A class valedictorian at a high school in New Jersey has been banned from his own graduation due to two alleged disciplinary issues.
Devan Solanki of Lodi High School has a 4.3032 grade point-average and is Harvard bound in the fall, Fox reports. But the graduation ban and subsequent five-day suspension is reportedly the last straw from school officials.
Solanki had one previous disciplinary issue with the school, but claims it actually resulted from defending a fellow student. According to the valedictorian, he was merely talking back to his substitute teacher because the teacher was being rude to a classmate.
Following the incident, Solanki went to his guidance counselor and said, calmly, “I’d like to resolve this peacefully.” But instead of listening to the student’s request, the guidance counselor took this as an “or else” kind of statement and felt threatened.
His classmates and family support Solanki. The students have taken matters into their own hands by sending mass emails and letters in protest. They’ve even taken to a social media campaign using the hashtag #LetDevanSpeak.
When asked how they felt about their son’s suspension, Solanki’s parents said they’re nothing but proud of Devan. Nayna Solanki, Devan’s mother, said that while she’s disappointed by the school’s decision to ban their son, “he finished our dream.”
Solanki will be the first to not deliver a commencement speech in decades. Part of him feels like the school officials were worried that Solanki was intending to use his speech as a revenge act to get back at the administration but this was not his intention, he told Fox News.
He planned to leave his classmates with the message that their generation is “the generation of change.” Solanki says he, his classmates, and his generation as a whole, not only witness this change but they “cause it and participate in it.”