Free speech suit silenced Free speech suit silenced (October 10, 2003)

Supreme court rejects review
by Teresa C. Brown

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review a free-speech suit against the Pleasanton Unified School District alleging the district violated a former Amador Valley High School salutatorian's constitutional rights when his graduation speech was censored.

The rejection to review the earlier court's decision has ended Nicholas Lassonde's suit, said PUSD legal representative Louis Leone of Stubbs and Leone in Walnut Creek.

Leone added that the school district is allowed to recover certain court costs; however, the decision to pursue the costs has not been resolved.

The suit brought by Lassonde, a 1999 graduate, had been dismissed by federal Judge Thelton Henderson in September 2001 and that decision was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February.

Lassonde was one of two salutatorians in 1999 to speak at the high school's graduation ceremony. Upon reviewing a draft of the speech, Amador Principal Bill Coupe, with district legal counsel, refused to allow Lassonde deliver the speech in its original form. While Lassonde was allowed to make references to God in relationship to his personal beliefs, any "proselytizing" verbiage was removed.

Lassonde reluctantly agreed to the imposed speech revisions. As part of the agreement, he was allowed to distribute a full-text version of his speech outside the ceremony site, which was held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. The following June, Lassonde filed a suit alleging the rights violations.