Prep School Valedictorian Forgives Principal Who Blocked Speech

ROCHESTER, NY — As the first ever black valedictorian at the University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men, Jaisaan Lovett used his speech to forgive a high school principal he said tried but couldn’t break him, driving him not away, but to become a better person. Speeches by top academic performers like Lovett are as old as the mortar board and tassel, and they've have been included in past commencement ceremonies at the well respected Rochester school.

But when Lovett asked UPrep Principal Joseph Munno about giving a speech at graduation, the administrator shut him down cold. He didn't review the speech or ask what it was about, "just said no," Lovett told the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper.

Any stir Lovett's searing critique of Munno might cause would likely have lasted for a few hours or days if his remarks had been limited to the small graduation ceremony. But when Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, in whose office Lovett works as an intern, heard of the slight, she invited Lovett to give his speech at City Hall, then posted video of it on the city’s social media sites, amplifying his message beyond the intended audience:

“Unfortunately, Jaisaan's school did not allow him to give his valedictorian speech," Warren said in the video. "For some reason, his school — in a country where freedom of speech is a constitutional right, and the city of Frederick Douglass — turned his moment of triumph into a time of sorrow and pain.”

Later, Warren said: “Jaisaan will never graduate from high school again. He will never get that moment back. This is not the time to punish a child because you may not like what he has to say.”

Lovett’s message was clear:

“To Mr. Munno, my principal, there's a whole lot of things I've wanted to say to you for a long time. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t going to give this speech t all. But then I realized something: I realized this speech is about more than just me.

“It means a lot to everybody I mean a lot to, and I’m here as the UPrep 2018 valedictorian to tell you that you couldn't break me. I'm still here, and I'm still here strong.

“And after all these years, all this anger I've had toward you and UPrep as a whole, I realized I had to let that go in order to better myself. And I forgive you for everything I held against you.”

Lovett and the principal butted heads multiple times during the new graduate's six years at the Rochester grades 7-12 prep school. Most recently, Lovett told the Democrat and Chronicle, it was because he led a five-day student strike over what he said was the school’s failure to order proper safety equipment for a school lab.

“There’s a lot of wrong things that go on at that school, and when I notice it I speak out against it,” Lovett told the Democrat and Chronicle. “(Munno) is a guy that doesn’t like to be told ‘no.’ ”

It’s unclear if Warren knew what Lovett planned to say about Munno, but the mayor wrote on her Facebook page that “speaking truth to power is fundamental to our democracy” and Lovett was “silenced.”

In a comment in the thread, Warren said neither Lovett nor his parents got an explanation for the school’s departure from the valedictory tradition.

Munno and Lovett “didn’t have a great relationship and it was his last chance to show him who was boss,” Warren wrote. “He worked hard for this opportunity and his mom and dad were in tears that there was nothing they could do from the audience. They weren’t going to ruin it for everyone else.”

Warren said she called Munno to talk about the situation, and if he’d called back she wasn’t aware of it. In its statement, the school said it tried to connect with the mayor’s office, but the call wasn’t returned.

The school’s board of trustees said in a statement — which, incidentally, misspelled Lovett’s first name — that it is reviewing the situation.

“We are aware of the concern with the Valedictorian not speaking at graduation. The Board will be reviewing the circumstances regarding what happened and looking into the related guidelines and school policies,” the statement read. “UPrep wishes Jaision (sic) Lovett, the first black Valedictorian in the school’s four-year graduation history, much success as he continues his education at Clark Atlanta University.”

Photo and video via YouTube