This Valedictorian's Mic Got Cut Off When She Brought Up Sexual Assault—but She Still Got Her Point Across
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Last week, 17-year-old Lulabel Seitz made a speech to graduates at Petaluma High School in Petaluma, California, where she was the class valedictorian. She told them how proud they should be of their achievements and ability to get through tough times on campus, but when she broached the subject of sexual assault, her mic was cut off.
“We are not too young to speak up, to dream and to create change, which is why even when some people on this campus, those some people — “ Seitz said just as the mic went silent. Seitz looked around, perplexed, as her classmates quickly began to shout, “Let her speak!” But the mic didn’t come back on. Although Seitz eventually took her seat and didn’t finish, she went on YouTube later and posted what she would have said if she’d been allowed to continue: “And even learning on a campus in which some people defend perpetrators of sexual assault, and silence their victims, we didn’t let that drag us down,” she says in the video.
“The Petaluma High School administration infringed on my freedom of speech, and prevented a whole graduating class from having their message delivered,” Seitz writes in the caption of her YouTube video. “For weeks, they have threatened me against ‘speaking against them’ in my speech. Sometimes we know what’s right and have to do it despite the threats.”
Seitz told ABC News that administrators had specifically told to her to steer clear of the topic during her speech. However, she felt compelled to speak up, particularly because sexual assault is something personal to her. She said one of the incidents she was referencing in her speech was her own, after a student allegedly assaulted her on school grounds, reported ABC News. She claims that administrators didn’t suspend or expel the student, but she later reported the incident to police and the student was arrested.
“They made all these rules to prevent me from speaking,” Seitz said. “So I decided to use the opportunity to bring it up.”
Seitz added that she was even pulled out of her last class in high school to “make sure she got the message.”
“They told me to be quiet, told me I can’t talk about it,” she told ABC. “I realized that this is a big injustice and needs to be spoken about.”
In an initial statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, school officials said they could not comment due to student privacy issues. However, the high school’s principal David Stirrat told the Washington Post by email that students had to have their speeches approved ahead of time, and they had been told the microphone would be cut off if they went off script.
“In Lulabel’s case, her approved speech didn’t include any reference to an assault,” he said. “We certainly would have considered such an addition, provided no individuals were named or defamed.”
Still, many people felt Seitz had been unfairly censored and that she should have been allowed to make her point about sexual assault. Her video has now been viewed more than 300,000 times and there has been an outpouring of support for her on social media. Former Texas state senator Wendy Davis tweeted, “‘Let her speak …’ – often a necessary refrain when women speak truth to power. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a good deal more from Lulabel Seitz as the future unfolds for this extraordinary young woman. #letherspeak.”
Actress Mia Sorvino, who has been a vocal force in the #MeToo movement, also took to Twitter to say, “Lulabel Seitz is a fierce truth teller and they tried to silence her- don’t you understand sexual assault victims will be silenced no more???? High school valedictorian says speech was cut off when she began to talk about sexual assault.”