Girl to get diploma withheld over speech

NEW YORK -- A valedictorian who was denied her high school diploma after she criticized her school during her graduation speech will receive her sheepskin tomorrow.

A tearful Tiffany Schley, 17, appeared Monday outside City Hall with her mother and supporters, including a city councilman, to demand that education officials say they're sorry.

"I had things to say. I had opinions and ideas," Schley said at the news conference. "I stand by what I said because it was the truth, and the truth hurts."

In her graduation speech June 24, Schley contended that Brooklyn's High School of Legal Studies was overcrowded and that the teaching and guidance counseling were inadequate.

Schley -- accepted to Smith College on a full scholarship and voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by her classmates -- was refused her diploma when she went to pick it up the next day.

She also said school officials had tried to rewrite the speech before commencement, replacing negative parts with praise for the school and its administration.

"It is an absolute outrage," said Councilman Charles Barron, who appeared with Schley. "The criticism should have been welcome. To punish her is unconscionable."

Officials said over the weekend that the diploma would be issued, and a ceremony was set for tomorrow.

Schley says that's not enough, and following the news conference, she and Barron went to the Department of Education to confront officials there. Deputy Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina appeared with the two and said an investigation was underway, but she did not apologize.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday called the withholding of the diploma "a bonehead thing to do by somebody."