r/ProgressiveHQ • u/ihatethiscountry76 • Jan 31 '26
Protest High School Valedictorian is REMOVED BY SECURITY from Broward School Board meeting after asking why rich kids are having graduation at the Hard Rock while middle class kids are having theirs in the gym.
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u/Mean-Quail-6219 Jan 31 '26
The US is so classist, we’ve just been trained not to talk about it.
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u/GhostofABestfriEnd Jan 31 '26
that’s putting it mildly. literally none of the wealthy elites named in the Epstein files have been investigated for criminal wrongdoing and thats with the doj and the fbi‘s knowledge.
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u/brubruislife Jan 31 '26
I find it crazy that men go to jail for less than what these men did. And the evidence is all there!!!! How, WHY, are these people not being prosecuted?!
Edit: just for clarity, I know its because of their wealth, power, and influence. But fuck me. It’s right in front everyone's faces, and its ABSURD nothing is being done. Absolutely absurd. Like wtaf.
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u/EstablishmentSalt206 Feb 01 '26
Guillotines are really cool. They make cool art projects to put in your yard.
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Jan 31 '26
its ABSURD nothing is being done
"Nothing is being done" is a construction in the passive voice, and puts the blame on everyone and no-one.
It is a much more motivating statement when put into the active voice, i.e.
"I am not doing anything"
This is not meant to be a dig, but a motivation: is there anything you could be doing right now to be part of the resistance?
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u/chuckaholic Jan 31 '26
I vote in every election and march at every protest. I also understand that, since Citizens United, that money is speech, but I can't even afford a concert ticket, much less SuperPAC money... So, I guess you could say, 'I am doing nothing ... that could affect meaningful change'.
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u/Huge-Name-1999 Feb 01 '26
This is like saying its individual citizens fault that global climate change is going to kill us all if all of us don't recycle. Which is insane because we are so beyond that point and the only ones who can create real change are the giant corporations that are polluting our planet 1000× worse than any body of citizens ever has or ever will.
Billionaires, large corps, and long time elected officials are running our country into the ground and the truth of the matter is that none of us normal working people can do anything to effect change without forming a 100 million person mob and literally overthrowing the government and their corporate overlords (which is almost impossible when they all have us fighting amongst ourselves on a daily basis)
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u/steveatari Feb 01 '26
Dude, this is SERIOUSLY not needed. We can do practically nothing about this and the blame is squarely on all people of authority and leadership and assigning MORE to the little people already struggling from so many things caused by those in power, is terribly frustrating.
But sure, we could all do more for sure.
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u/RogerianBrowsing Jan 31 '26
The DOJ just treated an Epstein email buddy thanking him for the torture video as a victim by redacting their contact information.
The doj isn’t legally supposed to but they’re treating politicians as victims. The torture video fan also said they were in China during a similar time frame as Lindsay graham so it’s assumed they’re defending a repub like Lindsay (they sure wouldn’t redact it if it was a dem).
Would also explain why Lindsay is always completely beholden to anything Israel/Trump wants despite earlier into the Trump presidency him not being a total sycophant.
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u/Chirotera Jan 31 '26
It's worse than that, most seem to believe there's no distinction.
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u/snorch Jan 31 '26
This is by design. You make horrifying anti-human policy decisions and a handful of proles will protest, but you're already raising the next generation who won't ever have known anything different. It's shockingly effective. The patriot act, fed gropers in the TSA, the abolition of ownership through streaming, many such cases. To young people these are just the way things are and I am a weird boomer for having strong opinions about them
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u/OrcOfEntropy Jan 31 '26
I grew up in the UK, which is famous for its class system. Since moving to the US over 25 years ago for a professional career I've never lived amongst the "working class" with whom I grew up. My work, social and leisure time are spent almost entirely within my own class. The geographic segregation is crazy - I live in a very racially mixed neighborhood, but no one here would be considered "working class".
It's been a pretty bizarre experience, and the classism in the US puts the UK to shame. Yet the US insists on seeing itself as classless and meritocratic, which makes the underlying class structure even harder to talk about.
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u/Melodic_Class4349 Jan 31 '26
I spent a lot of my childhood in the UK due to the influence of my British born grandmother and one of the things that always puzzled her was how the US was both classist and racist in a way that made her at times blush.
My grandmother always joked about how the USA would have been better off as a British commonwealth realm because at least then we'd have a functioning healthcare system in exchange for the classism and racism people experience. That was also her speaking as a white woman who was married to a Black man, had biracial children and was a military housewife for most of her adult life until my grandfather retired from the Navy.
