Valedictorian Who Recited the Lord's Prayer
How do you respond to critics who say that you were disrespectful to authority or even deceptive by tearing up your approved speech?
Costner: Let me first say that every person, regardless of their religious affiliation – whether they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, or any other belief – should be allowed to say what they want because of the First Amendment. I felt that my free speech was being encroached upon, because I wasn't allowed to say what I wanted to say or acknowledge who I wanted to acknowledge.
Before my senior year in high school, I never had any encounters with censorship or religious freedom tensions. This only began this past school year with prayer being taken out of school completely.
Also – and I don't say this arrogantly at all – I believe I had earned that time to say what I wanted to say to my senior class.
I worked hard in school, and part of the honor of being valedictorian is the opportunity to address your class on graduation. A lot of people seem to think that the 52-second clip of The Lord's Prayer was my entire speech, but my speech was actually about nine minutes total. The rest of my speech focused on my graduating class and our shared experiences at the school. I did my best to recognize my classmates and thank others throughout the speech, and tried to keep the audience entertained.
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Valedictorian Rips Up Speech, Recites Lord's Prayer