Although it comes too late for her, a Pennsylvania high school graduate has won religious rights for future graduating seniors.

Beaver Area School District officials censored Moriah Bridges’ graduation speech last spring because of the religious beliefs she included. Soon after, First Liberty Institute sent the school a letter pointing out the injustice, and attorney Jeremy Dys now reports the school has revised its policy and apologized to Bridges.

“They were willing to sit down with us after a long time and quite a bit of public pressure,” Dys reports. “They changed their policy to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future … most importantly ensuring that students will be able to provide the remarks of their choice at the graduation ceremony.”

Dys

Dys tells OneNewsNow that what happened in Beaver is an unfortunate example of the measures many schools throughout the nation take to restrict the freedom of religious expression at graduation ceremonies.

“Sadly, we see this almost every graduation season — that some student will be told that their private remarks at the graduation ceremony are not protected by the First Amendment,” the attorney explains. “And that’s just not correct. The Constitution protects students … from the schoolhouse gates all the way through that graduation ceremony.”

Dys advises students and teachers to visit his firm’s website and download the Religious Liberty Protection Kit for Students and Teachers.