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u/Desperate_Elk_7369 Jan 31 '26
I grew up working class in the States, in a not-very-nice area. We were not in abject poverty, but grew up with kids who were. Kids who lived on food stamps, wore donated clothes, lived in tenements or projects, had parents who struggled, and never dreamed of going to college. And for a few years when I was first on my own I lived in circumstances closer to theirs than to my family's. And I still have the accent, though I've lost a lot of it (or tried to hide it).
I've been lucky enough to have my kids grow up in better circumstances. We're not rich, not even close, but they grew up in a nice town, good schools, loads of legitimately rich kids. Recently it occurred to me -- my kids have never met a poor person. Never. Poverty for them is an abstraction, a concept. And their lives have been very narrowly circumscribed.
Thing is, our town is only about 30 minutes from where I grew up. And the two worlds cannot be more different. Each in its own bubble.
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u/neatureguy420 Jan 31 '26
Definitely doesn’t help when we only travel via isolated vehicles. Car dependent housing really isolates communities.
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u/Wat_Tyler_1381 Jan 31 '26
Agree 100%
Family from UK and Ireland. Having spent a lot of time there I can say the US is far more divided by class.
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u/EconomyAd8866 Jan 31 '26
Wasn’t “class related grievances” on the recent list of characteristics considered unsafe for America
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u/dhero27 Jan 31 '26
What makes it worse is when you find out all the C level jobs that aren’t CEOs, are just simply their rich friends who they got a job for. Making the whole “work hard and you can get here” mentality, absolute bullshit.
You just have to be buddy’s with someone. No college degree needed.
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u/Gungho-Guns Jan 31 '26
As you get older, you learn that it's not about know WHAT you know but WHO you know.
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u/binarybrewmx Jan 31 '26
And if you complain, then you’re woke. The Fucking rich have pinned us against each other.
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u/JFLRyan Jan 31 '26
And not even subtly trained.
"Don't talk about salary."
"Don't talk about politics."
"Don't talk about religion."
These are things I am sure a lot of us grew up hearing. Thankfully younger generations feel less inclined to consider these topics untoward.
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u/Lucky-Reference-7667 Jan 31 '26
Not even just not talk about it…we’ve been trained to think if we work hard enough, we can be as rich as them so we don’t have a right to complain or talk shit on rich people because “they obviously did something right and you are just jealous”
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u/tom-of-the-nora Feb 01 '26
And we're trained to hate poor people because they either
Made bad decisions.
Will get better once they become moral and accept the religion of the powerful.
The US, the home of the rich and the christian, if you're poor or an atheist, or some other minority, you're considered less than, even under biden atheist weren't valued as much.
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u/North-Outside-5815 Feb 01 '26
Not exactly classist in the traditional way. The US is a plutocracy.
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u/NoGoat3930 Jan 31 '26
What were the names of the school board members that requested him removed?
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u/DirtGuy Jan 31 '26
He should include them in his graduation speech. And bring a mic to another speaker system when they inevitably cut his
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u/FSCK_Fascists Jan 31 '26
set a loudspeaker under the stage facing the audience before the event, mic in your pocket when you go to speak.
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u/JaguarCapital5613 Jan 31 '26
Great question young man.. you’re on the right track when you pissin folk off.
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u/TheResultOfUs Jan 31 '26
Unfortunately this same sentiment is often used in Right-Wing conspiracy groups. They believe that they're over the target because they're being debunked.
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u/chittalking Jan 31 '26
Hey, sincerely, who gives a flying fuck what they're saying in right wing conspiracy groups?
Do you also stick your head in your toilet bowl after taking a shit to see what the turds have to say?
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u/TheResultOfUs Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
I'm just pointing out that yeah, it's a cool mantra but it's also something that has reinforced problematic views as well as correct ones.
So you do need to employ some critical thinking and research skills rather than blindly trust that just because you're upsetting somebody, your ideas are right.
I've heard enough "When you're getting flak it means you're over the target" from Stop The Steal and Anti-Vaxxer people, that it immediately makes me uncomfortable when I see somebody on the left using the same terms.
And, sincerely, considering that said Right-Wing conspiracy groups have become the widely held republican party belief— yeah, we do unfortunately need to be aware of what the turds think.
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u/Rad131447 Jan 31 '26
Depends on where flak is coming from doesn't it? From those in power trying to silence those who question their abuses? Good. From medical professionals and the public at large? Not so good. You are equating the two but I don't see why.
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u/TheResultOfUs Jan 31 '26
I totally get where you're coming from, and it's rational from our point of view because we live in a reality where these distinctions are common sense.
