(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A Catholic middle school in Huntington Beach, California, is accused of censoring and “humiliating” a student over his Trump-inspired speech in the race for the school’s “Commissioner of School Spirit & Patriotism” position, according to Libs of TikTok.
This is Jimmy. A middle schooler in California. He ran for “Commissioner of School Spirit & Patriotism” at school.
His principal allegedly made him change his speech and remove all mention of patriotism. When he refused, she reportedly didn’t allow him to give the speech and he… pic.twitter.com/25IaDjP5Zw
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 21, 2024
Jimmy Heyward, a 13-year-old baseball player and honor-roll student at Saint Bonaventure Catholic School, was allegedly told by Principal Mary Flock to remove all references to patriotism—despite the title of the position having the word “patriotism” in it, according to a Change.org petition set up by the boy’s mother, Hattie Ruggles.
“Jimmy stood up to her and said he wasn’t going to take the parts about patriotism out of his speech,” Ruggles wrote. “She then told him he would not be speaking.”
Instead, he was forced to sit onstage as his classmates delivered their speeches after Flock told the students overseeing the event not to recognize him.
“He was on the stage for an hour in front of his peers/teachers/parents being completely humiliated by Mary Flock,” Ruggles wrote.
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Heyward’s father confronted the vice principal, which prompted Flock to call the police.
“They then told him he was free to stay and watch with the rest of the families in attendance,” Ruggles wrote. “When the officers were leaving they asked [the father] to let Jimmy know that they said ‘Thank you’ for the things he wrote in his speech.”
Flock later stated in an email to parents that Jimmy’s speech had not undergone the “administrative approval process” but withheld the specific context about requiring him to remove all references to patriotism as Ruggles and Heyward alleged.
“The process is applied uniformly to all students without exception,” Flock claimed in the email, according to Fox News.
Ruggles, however, countered that she was “completely lying about what truly happened earlier in the day.”
After gaining exposure on several conservative media outlets, her online petition to remove Flock as principal had garnered 4,675 signatories with a target goal of 5,000.
“This woman has no business being in a head position at our school, or any school,” she wrote. “This kind of behavior is unacceptable and does not align with the values we expect from our school’s leadership.”
Ruggles also shared the original version of Jimmy’s speech with Libs of TikTok, asking for help in making it go viral.
Much like the presumptive GOP nominee whose rhetorical style he modeled it after, Heyward made a compelling case for himself as a good leader.
“I can promise to make pep rallies great again,” he declared. “I will make the school spirit great again. I will make patriotism within SBS great again. And mostly, I will make SBS great again.”
He also promised to implement teacher competitions for pep rallies; revitalize the school’s courtyard with more flowers and greenery as a service project; and host history-related events such as meetings with Holocaust survivors, 9/11 survivors, Japanese-Americans from internment camps and more.
Heyward donned a red MAGA-style hat for the video, and his little sister Liv held up a sign that promised he would “Make SBS Great Again!”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
