USC cancels valedictorian’s commencement speech citing safety concerns

USC holds graduations for the classes of 2020 and 2021 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Friday, May 14, 2021.Amid complaints about alleged antisemitic views posted online, USC’s valedictorian will not be permitted to deliver a speech at the university’s commencement ceremony due to concerns about security, the school’s provost announced, and calls for the valedictorian to be allowed to speak are growing today.

Asna Tabassum had been previously announced as this year’s valedictorian. However, critics raised questions about views relating to the conflict in the Middle East she has posted online. In letters sent to USC administrators, critics accused her of posting on a social media account a link to a website that “takes a swinging bat at over 10% of the USC student body and mudslings by calling Zionists ‘racist-settlers.

“This campaign to prevent me from addressing my peers at commencement has evidently accomplished its goal: today, USC administrators informed me that the university will no longer allow me to speak at commencement due to supposed security concerns,” she said. “I am both shocked by this decision and profoundly disappointed that the university is succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice.

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