A Colorado charter school blocked the
class valedictorian from giving a speech – or be honored in any way
– because he planned on coming out gay during his school's
graduation ceremony.
Officials at Twin Peaks Charter Academy
High School in Longmont, Colorado said that the decision to exclude
Evan Young was due to his failure to resubmit his speech with edits
recommended by Principal BJ Buchmann. Young and his father, Don
Young disagree, saying that he was dropped from the graduation
ceremony over his plan to come out during his speech.
The elder Young said that Buchmann also
told him that his son was gay during a phone call.
Evan's mother, Alise Curry, said during
a press conference outside the offices of Out Boulder, an LGBT rights
group, that Buchmann had no right to out her son.
“I'm a physician, and patient privacy
is integral to our daily experience,” she said. “You never, ever
reveal information about an adult to anyone without their consent,
unless they are a danger to others – which I think we can agree
that he was not.”
“Mr. Buchmann outed Evan to us, which
was not the way Evan wanted it to happen,” she
added.
Despite the incident, Curry said that
she has no regrets about sending her son to Twin Peaks.
“The teachers are just outstanding,
and it is a very special group of kids that are actually very
accepting, and Evan loved it there,” she said.
She also called her son “the bravest
kid in the world.”