High school valedictorian exposes 'drunk' teacher and 'unavailable' counselor in graduation speech
Nataly Buhr, a San Ysidro High School valedictorian from San Diego, California, took upon herself to expose the unsavory side of her educators during her speech leaving the crowd stunned. The speech, which later went viral, was reported by CBS8, in which she mentioned her teacher and the counselor, subjecting them to pointed sarcastic comments revealing their ineffectiveness in doing their jobs.
Nataly's speech began with, "Thank you for being so invested in your students' education and well-being." This was followed by her comments directed to the counselor in which she said, "To my counselor, thank you for letting me fend for myself – you were always unavailable. You expressed to me your joy in having one of your students be valedictorian when you had absolutely no role in my achievements."
She then went on to talk about one of her teachers who may have been an alcoholic by saying, "To the teacher that was regularly intoxicated during class this year, thank you for using yourself to teach these students about the dangers of alcoholism." In a sharp statement in which she spoke about their incompetence, she said, "Your negligence to inform me of several scholarships until the day before they were due potentially caused me to miss out on thousands of dollars. When applying for a work permit, you repeatedly turned me away, despite confirming with my employer and my parents that all of my paperwork was filled out correctly."
But it wasn't just negativity which came out of her speech as she did not forget to genuinely thank and credit those educators who played a positive role in her education. In a prepared statement, she told the News8 team that "The first half of the speech wasn't shown on social media posts. In the beginning, I recognized and thanked those who I believe went above and beyond for the students. I understand that those I criticized may be facing personal issues, but I don't think that should affect their commitments or the school's responsibility to fulfill those commitments. I didn't expect for change to come from my speech, but I was hoping it would encourage more students to speak up."
Nataly's mother Monica talked to the news team and said "I was proud that she spoke up and got it out. It is something that takes a lot of courage to do." Nataly revealed that she had her family's complete support and that she had been receiving a lot of positive feedback for what she did.
