Other cases that drew national scrutiny in past years include a New Jersey high school valedictorian whose microphone was muted while giving a speech about mental illness and surviving high school as an LGBTQ student; a Florida high school valedictorian who gave a speech about the difficulties of “having curly hair” – a euphemism for being gay – after he said his principal warned him his microphone would be cut off if he spoke about his activism; and a University of Southern California valedictorian whose speech was cancelled after critics complained about her social media, which included pro-Palestinian content, though she said she hadn’t even written the speech yet.
At a Louisville, Kentucky, middle school graduation in 2026, eighth grader Daniel Mattingly gave a passionate speech criticizing the school for telling him his originally planned speech, which discussed his parents’ death and experiencing bullying, was “too negative,” reported the Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. Video of his speech was viewed over 1 million times in five days on Facebook, the Courier Journal reported. The school district did not respond to a request for comment from the outlet.
“My name is Daniel Mattingly, and apparently this school doesn’t know better than to give an angry gay kid a microphone,” he said at the beginning of the speech.
Contributing: Lillian Metzmeier, the Louisville Courier Journal
