USC Students react to decision to ban valedictorian from speech

The USC administration came out yesterday and said that our valedictorian would not be giving a speech this year due to safety concerns that they have. Apparently there’s been threats about her views that were pro Palestinian, I believe. So they took back her speech. And I from what I know, this is the first time that. USC valedictorian will not be giving a speech. I think a lot of people were upset about that. And it’s kind of people are like believing that it’s just kind of limiting her free speech. They’re just confused as to why, you know, she’s not going to be able to do the security concerns when there was a former president on her campus literally last year in Barack Obama. And obviously there’s now a lot of pushback coming from students, including myself, because they are silencing a brown hijabi woman’s voice. First generation stem from speaking at our commencement when she rightfully earned that position. Well, first of all, I think that she should speak because there was no inkling of her causing any harm. And she’s talking about issues that are important to not only our university and to students, but to the world. And I think that that is someone that should speak at our as a valedictorian and like she’s more than qualified. She embodies what it means to be evaluatory for USC and to take that away from her, at least the honor that comes attached to it, is extremely disappointing because this is her moment to enjoy. This is her graduation.