By admin 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE/Gray News) — A Louisville eighth grader’s graduation speech in which he called his school “f***ing ridiculous” is going viral.
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Daniel Mattingly said he was a part of the student council at Stuart Academy, so he was selected to give a speech at his eighth grade graduation Thursday morning.
The one he gave was not the one he initially prepared.
“The theme that I was given for the speech was acceptance,” he said. “A majority of it was just explaining that I see that people are going through trauma and going through oppression today.”
Daniel also said he wanted to use his own story of trauma to inspire his peers.
“Whenever I was in fourth grade, I was taken to the living room by my parents, and they told me that they were diagnosed with cancer,” Daniel said. “My parents are dead, and I feel like people need to know that the trauma that you face… the trauma that you face doesn’t have to shape you.”
Daniel said his teachers told him the speech was not positive enough, so he changed it several times.
When he showed up to graduation Thursday morning and was told he could not speak anymore, Daniel tried one more time to write a speech staff would approve of.
But he had another idea.
Taking the stage, Daniel said, “This school is built on racism, sexism and homophobia. I encourage everyone here today to stand up for themselves even if it makes a scene.”
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Before walking off the stage, Daniel ended his speech with “This school is f***ing ridiculous.”
“All these teachers told me to speak from my heart for this speech, and I realized I shouldn’t chicken out, because I need to speak from my heart and tell these people what they need to be told,” he told WAVE.
Even though a lot of people told Daniel they liked his speech after the ceremony, he thought that was the end of it, until his uncle posted the video online.
At the time this article was published, the video had received more than 400,000 views, with comments cheering him on.
When asked how he feels about the amount of attention he has gotten, Daniel said, “I’m on the news, so I’m like… it got where it needed to be.”
Daniel said he did not intend to make the school look bad but just wanted to be truthful about his personal experience.
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WAVE contacted Jefferson County Public Schools for comment.