School speech censorship

Stuff reports:

A speech which ordinarily would have failed to raise attention outside the walls of New Plymouth Boys’ High School has grabbed national attention after a student was banned from delivering it.

Oliver Jull’s speech – The Decline of Western Civilization – was scratched from the school’s speech finals last week out of concerns it could cause offence.

An official reason for the ban has not been forthcoming after Boys’ High headmaster Sam Moore did not respond to questions from the Taranaki Daily News.

Jull, 15, said he was told by a teacher he could not deliver what he had written because it could upset those in a 100-strong audience.

The speech covered Jull’s opinion on the decline of western civilization through the erosion of traditional values, the decline of religion and the impacts of multi-culturalism.

Very sad but not very surprising.