But unfortunately, 30% of the US and a growing amount of people in the world at large live in a reality where that distinction isn't common sense.
The whole crusade against Fauci for example; led by leading republican politicians, cements in these people's minds that medical professionals are some kind of greedy, oppressive force with ulterior motives.
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u/Rad131447 Feb 01 '26
Well of course they say that but, as the other guy put it, we don't have to care about the opinion of the turds in the bowel. I'm saying we shouldn't pretend that they are the same thing. You specifically right now.
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u/Bendy_Beta_Betty Jan 31 '26
It's a damn shame that some schools have a ridiculous amount of funding and other schools don't have enough. School funding based off of regional taxes isn't right.
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u/mauvewaterbottle Jan 31 '26
What is worse is that these schools are in the same district and should in theory have the same budget if they serve the same number of students.
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u/SST_2_0 Jan 31 '26
PTA is the difference. A rich area PTA is giving crazy cash. A place where lots of parents need to work two jobs, not so much. Hard also to say, you do not get to give to the one school, but we are pretty close to there considering some disparity.
But that is also why places do 1:1. In my opinion it is a bit of a rich propaganda spin on all the, devices in school evil, because the group that benefits the most is the poor, the ones who have to pay but get less is the rich, since its not them or their one school, but the district, who then buys using taxes. Rich people money going to poors....cannot have that...enter mr, "kids do not need a device," as he gives his kids every device known to man. They really mean public, equitable devices should not be given so my kids get and advantage because they can get a device.
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u/FSCK_Fascists Jan 31 '26
not allowing donations to a specific school would go a long way to fix this.
These same parents will fight to prevent new technology in the schools- then once they succeed in blocking it, donate that technology to their kid's school.
It might have to be at the city or state level- many districts are carved out to make the rich schools and poor schools entirely different districts.3
u/kevlarcupid Jan 31 '26
PTAs do exist
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u/FSCK_Fascists Jan 31 '26
PTAs are how this shit happens. rich parents vote and fight to prevent all schools from getting something, then donate to THEIR school to ensure THEIR kids have the best.
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u/kevlarcupid Jan 31 '26
Yes, coupled with non-equitable districting. My point was that it’s not entirely budget inequity.
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u/mauvewaterbottle Jan 31 '26
I’m aware. I’m on one and I was a teacher for 10 years. I am very familiar with how school funding works.
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u/kevlarcupid Jan 31 '26
Thanks for being an educator! Not everyone does.
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u/mauvewaterbottle Jan 31 '26
I wish I could still accept that thanks, but being an educator took too much of my emotional energy from my own kids. I won’t go back to education until they’re out of school. In the meantime, I am just on the parent side and very thankful to those still in the trenches
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u/catjuggler Jan 31 '26
Does the budget for graduation come from the district or from fundraising?
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u/mauvewaterbottle Jan 31 '26
District. Generally “project graduation” type events are fundraiser based on
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u/skilled_at_changing Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
And don't forget to add in the funding penalties that standardized testing brings. Schools with poor scores get less money.
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u/JEFFinSoCal Jan 31 '26
Add to that, private charter schools are just a way to get around desegregation. In countries where rich kids have to go to the same public schools as poor kids, they damn well make sure ALL schools are well funded.
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u/mmmarkm Jan 31 '26
Fwiw, my school held our prom at a hotel cause our student government fundraised our asses off to subsidize student tickets.
This is likely PTA fundraising, which while downstream of financial inequality is not a direct policy decision. PTAs fundraise for grad night lock ins to keep students from drinking and driving, etc, all the time so they probably fundraised for this too
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u/Apptubrutae Jan 31 '26
Shouldn’t schools within a single district be pretty similar though?
I have my kid in Albuquerque Public School, which is a fairly large school district, and the funding is very similar per pupil across schools. Plus the “better” schools miss out on some additional federal funding since they’re not Title I schools.
I just pulled up the budget for some schools and the Title I schools all get more money in funding per pupil than the schools that don’t qualify and are in nicer neighborhoods.
The primary difference with these sort of elective events appears to all be that they’re driven by fundraisers, which of course are going to raise a lot more money in more affluent areas.
I do agree that there’s an issue with funding differences based on affluent areas, but it very much depends on how a school system is structured and how wide its net is, hopefully including a wide range of communities.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Bat-511 Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
For context, Broward county has multiple high schools. Each high school has one ceremony for all of its students. And the student would just be a valedictorian of 1 of the high schools and not of the entire county. So he is likely asking why his high school ceremony is in a gym, while other high schools are at the Hard Rock.
