Joshua High School’s valedictorian had his microphone turned off during his speech when he began to talk about his faith, deviating from comments that school officials had approved before Thursday’s graduation ceremony.
The valedictorian, salutatorian and historian must submit their speeches for review by administrators before commencement, officials said.
Valedictorian Remington Reimer was muted because his speech deviated from the approved version, Joshua school district Superintendent Fran Marek said.
“They were told if they deviated form the speech that the mic would be turned off. It had nothing to do with the content,” Marek said in a telephone interview Friday.
Neither Reimer nor his parents, of Burleson, could be reached for comment Friday.
Serena Bair of Cleburne, who was in the crowd at Owl Stadium to watch her daughter graduate, said Reimer spoke for about a minute before the audience heard clicking sounds and the microphone was turned off.
“He talked about how God was the reason why he and his fellow classmates had graduated,” said Bair, who organized a senior breakfast the morning of graduation.
“He just talked about Christ and about Jesus being put up on the cross and dying and giving up his body and his blood for our sins so that we could be there.”