Valedictorian's faith.

Attendees at this year's graduation ceremonies at Football High School in Las Vegas expressed support for class valedictorian Brittany McComb's biblical references, even if the school administration did not. The committed graduate has also received praise and encouragement from the head of a leading conservative legal activist group.

The controversy began when Brittany was selected to give a speech at her class's commencement program on June 15. In keeping with school rules, the graduate submitted a draft of her speech to school administrators, who edited out six references to God or Christ, two biblical references, and a reference to the crucifixion of Jesus. School officials told Brittany that her original speech might offend some people.

The Christian Post and Atlanta's WSB-TV.com reported that Miss McComb, who quite rightly was offended that her dearly held beliefs were being censored, had another plan. She memorized the deleted parts of the speech and began interjecting them as she went along! In response, school officials cut off Brittany's microphone so she could not finish her speech, whereupon people in the audience "angrily booed" the school's censorship!

"I was hoping they were going to turn [the microphone] back on," Miss McComb told Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, on the June 20 "Jay Sekulow Live!" radio show. "But God had bigger plans. It was kind of exciting, because everybody was upset."

"It was just nice to see people standing up for God, number one, and then freedom of speech, number two," said Brittany. "There was an atheist that called in to one of the news stations saying that I should have been able to talk and that they shouldn't have turned off my microphone. And he doesn't even believe in God."

During the radio program, Dr. Sekulow defended Brittany, telling her: "You had the right to make that speech. You had the right to include a reference to your faith. You had the right to include a reference to Jesus. And you should not have been censored. And the ACLU and the school district here is absolutely wrong."

Brittany told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "God's the biggest part of my life. Just like other valedictorians thank their parents, I wanted to thank my Lord and Savior."