High Schooler Gets Denied Diploma After Boldly Proclaiming the Gospel During Commencement Speech
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
A Kentucky high school senior said he was outrageously denied his diploma at his graduation after he professed his faith in God from the podium.
Campbell County High School graduate Micah Price was asked to give an inspiring speech to his class at the school graduation ceremony, but he was shocked at what happened after he delivered his comments.
Price said that school administrators denied him his diploma because he veered from the prepared remarks that officials approved ahead of time.
But despite violating the “rules” in his speech and being denied his diploma, this young man has been handling this whole situation with mature aplomb even amidst the pressures upon him.
Superintendent Shelli Wilson told WKRC-TV that speeches are approved by officials and that the student was permitted to say, “I must give the honor, and the praise and the glory to my lord and savior Jesus Christ” at the beginning of the speech, but he was told to stick to the secular topics in the script for the rest of the speech.
However, instead of moving on from his opening, Price reportedly went into a minute of proselytizing and urged his fellow students to allow God into their lives as he continued his graduation address.
“He is the light. He is the way, the truth and the life,” Price said from the stage. “Class, everyone in the audience today, I’m here to tell you if you don’t have any of those things in your life, you can’t seem to find the answer, my Lord and Savior is your answer. He will give you the truth, the way and the life.”
High school graduate DENIED diploma for pointing classmates to Christ in commencement speech.
“My Lord and Savior is your answer. He will give you the truth, the way and the life.”
The graduate, Micah Price, was denied his diploma because he deviated from the speech previously… pic.twitter.com/CzhSKbEpxJ
— Standing for Freedom Center (@freedomcenterlu) May 28, 2024
“All speakers were told that going off their submitted speech, or any unplanned choices at graduation, may have repercussions as they would at any school function,” Wilson said in a statement to the media.
The student explained the situation in a post on his TikTok account.
“I am in the wrong, technically, because I went against Campbell County code, the rules,” he said in a video about his graduation ceremony.
@priceproductionBlud needs to graduate♬ original sound – Micah price
The student also asked people not to threaten the school district.
“Anyone that’s taking a hateful route to this, I please ask just, you know, take a chill pill, take a time out, because in John 1, it talks about how it is absolutely impossible to say you’re a Christian if you don’t love your brother or your neighbor,” he added.
“If you truly consider yourself a Christian, be loving and pray for me, that’s all I need. But thank you for the support, thanks for the support. We will get the diploma. Everything’s going to be fine,” he concluded.
Wilson also pointed out that the diploma will not be held hostage permanently and that Price will likely get the document after he meets with district officials.
“While I know, personally, that many of us are proud of this young man’s beliefs and are practicing Christians ourselves, the principal has to consider the possibilities of students going off the planned program,” Wilson explained.
In a second video he posted to TikTok, Price noted that he has no hard feelings against the principal and officials who decided not to give him his diploma, saying, “They were doing their job.”
“If anyone is in the wrong, it’s me,” he added. “I went against school policies, school rules. I went against that because I serve a higher power, because I serve Christ,” he said pointing upward to his God in heaven.
He also urged people not to turn out in protest at the school when he goes to meet with the district administrators, so he can get his diploma. Instead, he said, he hopes that if anyone shows up at the district headquarters, they do so for Jesus, not for Micah Price.
His response to all this was amazingly level-headed, calm and mature, and he deserves a lot of credit for his behavior through this whole ordeal.
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