Brittany McComb Silenced as She Speaks of Her Faith to High School Class
Brittany McComb was one of three valedictorians chosen to deliver a speech at the June 2006 commencement ceremony at Foothill High School. She is currently studying at Oxford University. While giving her speech, she strayed from what was written to discuss the impact of the faith she’d found in Jesus Christ in her life and progress as a student. The microphone was turned off and the next speaker occasioned in.
One month later, McComb filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Foothill High (Henderson, Nevada). The school’s attempts to have that original case dismissed were rejected by the U.S. District Court for Nevada in June 2007, and school officials subsequently appealed to the Ninth Circuit to have the case dismissed.
The Rutherford Institute says it will now ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that school officials violated McComb’s constitutional rights.
John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, made the following remark in a press release:
This is a very important free-speech case that will affect the rights of all persons across America. If government officials can extinguish speech by turning off microphones at public assemblies, then none of us will have any rights.
He contends that McComb’s case is another example of a “politically correct culture” that pounces on free speech and oppressively silences Christians in order not to “offend” those of other beliefs.
“Brittany McComb worked hard to earn the right to address her classmates as valedictorian,” Whitehead says on his firm’s website, “and she has a constitutional right — like any other student — to freely speak about the factors that contributed to her success, whether they be a supportive family, friends, or her faith in Jesus Christ.”
Tags: Brittany mcComb, Christians, freedom of speech, McComb, Rutherford Institute, supreme court
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