Speaking her mind

Education | Brittany McComb is now a freshman at Biola University, but the battle over her censored high-school valedictory speech lives on | Lynn Vincent

Tucked away from the sun-washed Los Angeles sky, on a low floor at Biola University, 15 college freshmen sit in desks arranged in a circle. Though the semester is less than two weeks old, the students yak as if they've known each other for years—about homework, swing dancing, and that ubiquitous campus complaint: lack of sleep. Within a few minutes, the instructor arrives, buttoned-down and wearing a tie, and soon settles into a discussion of Homer's Odyssey.

One student, a young lady wearing black capris, a periwinkle T-shirt, and a tousled mane of chestnut hair, three months ago embarked unexpectedly on an odyssey of her own.

In June, a decision to stand up for her First Amendment right to religious speech launched Brittany McComb on an abrupt tour of the media jungle, a fast-paced jaunt through the world of print reporters and television talking heads. McComb is the Henderson, Nev., high-school valedictorian who delivered the commencement speech she had prepared instead of the censored version from which school officials had redacted the name of Jesus Christ.