Public speaking classes - students outraging their teachers

Public speaking classes have always been an opportunity for students to propose opinions that may be subversive or unacceptable to the authorities. It seems now that among the most subversive position for students to promote is that of being pro-life and pro-family.

Twelve year old Lia gave a cracking speech for a competition at her school in Toronto, beginning:

What if I told you that right now, someone was choosing if you were going to live or die? What if I told you that this choice wasn't based on what you could or couldn't do, what you'd done in the past or what you would do in the future? And what if I told you, you could do nothing about it?

Here is a video of the speech which has so far had 235,082 views:



Lia was threatened with disqualification for speaking against abortion. Although she was obviously the winner, she was in fact disqualified "because of the topic and her position on abortion." After one judge stepped down, the decision was reversed. (See: World Net Daily: 12-year-old steals day with pro-life speech.)

News has also come to public attention of a speech given at Los Angeles Community College (LACC) by Jonathan Lopez. He committed the heinous offence of speaking about the value of marriage and about his Christian faith in a public speaking class.

Professor John Matteson allegedly interrupted his speech to call him a "fascist bastard" (was the professor an undergraduate with "The Young Ones"?) and, despite giving some high marks, wrote “ask God what your grade is.”

Pope Benedict's book "Truth and Tolerance" becomes more relevant every day...