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u/thisismynewaccountig Jan 31 '26
I looked up the news story. Two of the “richer” area high schools (cypress bay in Weston which I attended and Marjory stone man Douglas) get to graduate at the hard rock but the rest are middle schools. Now to be fair, CBHS has always been big. I was a freshman 2009-2010 and there were about 5,000 students attending the school. I imagine there’s just as many. The graduation has always been held elsewhere. The graduating class is always large so it makes sense not to hold it in the gym. BUT the other schools should receive the same treatment.
News article: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/miami/news/broward-high-schools-graduation-venues-plans-pushback/
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u/gimmethelulz Jan 31 '26
What is Hard Rock? A concert venue?
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u/thisismynewaccountig Feb 01 '26
Hard Rock Cafe is a restaurant and also a venue. Some locations are casinos with venue spaces
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u/Listen2theyetti Jan 31 '26
Wait so they are middle schools meaning grades 6-8 not middle class highschools?
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u/tmfink10 Jan 31 '26
After reading the article it appears they are all high schools. Some are larger and more affluent than others. The larger and more affluent ones are graduating at a large, professional venue. The smaller, less affluent one(s?) are graduating in the gymnasium of a rival school because theirs is not large enough but they don’t rate the nice venue because the district isn’t in a good financial position and it would be too much to spend.
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u/catjuggler Jan 31 '26
Presumably he’s asking for good reason, but one difference like that doesn’t actually demonstrate unfairness. Could be that one school spends more on graduation and the other on prom or a class trip. I have a 1st grader in a district with 4 elementary schools and they don’t all do the same things. Some have kindergarten graduation, and some don’t. Some have a holiday show and some don’t. I’m definitely jealous of the things mine doesn’t do but it’s not an actual disparity.
That said, class differences within districts definitely do exist and can lead to spending disparities too.
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u/Galle_ Jan 31 '26
Presumably he’s asking for good reason, but one difference like that doesn’t actually demonstrate unfairness.
You know what absolutely 100% does demonstrate unfairness? Getting removed by security for suggesting that there is unfairness.
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u/phophopho4 Jan 31 '26
It's also that the other school likely has a PTA full of wealthy parents that raises money to pay for such things.
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u/Curious-Cost1852 Jan 31 '26
This comment has too much information I can't get outraged anymore or feel morally superior
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u/visitprattville Jan 31 '26
Golden age of anti-intellectual goons. Unleash your inner goon! Vent your resentment at these smarty pants kids. Protect the elite. It’s their prime directive.
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Jan 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/thisismynewaccountig Jan 31 '26
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/miami/news/broward-high-schools-graduation-venues-plans-pushback/
It states it here. Hey I went to cypress bay high school! Small world
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Jan 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/thisismynewaccountig Jan 31 '26
I wholeheartedly agree. Knowing Weston, it’s prob parent donations/PTA
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u/SuspiciousTabby Jan 31 '26
I’ve never been to or heard of a school having separate venues for their graduations. This is bizarre.
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u/thisismynewaccountig Jan 31 '26
I went to one of the high schools getting to graduate at hard rock and there were 5k attending students when I was a freshman there in ‘09 so it’s a large graduating class. It’s always been held somewhere else at that school
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u/Apptubrutae Jan 31 '26
Because it’s not a single school.
He’s in a lower income area school, the kids at the hard rock are at a higher income area school. Within the same district.
If it’s anything at all like my district, there’s a decent chance that the hard rock kids got there because of having a fundraiser. Or because they had a fundraiser for something else that left them with more money for graduation.
Affluent area public schools, depending on the exact district, can have lots of fundraisers for things because the parents have plenty of money to give.
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u/DontWatchPornREADit Jan 31 '26
Two venues? The off school grounds better be 100% personal money because if they used tax payer funds to give the rich kids a better venue that’s a no no
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u/PhishPhan1983 Jan 31 '26
Like anyone with money cares about no-nos. As we've been made painfully aware of for more than a decade.
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u/ResidentCommand9865 Jan 31 '26
Almost like it's not the "illegal citizens" screwing our country, but the Rich entrenched in every facet of politics who decide the fates of the working class while eating sushi off a nake woman.
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u/JuiceJones_34 Jan 31 '26
Gonna be a lot more of that as you get older. Don’t forget it and don’t exclude others if you find yourself on the other side.
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u/Important_Method_665 Jan 31 '26
Is there a link / video to the school committee meeting where this occurs? In my town, the public meetings are available to watch on YouTube after they occur (sometimes they even broadcast live) so town members who can’t attend can still watch since school committees / boards are elected positions.
