VOORHEES TOWNSHIP, N.J. – A New Jersey high school valedictorian was silenced briefly during commencement remarks about mental illness and his own experience as a queer-identifying teen surviving high school.
Now, the Voorhees school district wants a federal agency to review whether it acted improperly in muting Bryce Dershem’s microphone and allegedly crumpling the paper copy of his speech on the dias before 450 graduates and their families.
Eastern Regional Camden County High School District Superintendent Robert Cloutier told the Courier Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Monday that he has directed school district attorney Anthony Padovani “to contact an appropriate government agency to conduct an independent review.”
Padovani said he’s filed a complaint with the