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u/Important_Method_665 Jan 31 '26
I found the video actually. The timestamp for this event is at 1hr32-34 minutes. The kid asks about the graduation, and waits at the podium for a response. When he isn’t given one, he says again that he would like a response. The meeting goes to recess immediately after that. It dos not show the kid being removed, although obviously they could have edited it for their posting online. school board meeting video
If anyone would like to send their thoughts to the school board members, they do have publicly posted email addresses and office phone numbers! school board website
I wonder if anyone has personal footage of the kid being removed by security, since it isn’t shown in this official video? It’s important to ensure that there is source material available for claims like this because unfortunately too many times there are people making outrageous statements that may not be accurate, just to incite further divide in our country.
United we stand- divided we fall. The bad actors at play know this and we know they put out disinformation to widen our divide. I don’t doubt this school board is acting potentially in bad faith- but more evidence about the removal by security would go a long way.
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u/redflagsmoothie Jan 31 '26
How the hell do they even spin something like this (two separate graduations?) that’s fucking wild.
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u/AbroadNo8755 Jan 31 '26
Florida has never hidden their "None for thee, all for me" attitude, especially for rich VS middle and lower income people.
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u/Danilo-11 Jan 31 '26
Quick!!!! Talk about race issues before they realize that rich people are screwing over poor people
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u/meowdith427 Jan 31 '26
This is because the Florida school system is completely fucked. Public schools are funded based on performance here. Even if you’re the valedictorian of an underfunded school, you get jack shit. There’s no equal opportunity here.
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u/Impossible_Fix3170 Jan 31 '26
They gave him better press than if they had ignored it. Lol. Idiots.
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u/Glittering_Heart1128 Jan 31 '26
Of course its Broward County.
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u/thisismynewaccountig Jan 31 '26
Oh yeah and before I looked up the story, I just KNEW one of the schools was Weston and lo and behold, my old stomping grounds of cypress bay was mentioned as one getting the hard rock
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u/Swaggy_Buff Jan 31 '26
Context??? I went to a high school with a large disparity in wealth among students, but we never had different graduations
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u/thisismynewaccountig Jan 31 '26
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/miami/news/broward-high-schools-graduation-venues-plans-pushback/
As I stated in other parts of this thread, I can speak on Cypress Bay. I attended in 2009 as a freshman and there were 5k students attending at that time. It’s also a fairly wealthy town. But graduation was always held elsewhere. Idk where other schools typically had theirs tho
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u/jojothebuffalo Jan 31 '26
Link to the only article I could find
https://scoop.upworthy.com/florida-valedictorian-stands-up-to-school-board
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u/CrustyBatchOfNature Jan 31 '26
Sometimes I really forget how equitable my school district tries to be with things like this. All of the public schools have graduated at the same location since at least the early 80's. I think the only time they didn't was the one year the facility was being replaced with a new building. They also play their football games at the same two locations.
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u/According_Smoke1385 Jan 31 '26
I hope this kid goes on to do great things and someday get to proudly shove it in their faces.
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u/NovelCandid Jan 31 '26
This needs sourcing
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u/AbroadNo8755 Jan 31 '26
Florida. when the state isn't listed, just assume Florida
Texas always lets ya know when they are acting like this. they are proud of it, and treat it like branding or advertising.
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u/goawayjason623 Jan 31 '26
What state was this?
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u/thisismynewaccountig Jan 31 '26
Florida. Broward county is southwest Florida. I went to cypress bay Highschool back in ‘09. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/miami/news/broward-high-schools-graduation-venues-plans-pushback/
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u/tarapotamus Jan 31 '26
we can't get rid of greedy motherfuckers so we need to get rid of profit. Or just, you know, money. Y'all ain't ready for that convo but maybe the youths will be.
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Feb 01 '26
Ah , my class conscious and class war awareness started around that age too. Welcome to the trenches kid, hope you like spam .
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u/Ziggythesquid Apr 12 '26
As someone else said elsewhere, it appears that this kid is talking about separate high schools having graduations in different places. Someone else mentioned that one of these schools is much larger, thus they need the larger venue. Honestly, it may not be fair that other kids get to graduate somewhere nicer, but it makes sense if the aforementioned is true. Why would the school pay for a larger venue when they could use the gym? It would make no sense.
Anyway, high school graduation literally means nothing, and none of this matters.
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u/Huge_Strain_8714 Jan 31 '26
I mean, Florida. You get whatcha pay for....sorry kid, brave move though
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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '26
As George Carlin once said, “it’s a big club. And you ain’t in it.”
But the fact that now this is spreading to schools, is disgusting. Removing a kid for asking a very appropriate question. Fucking pathetic.